Chapter Seven
THE MODERN ISRAEL LOBBY IS BORN
In the 1920s and 1930s, American Zionists retreated somewhat from overtly pushing for a Jewish
state in Palestine. Instead, many focused on creating Jewish institutions in Palestine, reports historian
Naomi Cohen, who calls this approach “Palestinianism.” [137]
Cohen attributes this switch to American anti-Semitism in the 1920s and the Great Depression in
the 1930s, but Americans’ revulsion against militant nationalisms (particularly strong after WWI)
must certainly have been an important factor.
Cohen writes that this retreat from overt Zionism “permitted the spread of a ‘quiet’ Zionism in
synagogues and Jewish schools.”[138]
Meanwhile, by not publicly declaring the end goal of a Jewish state, Zionists could avoid the
appearance of “disloyalty or dual allegiance.”[139] This better fit the temper of the times, following
a war allegedly fought for democracy. A number of both Jewish and non-Jewish writers opposed the
non-democratic agenda of creating a Jewish state on land whose population was overwhelmingly
non-Jewish.
As a Jewish writer pointed out in a Zionist journal, “...forcing foreign rule upon the majority of the
population so that a minority may achieve political, economic and cultural privileges does not accord
with the conscience of people bred in America and western Europe to the principles of free self-
government.”[140]
On the other hand, creating Jewish institutions in Palestine, such as the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem, seemed to non-Zionists like altruism rather than the vanguard of a colonial movement. As
Cohen explains, “To outsiders [non-Jewish Americans], it was basically a philanthropy, and
Americans admired philanthropy and philanthropists.”[141]
Zionist leaders felt that the US was critically important to their goal. Ben-Gurion, who had visited
the United States almost every year after his election to the Zionist Executive, wrote in 1939 that he
was convinced that “the main arena” for Zionist efforts outside Palestine should be America, stating
that they had “no more effective tool at our disposal than the American Jewish community and Zionist
Movement….”[142]
Zionist Moshe Shertok, a future Israeli foreign minister, stated during WWII, “America will have
a decisive influence at the end of the war… and the question of our strength in America is a very real
and important one.”[143]
Shertok went on to state, “There are millions of active and well-organised Jews in America, and
their position in life enables them to be most dynamic and influential. They live in the nerve-centres
of the country, and hold important positions in politics, trade, journalism, the theatre and the radio.
They could influence public opinion, but their strength is not felt, since it is not harnessed and
directed at the right target.”[144]
A Zionist leader decried what he considered a problem with American Jews at this time: “The
American Jew thinks of himself first and foremost as an American citizen. This is a fact, whether we
like it or not.” He concluded, “Loyalty to America is now the supreme watchword.”[145]
Zionists were determined to harness this untapped power, and soon the Zionist movement began to
come into its own.
The immediate precursor to today’s pro-Israel lobby began in 1939[146] under the leadership of
Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, originally from Lithuania. He created the American Zionist Emergency
Council (AZEC), which by 1943 had acquired a budget of half a million dollars at a time when a
nickel bought a loaf of bread.[147]
In addition to this money, Zionists had become influential in creating a fundraising umbrella
organization, the United Jewish Appeal, in 1939[148], giving them access to the organization’s
gargantuan financial resources: $14 million in 1941, $150 million by 1948. This was four times more
than Americans contributed to the Red Cross and was the equivalent of approximately $1.5 billion
today.[149]
With its extraordinary funding, AZEC embarked on a campaign to target every sector of American
society, ordering that local committees be set up in every Jewish community in the nation. In the
words of AZEC organizer Sy Kenen, it launched “a political and public relations offensive to capture
the support of Congressmen, clergy, editors, professors, business and labor.”[150]
AZEC instructed activists to “make direct contact with your local Congressman or Senator“ and to
go after union members, wives and parents of servicemen, and Jewish war veterans. AZEC provided
activists with form letters to use and schedules of anti-Zionist lecture tours to oppose and disrupt.
A measure of its power came in 1945 when Silver disliked a British move that would be harmful
to Zionists. AZEC booked Madison Square Garden, ordered advertisements, and mailed 250,000
announcements – the first day. By the second day they had organized demonstrations in 30 cities, a
letter-writing campaign, and convinced 27 U.S. Senators to give speeches.[151]
Grassroots Zionist action groups were organized with more than 400 local committees under 76
state and regional branches. AZEC funded books, articles and academic studies; millions of
pamphlets were distributed. There were massive petition and letter writing campaigns. AZEC
targeted college presidents and deans, managing to get more than 150 to sign one petition.[152]
Rabbi Elmer Berger, executive director of the American Council for Judaism, which opposed
Zionism in the 1940s and ‘50s, writes in his memoirs that there was a “ubiquitous propaganda
campaign reaching just about every point of political leverage in the country.”[153]
The Zionist Organization of America bragged of the “immensity of our operations and their
diversity” in its 48th Annual Report, stating, “We reach into every department of American
life…”[154]
Berger and other anti-Zionist Jewish Americans tried to organize against “the deception and
cynicism with which the Zionist machine operated,” but failed to obtain anywhere near their level of
funding. Among other things, would-be dissenters were afraid of “the savagery of personal attacks”
anti-Zionists endured.[155]
Berger writes that when he and a colleague opposed a Zionist resolution in Congress, Emanuel
Celler, a New York Democrat who was to serve in Congress for almost 50 years, told them: “They
ought to take you b…s out and shoot you.”[156]
When it was unclear that President Harry Truman would support Zionism, Cellar and a committee
of Zionists told him that they had persuaded Dewey to support the Zionist policy and demanded that
Truman also take this stand. Cellar reportedly pounded on Truman‘s table and said that if Truman did
not do so, “We’ll run you out of town.[157]
Jacob Javits, another well-known senator, this time Republican, told a Zionist women’s group:
“We’ll fight to death and make a Jewish State in Palestine if it’s the last thing that we do.”[158]
Richard Stevens, author of American Zionism and U.S. Foreign Policy, 1942-1947, reports that
Zionists infiltrated the boards of several Jewish schools that they felt didn’t sufficiently promote the
Zionist cause. When this didn’t work, Stevens writes, they would start their own pro-Zionist
schools.[159]
Stevens writes that in 1943-44 the ZOA distributed over a million leaflets and pamphlets to public
libraries, chaplains, community centers, educators, ministers, writers and “others who might further
the Zionist cause.”[160]
Alfred Lilienthal, who had worked in the State Department, served in the U.S. Army in the Middle
East from 1943-45, and became a member of the anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism, reports
that Zionist monthly sales of books totaled between 3,000 and 4,000 throughout 1944-45.
