On 23 January the otherwise-useful MidEast Realities site published an article picked up and circulated by a variety of emailing lists. Since it was given wider dissemination by progressive-minded people, a poisonous idea within it deserves to be answered.

The MER article contains this line as its second sentence: "Plus of course there is a day of reckoning still ahead for the American Jewish community which through its infamous 'Jewish Lobby' has pushed everyone around for so long on behalf of Israel, ruthlessly trying to pressure under all who oppose their terribly misguided and dangerously hypocritical designs."

Though of course this isn't the first time that such sentiments have been expressed, they represent a real political danger and should be soundly rejected by all opponents of Zionism, not to mention of U.S. imperialism.

As Ike Nahem writes in "Terrorism and Imperialism: Demystifying Osama bin Laden" (in SeeingRed.com issue #5.0): "[Some} defenders of Palestinian self-determination [...] point to the 'power' and 'influence' of the "Zionist lobby" to explain U.S support for Israel. This is a serious political error. It puts the cart before the horse and the servant before the master. Washington does not take orders from its Israeli dependency. It is naïve in the extreme to portray Washington policymakers and strategists as gullible country bumpkins manipulated by Zionist and Jewish city slickers. Such a view plays into traditional ultrarightist anti-semitic propaganda which elevates the power and influence of 'the Jews' into a scapegoating, conspiracy-mongering explanation of the world."

The MER article goes even further by referring to "the American Jewish community" instead of supporters of Zionism. In fact, many Jews are staunch opponents of Zionism and defenders of Palestinian rights. Blaming "the American Jewish community" is a reactionary position that paints all U.S. Jews as an enemy.

This is worsened by the implied threat to them/us that "there is a day of reckoning still ahead."

U.S. imperialism is the most powerful and wealthy empire in the history of the world. As Ike points out, it is beyond laughable to think that it could be forced or bribed into advancing any interests besides their own. This is the same absurdity circulated by those who would take Washington off the hook for its 40year-plus utterly-hostile treatment of revolutionary Cuba (supposedly a product of U.S. imperialism quivering prostrate before a few thousand "powerful" Miami Cubans).

The number one problem we and the world confront is U.S. imperialism. Putting blame on "the American Jewish community" and the "infamous Jewish Lobby" --no matter whether it's done by defenders of Palestinians-- takes down the proper target and substitutes one that should send the most alarming shivers down any progressive person's spine.

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