Fars News Agency – Palestinian historian and analyst Jafar Ramini says that powerful Zionist lobbies are very influential in American politics to the extent that any American politician has to seek approval from the lobby in order to have a chance of being elected. Speaking in an exclusive interview with FNA, Jafar Ramini said he believes that the powerful Zionist lobby controls American politics and consequently the American support provides the Israeli regime with the feeling of impunity to continue with its crimes against the Palestinians.
Commenting on the Saudi crown prince’s controversial remarks on formal relations with Israel, the Palestinian historian said that Mohammad bin Salman’s hunger for power has made him betray the Palestinian cause and to side with Israel. Jafar Ramini is a Palestinian historian, writer and analyst on Middle Eastern affairs living in London. He has also shared his expert comments on many international news outlets such as Press TV and Radio Sputnik.
FNA has conducted an interview with Jafar Ramini about Trump’s relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem Al-Quds and also the recent killings of Palestinian protesters by Israeli army. Below you will find the full text of the interview.
Q: Delivering on his campaign promise and in defiance of all global warnings, Donald Trump moved US embassy to Jerusalem al-Quds. Many believe that this move by Trump has effectively killed fantasies that Washington is a neutral party in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. What do you see as the reasons behind the embassy move?
A: These are the problems: American elections and Jewish financial contributions and power. That’s how the Zionist lobby in America got Harry Truman to endorse their colonial project in Palestine in 1948 and the trend continues. During the last 70 years we had one honorable exception in the White House who saw the danger of Zionism to his country and the world and he tried to do something about it. That was the late President of the United States, John F Kennedy. And we know what happened to him. Even when Israel deliberately attacked an American navy ship, USS Liberty in 1967, killing 34 American servicemen and wounding 171 others, not only did America do nothing towards this blatant aggression, but the Johnson Administration also tried to hide it. Since then the Zionist lobby that President Kennedy warned about has grown in numbers, power and influence. AIPAC is so powerful in American politics that any aspiring American politician has to seek its approval in order to have any chance of being elected. Though Trump said he did not need Jewish money for his campaign he readily accepted it. As a reward for his illegal act on Jerusalem, Sheldon Adelson, the Jewish billionaire gambling magnate, gave the Republican Party $35 million. As the English saying goes, “If you take the King’s shilling you do the King’s bidding”.
Q: Since the beginning of the protests dubbed as the “Great Return March”, Israeli forces have been killing and injuring many Palestinian civilians, including the protesters, members of the press and medical workers. It seems as if the regime in Tel Aviv felt an atmosphere of impunity where it could act beyond all international laws and conventions. Where do you think this feeling of immunity comes from?
A: When you have the most powerful empire known to man in your back pocket naturally you would feel emboldened and immune. This is how Ariel Sharon, ex Prime Minister of Israel, described the Israeli relationship with America in 2001 when Shimon Peres, the then Foreign Minister, mentioned that if Israel did not stop attacking Palestinians they might endanger their relationship with the United States of America. In a fit of anger Sharon said to Peres, “every time we do something you tell me Americans will do this and will do that. I want to tell you something very clear, don’t worry about American pressure on Israel, we, the Jewish people control America, and the Americans know it.” The current Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu was video recorded saying, in an unguarded moment with illegal settlers, “The USA is easily moved.” Of course Israel feels much more than immune, it feels protected and encouraged. The irony here is that the people of the USA do not realize that they too are occupied.
Q: The US Ambassador to the UN said “no country would act with greater restraint than Israel” as the world was witnessing the rise in the toll of Palestinian civilians killed and wounded by Israeli live fire. What do you think about this?
A: Ms. Nikki Haley, American Ambassador to the UN, is a very ambitious woman and she knows which side her bread is buttered. She will go to any lengths to prove her credentials to her Zionist benefactors. Her performance at AIPAC last year, when she pointed to her stiletto heels saying that “these heels are not a fashion statement but there to kick the butt of anybody who opposes Israel” made that clear. She went on to boast that she stopped the appointment of Dr Salam Fayyad, ex Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, to lead a UN Commission into Libya. Her vulgarity and disdain for the truth and anything pertaining to Palestine was highlighted when she recently walked out from a UN Security Council meeting, the moment the Palestinian representative Mr. Riyadh Mansour arose to speak. As for her statement that the killing of over 120 Palestinian men, women and children and the wounding of 15000 Palestinians signifies ‘restraint’ on Israel’s part says it all.
Q: Israel has rejected international calls for probes into recent killings and insisted that its open-fire rules for Gaza will not change. Some Western states, particularly the US and Britain, who call themselves champions of human rights, have supported the Israeli crimes against Palestinians. The UN has also failed to restore the rights of the people. What is your assessment? What role can nations of the world play in protecting the rights of the oppressed people of Palestine?
A: Of course Israel rejects the call for a probe and of course the United States of America agrees. Every time genocide happens around the world and the international community looks on from afar and does nothing to stop it or bring the perpetrators to account for their crimes it is a betrayal of humanity, of justice and of any sense of morality. And when the USA and other western countries that follow its lead describe the genocidal attacks by Israel on the Palestinians as ‘self defense’ this sends a clear message that the rule of law is irrelevant. Only might matters. As Edmund Burke once said, “For evil to flourish it only takes a few good men to look the other way.” As far is Israel is concerned the world community has been looking the other way for over a century.
Q: Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammad bin Salman has recently said that Israelis “have the right to have their own land” and that formal relations between Tel Aviv and Riyadh could be mutually beneficial. The Saudi regime once, at least on the surface, opposed Israel’s right to exist. What do you think has changed in Riyadh to now come out as an apologist for the Zionist regime and betray the Palestinian cause? How do you think other fellow Arab and Muslim nations think of the Kingdom?
A: It’s not surprising that Prince Mohammad bin Salman, an immature 32-year-old with no diplomatic or political experience to speak of, would say such a thing. His hunger for power over-rides every other human instinct. You only have to look at how he treated members of his own clan, under the pretext of fighting corruption, to understand where he is coming from. I wonder when His Royal Highness spent over $500 million on a yacht and an equal amount on a Da Vinci painting and a similar amount on a chateau in the South of France where that $1.5 billion came from, if not from corruption? He has declared openly his hostility towards another Muslim country, Iran, siding with Israel and the United States. He has also declared war on Yemen, on Syria and on Qatar. So throwing Palestine and the Palestinians under the Israeli/USA juggernaut does not bother him one bit. Power, after all, is an aphrodisiac.
