Who Is James Baker?? -- Part 3

President Harry Truman essentially defied the policy wish of the State Department, War Department [now called "Defense Dept"], and the CIA when he supported Israel's rebirth in 1948, albeit only lukewarmly. We have shown this in previous posts. Now, let's resume quotes from Michel Gurfinkiel's article "Report on Baker" [Rapport sur Baker]. After pointing out that Truman supported Israel's reestablishment in the 1947-1948 period, he points out that this friendly, if not warmly supportive, policy did not last.

From 1949 to 1961, during the major part of Truman's second term, and during Eisenhower's two terms, America adopted a cold, if not hostile, attitude towards Israel: No economic aid (with the exception of 'charitable' gifts from the Jewish community), no military aid (an embargo forbid even in that period the export of American military equipment to the Jewish state), no diplomatic cooperation (the United States imposed the immediate evacuation of Sinai [on Israel] after the Suez Campaign in 1956).

First a minor correction, there was some very minor US economic aid to Israel in this period, mostly involving purchases of US food. However, starting in 1951, the USA started a policy of enriching Saudi Arabia's royal parasites through ARAMCO. This policy had the Saudis legislate a per barrel "oil income tax" on ARAMCO. Then, ARAMCO was allowed to deduct the full amount of this "tax" [really a royalty] from its US corporate income tax on the grounds of the Foreign Tax Credit Law. This meant a heavy US subsidy for the Saudis, a disguised form of foreign aid. Hence, Saudi Arabia has probably received more US foreign monetary aid than any other state.

Gurfinkiel goes on to point out that starting in the 1960s with the Kennedy Administration, and then under Johnson and Nixon,

Washington started a rapprochement with Jerusalem

This relationship resulted in major sales of US weapons to Israel, including fighter aircraft, whereas Israel had fought and won the Six Day War of 1967 with an air force almost entirely made up of French military aircraft. In that war, the Egyptian and Syrian air forces were mainly Soviet. The Israeli victory gave French military aircraft a very good reputation among the world's air forces, leading to increased sales. France did not return the favor. Instead, De Gaulle declared an embargo on major military sales to Israel just as the USA was eliminating its embargo.

Nevertheless, not everyone was pleased with the US-Israel alliance. The Petro-Diplomatic Complex was not happy.

In the eyes of the oil men and their friends, the most powerful lobby in the country [America], this [pro-Israel] 'deviation' could only be explained by the action of a 'Jewish lobby," at least as powerful [as itself]. This was a classic case of projecting on one's adversary one's own behavior.

Gurfinkiel does not mention it, but one of the ways that the Petro-Diplomatic Complex countered pro-Israel forces in the United States was to work through foundations like the Ford Foundation, which in turn directed and funded all sorts of fake "human rights" and "peace" groups to unfairly attack and libel Israel. The pro-Arab, anti-Israel bodies agitating at the 2001 Durban Conference to smear Israel were to a large extent coordinated and/or funded by the Ford Foundation, according to articles by Edwin Black for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Source: Michel Gurfinkiel, "Rapport sur Baker," France-Israel Information no. 335, Oct-Nov-Dec 2006.

UPDATE ON THE PETRO-DIPLOMATIC COMPLEX: See this article by John R MacArthur on the Saudi Lobby in the USA and on its friends in the Petro-Diplomatic Complex.
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Coming: more on James Baker, on Carter's support for apartheid against Jews, Jews in Jerusalem and Hebron, Jewish antiquities, peace follies, propaganda, etc.