Architects of Repression: How Israel and Its Lobby Put Racism, Violence and Injustice at the Center of US Middle East Policy

by Walter L. Hixson

Walter L. Hixson since 2019 serves as columnist and contributing editor at the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. This is his second book on the Israel lobby following Israel’s The Israel Lobby and the First Generation of the Palestine Conflict. (Cambridge University Press, 2019) He is the author of several books focused on the history of US foreign relations, including American Foreign A New Diplomatic History (Routledge, 2015), American Settler A History (2013, Palgrave-Macmillan), The Myth of American National Identity and U.S. Foreign Policy (Yale University Press, 2008). More at www.WalterHixson.com.

This book offers a compelling history of the most powerful lobby acting on behalf of a foreign government in all of American history. The book puts to rest any doubt as to whether the Israel lobby has played and continues to play the crucial role in enabling aggression, the suppression of Palestinian rights, and the failure to achieve a comprehensive Middle East peace accord.

Rooted in archival evidence and an abundant secondary literature, Architects of Repression shows how AIPAC and other Israel affinity groups deploy propaganda, target campaign contributions, organize demonstrations, and exert political pressure to manage public opinion—and, especially, to influence the Congress. The massive foreign aid that the United States has provided Israel—far more than allocated to any other country and dispersed on favorable terms reserved for Israel alone--is only one of many enabling benefits the small Zionist state has received over many decades from the most powerful nation in the world.

For decades, as the book explains in depth, the Israel lobby has played the pivotal role as the US enabled Israel’s disdain for a negotiated settlement of the Middle East conflict; its contemptuous dismissal of the plight of Palestinian refugees; its cultivation of nuclear weapons in defiance of the global nuclear non-proliferation movement; its profusion of palpably racist, illegal and destabilizing Jewish-only settlements; its takeover of Jerusalem, much of the West Bank, and the Golan Heights; and its ongoing violent aggression, which has victimized Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as well as neighboring states notably Lebanon. In more recent years the Israel lobby launched a campaign to criminalize political engagement and freedom of speech by equating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. Hixson convincingly reveals that there will never be peace in the Middle East until the monolithic Israel lobby is neutralized.

Kindle Edition

Published April 7, 2021

Reviews

[Randall Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

The difference between colonialism and settler-colonialism is that colonialism is about economic exploitation of colonies, while settler-colonialism is about the settlers adhering to a plan of eliminating the indigenous peoples – a plan that ensures no peaceful resolution to the conflict. The King-Crane Commission’s findings of 1919 said to President Woodrow Wilson that “the Zionists look forward to a practically complete dispossession of the present non-Jewish inhabitants of Palestine” or as Ben Gurion said (echoing Hitler’s plan for the Slavs), “We must expel the Arabs and take their place.” Hixson attributes to Zionism a Hobbesian worldview “rooted in the traumas of Jewish history.”

One of the founders of the Israel lobby, Louis Lipsky, said in 1951 that Zionists depended on the lobby’s propaganda to supply “the armor Israel cannot get along without.” At that time the US state department was saying that, “Israel posed the primary obstacle to the quest for peace in the region (p.11).” Moshe Dayan clearly explained Israel’s lack of respect for the US thusly, “Our American friends offer us money, arms, and advice. We take the money, we take the arms, and we decline the advice.” Israel historically listens only to its right wing according to the basic tenets of settler-colonialism. Eisenhower and Dulles hoped to rein in the Israel lobby, but in the end “were rendered virtually powerless to shape Middle East diplomacy.” It was AIPAC (and Israel successfully working AROUND US funding law) that defeated Arkansas Senator Fulbright in 1974.

Twenty-Three Eyes for One Eye: In response to the death of three Israelis in 1953, the IDF kills 69 Palestinians in Qibya who had nothing to do with those three deaths, and Israel’s intentional asymmetrical warfare games were on. Not to be outdone, 2,977 Americans are killed on 9/11 and in asymmetrical response the US kills 4.5 million civilians and counting (who had zero to do with 9/11). For those still interested in math, that’s a ratio of 1,511 non-Americans for each dead American. Is there ANY country other than Israel and the US more obsessed with asymmetrical warfare? Together they make the Mafia’s retribution kill ratio look benign.

Israel’s Attack on the USS Liberty: Secret recordings later revealed that Israelis had definitely identified the USS Liberty as American BEFORE they attacked it (p.51). Since LBJ sucked up to Israel so badly, “The Liberty’s injured captain and surviving sailors were sworn to secrecy and calls for a full-blown investigation were shut down. Since the incident the surviving Liberty crewmen, among others, have repeatedly called for a serious investigation, but both Israel and the US Congress have ignored these demands for decades.”

