I'm not surprised the media don't want to highlight any links with Isreal. I'm sure non of them want to risk being labeled anti-semitic, which tends to happen when one criticises anything Isreal do.
That said Bergen, what are the links between the Isreal and the American administration?[/quote]
A peculiarity of US government is just how powerful and influential lobbying groups are. They have multi-million dollar budgets and contribute millions of dollars to congressmen to buy support. Think about the Big Oil Lobby or the Drug Companies Lobby or even the Tobacco Lobby. These lobbies shape and direct a lot of US policy but they all pale into insignificance when compared to AIPAC [American Israeli Public Affairs Committee] and it's offshoot WINEP.
AIPAC is the single most powerful lobby in US history and lobbies exclusively for a foreign [Israeli] government.
The Neocon princes of darkness are all US citizens with close ties to Israel and to AIPAC. They have infiltrated the US government to the highest levels and control a lot of foreign policy and they help shape it to the advantage of Israel.
Let's concentrate on Richard Perle. Despite being a top US official he is also a leader of JINSA [Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs] and an advisor to the right-wing Israeli Likud party. He has a proven history of passing US intelligence to the Israeli's and in the 1990's was writing Likud policy for the Israeli's that included military intervention in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Jordan. Basically to use US muscle to further Israeli policies.
He had extremely close ties with Conrad Black who controlled 400 newspapers worldwide including The Daily Telegraph, The Chicago Sun-Times, Sydney Morning-Herald and the Jerusalem Post. All right-wing apologists for Israeli policy. Ever wonder why a home-made Katyusha rocket that kills 1 Israeli in Haifa gets banner headlines and an Israeli air-strike that kills 20 Palestinian women and children in Gaza never makes the news?
The neocons have also been highly active in undermining any US-Palestinian peace negotiations and for using United States vetoes in the UN Security Council to prevent any condemnation of Israel or it's policies.
The USA has used it's veto hundreds of times in this way. Lot's of the votes were for human-rights violations but some of them are truly amazing:
Israel kills UN troops and bombs UN installations - No condemnation US veto.
UN Resolution for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle-East - US veto.
Condemnation of Israel for refusing UN inspections of it's nuclear facilities - US veto.
Even more amazing is the incident of the USS Liberty when the Israeli's killed 34 USN sailors [
www.ussliberty.org]. This was a monumental cover-up.
The neocon tentacles have spread through all levels of the US government - once they were in a position to do so the neocons hired other neocons. Like Michael Ledeen, a prime instigator of the war. He was hired by Perle and installed in the Department of Defence as a consultant on terrorism. He was hired despite being listed by the CIA as an agent of influence of a foreign government [Israel]. He eventually left after being suspected of transmitting classified files to Israel.
One of the other things that is suppressed is the amount of Israeli intelligence activity directed against the United States and how much US weapons technology the Israeli's have sold to Russia and China.
It is a scandal of the highest order and it would not surprise me if one day, if the USA ever gets it's act together, these people face trials for treason.
Britain was sucked into this by Bliar and the Bliarites and he is now caught between a rock and a hard place. The war in Iraq is a proxy war being fought by the USA and UK to further the expansionist ambitions and Middle-East interests of Israel.
RM