Desmond Tuck’s letter to the ‘Daily’ (April 6) contains a number of misleading statements. He claims that the Israeli lobby doesn’t exist. Nothing could be further from the truth. Its influence is both profound and insidious. Witness its aggressive and relentless attacks on former Jimmy Carter and its more recent efforts to deny tenure to Norman Finkelstein, a Professor of Political Science at DePaul University.
I would urge Tuck to read Paul Findley’s latest book, "They Dare to Speak Out" and "Silent No More." Findley, a former senior Republican represented Illinois in the U.S. House for 22 years, paid the ultimate price for speaking out in favor of Palestinian rights and criticizing the construction of Jewish-only settlements on confiscated Palestinian land. Findley was narrowly defeated by his opponent who received large amounts of money from the deep pockets of the pro-Israeli lobby. His book describes the tactics used by pro-Israeli groups to silence critics of Israel’s war of aggression. Other human rights stalwarts, such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and UN Envoy John Dugard, compare Israeli policies to former white South African apartheid. Surprisingly, even Israeli politicians such as former Education Minister, Shulamit Aloni, acknowledge that an apartheid system exists in Israel. Prof. John J. Mearsheimer and Prof. Stephen Walt, who warned of the undue influence of the pro-Israel lobby, were excoriated, mocked and largely silenced into obscurity.
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