Fun Facts: Only 20% of Palestinians living within Israeli borders have voting rights. AIPAC’s funding dramatically increased after the ’67 War. Both LBJ and Hubert Humphrey were long-time Zionist ass-lickers. Not to be outdone in such licking prowess, Nixon gave Israel a free pass to ignore nuclear inspections and pressure to sign the NPT and so Israel was tacitly allowed to become a nuclear power. Nixon told Secretary of State Rogers that “we have often subordinated US security interests to the interests of Israel”, but later in opposition Nixon prudently told his cabinet, “We have to have policies which don’t allow an obsession with one state (Israel) to destroy our status in the Middle East.” Then comes President Ford, yet another Zionist bootlicker as was Walter Mondale, although in Ford’s defense, he knew a fight against Israel’s lobby was “a losing proposition.”

Papa’s Got a Brand-New Bag: At the (Ariel Sharon facilitated) Phalangist massacre at Sabra and Shatila there were “rapes and dismemberment”. Apparently, for hardcore sadists, raping w/o dismemberment is only for sissies.

AIPAC actually accused the Washington Post of calling warlike, aggressive colonial Israel a “warlike, aggressive, colonial power”. AIPAC was raising $100 million annually by 2019. Today in 2024 CNN admits it has to run Gaza stories by Israel to get approval. This is why you can’t trust mainstream media. One of the self-appointed jobs of CAMERA and FLAME is to complain to bookstore managers if they find any books by Noam Chomsky or Edward Said (p.82). “In 1992 the Republicans learned a lesson they would not forget. They ‘took a strategic decision’ journalist Thomas Friedman explained, that ‘they will never be out pro-Israel’d again.’ The GOP thus became increasingly uncritically pro-Israel.”

In the 1990’s US financial assistance to Israel began coming in lump-sum grants instead of loans that had to be repaid. Because the cash was given out quarterly, Israel could collect interest of all that cash sitting around – no other country is granted that extreme favor by the US. The Oslo Agreements were “another diplomatic disaster for the Palestinians.” Until Trump, every US president understood East Jerusalem would one day be the capital of a Palestinian state (p.89). Suicide bombings in the end hardened the right-wing (Sharon and Netanyahu) and the mainstream press showed Palestinians as “nothing more than murderous fanatics against whom any level of violent repression would be justified, and with whom no peace was possible.” So much more civilized when Israel instead does endless bombings of civilians because there’s no inelegant suicide involved. So refined, and chic. And Suicide is so passe, even Vogue will tell you only straight up genocide is now “de jour”.

Whenever there’s a vote in the UN, note that Israel always loses. For example, in 1998, the UN General Assembly voted 115-2 against Israel’s illegal settlement expansion. As you can imagine the only two “for” votes were cast by the only two rogue states, Israel and its ever subservient boy toy, wearing its dog collar, the United States. The Wall was built in response to the Second Intifada, and created a permanent barrier between Israel and the West Bank. The UN, EU, and ICJ all then declared Israel’s Wall illegal. A big reason Saddam Hussein was removed was because Israel wanted it so, and all US Presidents have been simply too chicken shit to stand up against it. Naturally, Saddam was depicted as another Hitler even after the US had clearly supported him during his worst crimes.

Israeli History: Then comes the Dahiya Doctrine (after Israel kills 300 civilians in a carpet bombing), saying that Israel would no longer distinguish between targeting civilians and military personnel. Then Israel kills 1,000 civilians in its “Operation Just Reward.” An IDF general then affirms Israel’s “War Crimes R US” doctrine. Then, in 2007, Israel enforces an air and sea blockade of Gaza (can’t force a near starvation diet of Palestinians w/o it). In 2010, Israel takes out aid ship Mavi Marmara and then confiscates “all the photographic evidence of the unprovoked attack.” In 2011, Netanyahu gets “29 standing ovations (and 39 bursts of applause) in his second address before a joint session of the (US) Congress.” “The applause alone consumed more than a quarter of Netanyahu’s 40-minute address.” Perhaps, if he announced Israel as a safe haven for convicted US pedophiles (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-jewi...), or he brazenly shot a Palestinian child while on the podium he could have received a 30th standing ovation. Never did even Churchill get such a reception in the US.

By 2014, the average American believed AIPAC’s narrative that Hamas was ONLY a terrorist organization that wanted the death of all Israelis from the river to the sea. Repeated endlessly on mainstream media was that “Israel had a right to defend itself” – never mentioned was that Israel (w/ a huge army) is clearly the occupier while Palestinians (w/ zero army) are clearly the occupied (deprived of rights, drinkable water, and any chance of a better life). Israel propaganda added that Hamas shamelessly uses human shields, while never mentioning that (according to evidence anyone can easily find on the web) that Israel historically has a long-documented history (including MANY videos) of “repeatedly” using human shields, while evidence that Palestinians use human shields has NEVER appeared (according to Human Rights Watch, Amnesty international and B’Tselem). In the first 70 years of the UN, the US used its veto 42 times at the Security Council to save Israel’s ass (p.217).

