‘AIPAC represents the most cynical side of politics where money buys power’

Israel-born academic and writer Ilan Pappé has written more than 20 books on the troubled region comprising Israel and Palestine, the latest being Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic (2024). The 68-year-old has faced harassment at the hands of various Western agencies for speaking truth to power and for offering historical and scholarly context to the ongoing crisis in Gaza and other areas under Israeli control.

Pappé, a professor at the University of Exeter and an alumnus of the University of Oxford and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is a maverick historian who is part of the league called ‘New Historians’. They unmask and challenge conventional interpretations about Israel’s creation from declassified imperial British and local documents. Pappé has done extensive analysis of the functioning of pro-Israeli lobby groups, including the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and how they changed the map of the Middle East through aggressive campaigns and by buying out politicians.

Pappé was born in Haifa to German-Jewish emigrants but had to leave the country in the face of threats, which forced him to seek asylum in the UK in the 2000s. He has penned several best-selling works such as The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, The Modern Middle East, A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples, and Ten Myths about Israel.

Excerpts from an interview:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war on Palestinians has found great support in the West. What does that say about the Western notions of genocide and suffering of people in the Global South?

There is a clear hypocrisy in the West. This can be seen when we compare its attitude towards the war in Ukraine and the one in Palestine. But this is beyond hypocrisy. It is impossible to understand how even cynical politicians remain indifferent to a genocide that is broadcast daily in front of their eyes. This will come back to haunt Israel and its allies in the West. This is a new phase when the West is complicit in a genocide committed by one of its own allies, and it does not do anything. It ridicules international law and morality.

This war (which many observers call genocide) has put the spotlight on Zionist lobbying which, besides canvassing consent for their cause, also forces people to remain silent for fear of a backlash. Do you agree?

It is more than the Zionist lobby. It is the whole question of why the West provides Israel with such exceptional immunity. One of the answers is the work of the lobby, but it is also Islamophobia; neo-imperialist and neo-capitalist factors are also crucial here. Israel is serving a powerful alliance: some support it for religious reasons, both Christians and Jews; some because of racism against Arabs and Muslims, and some because of the military industry, high-tech profits, and so on.

Why does AIPAC consider idealists like you to be enemies? 

The reason is that AIPAC represents the most cynical side of politics in general and in the USA in particular where money buys influence and power. If you use the same attitude and means, you feel you are not better morally than your rivals. So, it is natural that the campaign against AIPAC is led by people who believe that one day morality will be inserted into politics in general and in the USA in particular.

What is the modus operandi of AIPAC when it comes to wooing American politicians?

Since its inception (in 1963), the key modus operandi of this organisation has been to track politicians in the very early stages of their careers. They are promised endless help and threatened that such help will be given to their rival should they refuse to abide by a pro-Israeli stance throughout their career.

Another method is to use all their force on someone of significance who expresses even moderate criticism of Israel and try to depose him or her from their senior positions.

A third modus operandi involves being involved in the school and university curricula, and influencing film industries such as Hollywood.

How did the Christian Zionists, who were mostly anti-Semitic to start with, find a common cause with Jewish Zionists since the beginning of this lobbying?

It is more than a common cause. They began the Zionist project and there is no contradiction. Both Zionism and Christian Zionism do not want to see the Jews in the West but only in Palestine. Both ideologies regard the Jews as a race, not a religion. What they do not have in common is the vision of the Christian Zionists that in the end of time the Jews will have to convert to Christianity.

Lobbying, you argue, was at the root of both these groups who assumed that a divine mission drove them. How do you think this process has transformed the world over time?

It turned Palestine into a case study that proved that terms such as universal, international law, and, in fact, all the lofty values Europe claims to bestow on the world since the Enlightenment were empty words. These noble values were never respected at the time of colonialism and imperialism, and they are not respected today in the case of Palestine. We have a long way to go to uproot racism and phobias to make this world more just.

Are there commonalities between the white American idea of a settler state and that of Israel?

Part of the support for Israel has to do with the fact that both societies are settler-colonial societies. But there is, as we noted, the imperialist interest of new conservatives and neo-capitalists that at least until recently reflected the same goals in the Middle East as those of Israel. The Christian Zionists have their impact as well. So, the settler-colonial past plays a role but is not the only explanation.

Why do you think the Israelis want to expand their war beyond Palestine?

They want to impose their will by military means on the region. If the need for that is to invade Lebanon, they will invade Lebanon, and if the need for that is to try and deter Iran, or even destroy its nuclear capabilities, they will go to war. Will they succeed? That is another question.

The slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and the late Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah are often portrayed as terrorists by the Western media. This slant gets lapped up across the world. What are your thoughts on this narrative? 

I think this is part of the hypocrisy and double talk. Terrorism can either be an ideology or a method. Israel, the USA, Hezbollah, and Hamas use terrorism as part of their policies, so we have to begin by asking what we think about the goals of each side, and then ask about their options and capacities. So, yes Hamas and Hezbollah use terrorism and so do Israel. In the case of Hamas, it is part of the struggle for liberation against policies of elimination of the Palestinian people. We can demand that everyone should respect international laws, but we also should not deny the right of self-defence to people who are occupied and colonised.

About The Author

Ullekh NP

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