Richard Stevens reports that Zionists subsidized books by non-Jewish authors that supported the
Zionist agenda. They would then promote these books jointly with commercial publishers. Several of
them became best sellers.[161]
Zionists manufacture Christian support
AZEC founder Silver and other Zionists played a significant role in creating Christian support for
Zionism, a project Brandeis encouraged.[162]
Secret Zionist funds, eventually reaching $150,000 in 1946, were used to revive an elitist
Protestant group, the American Palestine Committee. This group had originally been founded in 1932
by Emanuel Neumann, a member of the Executive of the Zionist Organization. The objective was to
organize a group of prominent (mainly non-Jewish) Americans in moral and political support of
Zionism. Frankfurter was one of the main speakers at its launch.[163]
Silver‘s headquarters issued a directive saying, “In every community an American Christian
Palestine Committee must be immediately organized.”[164]
Author Peter Grose reports that the Christian committee’s operations “were hardly autonomous.
Zionist headquarters thought nothing of placing newspaper advertisements on the clergymen’s behalf
without bothering to consult them in advance, until one of the committee’s leaders meekly asked at
least for prior notice before public statements were made in their name.”[165]
AZEC formed another group among clergymen, the Christian Council on Palestine. An internal
AZEC memo stated that the aim of both groups was to “crystallize the sympathy of Christian America
for our cause.”[166]
By the end of World War II the Christian Council on Palestine had grown to 3,000 members and
the American Palestine Committee boasted a membership of 6,500 public figures, including senators,
congressmen, cabinet members, governors, state officers, mayors, jurists, clergymen, educators,
writers, publishers, and civic and industrial leaders.
Historian Richard Stevens explains that Christian support was largely gained by exploiting their
wish to help people in need. Steven writes that Zionists would proclaim “the tragic plight of refugees
fleeing from persecution and finding no home,” thus linking the refugee problem with Palestine as
allegedly the only solution.[167]
Stevens writes that the reason for this strategy was clear: “…while many Americans might not
support the creation of a Jewish state, traditional American humanitarianism could be exploited in
favor of the Zionist cause through the refugee problems.”[168]
Few if any of these Christian supporters had any idea that the creation of the Jewish state would
entail a massive expulsion of hundreds of thousands of non-Jews, who made up the large majority of
Palestine‘s population, creating a new and much longer lasting refugee problem.
Nor did they learn that during and after Israel’s founding 1947-49 war, Zionist forces attacked a
number of Christian sites. Donald Neff, former Time Magazine Jerusalem bureau chief and author of
five books on Israel-Palestine, reports in detail on Zionist attacks on Christian sites in May 1948, the
month of Israel’s birth.
Neff tells us that a group of Christian leaders complained that month that Zionists had killed and
wounded hundreds of people, including children, refugees and clergy, at Christian churches and
humanitarian institutions.
For example, the group charged that “‘many children were killed or wounded’ by Jewish shells on
the Convent of Orthodox Copts…; eight refugees were killed and about 120 wounded at the Orthodox
Armenian Convent…; and that Father Pierre Somi, secretary to the Bishop, had been killed and two
wounded at the Orthodox Syrian Church of St. Mark.”
“The group’s statement said Arab forces had abided by their promise to respect Christian
institutions, but that the Jews had forcefully occupied Christian structures and been indiscriminate in
shelling churches,” reports Neff. He quotes a Catholic priest: “‘Jewish soldiers broke down the
doors of my church and robbed many precious and sacred objects. Then they threw the statues of
Christ down into a nearby garden.’ [The priest] added that Jewish leaders had reassured that
religious buildings would be respected, ‘but their deeds do not correspond to their words.’”[169]
After Zionist soldiers invaded and looted a convent in Tiberias, the U.S. Consulate sent a bitter
dispatch back to the State Department complaining of “the Jewish attitude in Jerusalem towards
Christian institutions.”[170]
An American Christian Biblical scholar concurred, reporting that a friend in Jerusalem had been
told, “When we get control you can take your dead Christ and go home.”[171]
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