Israel is #1, So Back Off: According to journalist Ronen Bergman, “Israel has assassinated more people than any other country in the Western world (p.121).” [As the state of Israel, I’d like to thank Mossad for this esteemed honor; I honestly couldn’t have done this without you.] Among that death count are quite a few Iranians. Israel is nowhere near Iran, so why are its panties always in a bunch about Iran. Is it because Iran chose a national name with fewer letters than Israel? Since Israel is ONLY about itself, so why not shorten its name to just “I”? Its AD slogans could be, “Bend Over For Israel” or “Redefining the Most ‘Moral’ Army in the World Since 1948”. Obama got his woodie for assassinations via Israel’s murderous track record, leading to Obama killing a sixteen-year-old boy for FUTURE crimes by drone in Yemen (notice that not one US liberal complained). And patriotic sadists will be happy to know, that single drone strike also killed the 16-year old’s friends peaceably eating w/ him at the Yemeni restaurant as well as the restaurant staff.

Iran: According to the author, the US led Iran towards Muslim extremism when it intentionally and foolishly amplified Israel’s anti-Iran rhetoric to the point that Iran’s elected moderate president Khatemi (pursuing domestic reforms and working w/ the US) lost the next election to Ahmadinejad, who as President killed off the reforms and relationship w/ the US. Israel hates Iran because Iran won’t get in line to obsequiously lick Israel’s ass, and also isn’t afraid to back Syria and Hezbollah. When the US DEEPLY financed Muslim extremism (religious Madrasas) in Pakistan to give the Soviet Union its own Vietnam in Afghanistan, Israel and US liberals stayed utterly silent. When Iran dared fund Hezbollah (to a far lesser extent financially than the US funded Muslim extremism), Israel and US liberals went ape shit.

US Corporations & Israel: Northrup Grumman supplies Israel with cluster bombs (which they illegally use on civilians), while Raytheon works w/ Israel on weapon development. Caterpillar helps Israel crush non-violent protestors to death with their large D9 tractors, which also destroy Palestinian homes in violation of international law.

The Settler-Colonial Project in Israel (a.k.a. Zionism & Israel) “is to create conditions so dire that Palestinian citizens of Israel will have no option but to leave (said Ali Abunimah). ” Note that Israel can be Jewish or democratic, but it is impossible to be both, as Gideon Levy will tell you. Therefore, Israel can never be an egalitarian democracy, either in practice or theory due to its 2018 Knesset vote affirming apartheid. Who doesn’t want to offend 20% of their population with an intentionally racist law? “To reiterate, a Jewish state is an apartheid state because it privileges one religious group over masses of people, ethnicity over democracy, and thus stands in contradiction to internationally sanctioned democratic values.”

What Real anti-Semitism Looks Like: Martin Luther, the guy who brought you the Reformation, demanded the expulsion from Central Europe of “this damned race of Jews.” Martin as faux-Christian clueless to the compassion of Christ and Matthew 5:1-12 (the Beatitudes).

Trump Even Worse than Biden: The US used to give UNRWA $300 million annually until Trump came to office and stopped the checks and recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and then recognized Israel’s annexation of Golan Heights. In 2019, Trump pulled from his own ass the idea that the US now considered West Bank settlements legal although every other nation in the world, other than Israel, disagreed. After the Saudi murder of Jamal Khoshoggi, Trump gave Saudi Arabia more money and then appeased Israel when he “authorized the US assassination of Soleimani. He put his rabidly Zionist son-in law Jared Kushner “in charge of devising a Middle east peace plan.” That’s like hiring Catholic priests to run your daycare facility.

South Africa & Israel: When apartheid collapsed in South Africa in 1994, Israel “lost a key ally” and a long-time role model. No longer would Israel be guided by South Africa’s carrying the torch for blatant settler-colonialism, “racial hierarchy, political exclusion, displacement of indigenous people, restrictions on movement, intimidation, incarceration, and torture.” The boycott against South Africa had worked; so, no wonder Israel now hates the BDS movement.

In 2017, “a Pew Research poll found a majority of American Jews viewed Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories as an impediment to peace with the Palestinians which they believed could be achieved.” In 2019, a “Center for American Progress poll found that 71% of Democrats and more than half of Americans as a whole favored conditioning US aid to Israel if it continued to construct illegal settlements.” Expert on Judaism, Steven M. Cohen wrote, “in many respects, Israel is a red state and American Jews are a blue country.” Google the “Canary Mission” – its sole job is Zionist misinformation and propaganda via “anonymous cyber-stalking and harassment of college students and faculty.” Note that if you want your sports team to do better, or your kids to better in school, you aren’t “hating” your team or your kids, yet if you want Israel or the US to do better, you comically MUST be either hating your own country or be a rabid Jew hater.

