Seymour Hersh says that "Ironically there is a lot of pressure coming from Democrats (for war with Iran). Hillary Clinton, Obama, and Edwards have all said we cannot have a nuclear-armed Iran. Clearly the pressure from Democrats is a reflection of - we might as well say it - Israeli and Jewish input." He added the obvious: "a lot of money comes to the Democratic campaigns" from Jewish contributors. That the Israeli lobby has been successful in ginning up the chances of war with Iran is reflected in the vote for the Kyl-Lieberman resolution which essentially gives Bush the license to attack Iran. 76 Senators voted for that bill. The direction of America's policies regarding Iran comes from the likes of Neocons Feith, Friedman, Crystal, Kagan, Krauthammer, Abrams, et alia. One of the lesser known but powerful stage managers and propagandists of the Israeli lobby is the real estate and media mogul, Morton Zuckerman.
Zuckerman, publisher of Daily News, US News and World Report, and the Atlantic Monthly, among others, is in the business of propagada, disinformation, and surpression of debate. He uses his publications not to englighten and inform, but to reinforce stereotypes and inflame base passions. Recently, the NY Daily News had a headline that called Ahmadinajad a "MADMAN." The news denounces Ahmadinajad for wanting "to wipe Israel off the map" and for "denying the Holocaust." There is no context beyond these bald statements. But if you look closer you learn that Ahmadinajad never said he wanted to wipe Jews off the face of the earth or even remove them from the Middle East. What Amadinajad said is he wanted the state of Israel to vanish. As is well known outside the US, Israel is a brutal, racist state not unlike the former South Africa. What Ahmadinajad wants is for Israel, the state, to go the same way as South Africa, and be replaced by a truly democratic state. What Ahmadinajad wants is what many Jews and people of peace around the world want for Palestine: a one state solution where one man, one vote prevails, where no ethnic or religious group is privileged over another. Parenthetically, it is of interest that there are 25,000 Jews in Teheran and there has been a Jewish presence in Iran for several thousand years since the time of Xerxes. For the last several years Israel has offered a bounty of $60,000 per family to move to Israel. Interestingly, there have been practically no takers. Irani Jews serve in Parliament, worship at synagogues, have businesses. Are they second class citizens? No more than Palestinians in Israel.
As for Ahmadinajad's comments about the holocaust. They are wrong but does that make him or his nation dangerous? Remember, Iran in 2000 years never murdered Jews and did not send them off to Germany when Hitler came to power as did France, as did Italy. Ahmadinajad's point, which is a good one, is why is Palestine being made to pay for the crimes of the Germans and Austrians. Should not Germany and Austria pay for the crime of the holocaust?
It is this kind of context that Zuckerman does not want to provide. Rather he would rather surpress sound scholarship, as he attempted to do to Walt and Mearsheimer's white paper on the Israeli Lobby, or to peddle distortions and lies.