For Those Who Still Care: Israel is the MOST heavily subsidized country in US history. The Israel lobby is not content with taking away Palestinian rights, it clearly now is trying to take away our American right to free speech (on behalf of Palestinians). There goes centuries of support for free speech as the race is on to be the politician most obsequious to Israel on both sides of the aisle. AIPAC is not only flourishing but it plans to add two more floors on its main DC building and add an 11-story attached office building. Just as Hitler refused to give up when faced with obvious defeat, so too AIPAC won’t reconsider its failed 2023-4 Gaza offensive, but instead would rather die a slow public death in its Washington bunker, a defiant and ineffectual Sabra to the end. The US military learned in Vietnam you can’t defeat an opponent who has no other options, and now, the IDF has learned the same in front of the entire world, which watches still amazed by Israel’s endless hubris & magnificent self-absorption.

Israel’s Washing Campaigns: Israel pink washed by announcing its fair treatment of gay, lesbian, and transgender people, it red washed by announcing it had Native American allies, it green washed by saying it was a leader in environmental consciousness (no doubt by cutting down thousands of olives trees and then destroying Gaza’s water supplies and then turning Gaza into useless rubble). Israelis historically love to refer to “dirty Arabs” so I’m surprised they don’t also get involved in Arab washing. “Get Our Country Ethnic Cleansing Clean!”

The author wonders why Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein have both downplayed the influence of the Israel Lobby (p.164) – I do as well. Through taking the one-state solution, Israel could be a powerful example to the world of post-colonial liberation that could reduce global anti-Semitism to a whisper – instead – Israel seems hell-bent on going down in flames like a bad movie sequel whose director didn’t know when to quit. The author’s prescription for us Americans is to work to break the Israel lobby’s grip on Congress, by publicizing and condemning it while teaching fellow citizens that our tax dollars are boldly financing racial repression and decade-long ethnic cleansing.

Deep History Facts: “The point at issue is not whether an ancient Israel ever existed, but whether the historically ancient Israel was like the portrait in the Bible (said Nur Masalha).” In the real world, “Israel first appears in Egyptian records in 1210 BCE. Israelites were ALSO Canaanites as they too lived within ancient Canaan. Note that Deuteronomy also had some very ethically problematic bits like God commanding Israelites to “utterly destroy” the Canaanites. Why let such a God be your role model? Even Jeffrey Dahmer would have said, “back off, don’t destroy them ALL! – kill them as you are ready to eat them.” Two top archeological experts Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman said, “The conclusion that the Exodus did not happen at the time and the manner described in the Bible – seems irrefutable when we examine the evidence at specific sites.” On top of that, another expert Thomas Romer, says Egyptian records and all others show no mention of someone named Moses. Nor is there evidence of the conquest of Canaan, the wandering in the desert, the ten commandments, or walls in Jericho that tumbled down. That’s a lot of Bible faux facts pushed on all of us since birth.
Anyway, this was a great book which I heartily recommend to all Americans deeply concerned when their tax dollars pays for boldly immoral stuff, funding the moral opposite of what the Beatitudes and common sense told us to do years ago. Kudos to the author, in fact, every book written by Walter that I’ve reviewed on Goodreads has been excellent and well-worth buying and reading.

[Michael Hutchison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would have to agree with Ilan Pappe, "you need to read this book". So, I just finished reading it twice in a row. First on Audible but, I had to read the hardcopy because the subject matter and the amount of information is just too important to gloss over in audible book. I tabbed 50 pages in a book of 184 pages. For me that means there was important information on every page. When I started on the hardcopy, I discovered it's the second book by Hixson, on the Israeli lobby. Israel's Armor being the first, and I have already purchased that one. I have nearly always known about the Jewish/Israel lobby, but this book shows us how pervasive, entrenched, and powerful it is in our government and society. It shows how the lobby is attacking our basic freedoms at home to curtail dissent and criticism of Israel. All the while inundating us with propaganda to form our opinions for us. When our political parties let AIPAC write their political platform, you have to wonder who do our representatives really work for. Is this the United States of America or the United States of Israel? The power of the lobby to muster votes and congress against our own best interests and our Presidential administrations, is so unbelievable that Israel doesn't make requests anymore they make demands. They milk this country for weapons, money, and political cover. One of the most shocking exposures to me was how many Zionists over the years have been working in our government and the Presidents administrations. To the point that we as a government were never an unbiased, impartial, participant in the middle east. We always had a heavy hand on the Israeli side of the scale. There is just too much info to cover in a review, but I'll bet some people have written that long dissertation. From Presidents Wilson to Biden, everyone has bent the knee to Israel. I recommend this book 1000%.

[Simon Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook: Unfortunately the author has narrated his book very badly and it is unlistenable. The content is very good but after 1½ hours I abandoned listening.