The above cover accompanied the recent Robert Fisk article on the Israel lobby controversy. David Hirsh, who teaches sociology at Goldsmiths College at the University of London, thinks that the image alludes to anti-Semitic traditions:
It says that Jews control America. Its premise is that Jews are not real Americans and not patriotic Americans; Jews care only for themselves and not for their community.…
On the original lobby article itself:
This is not the first time that Jews have been accused of trying to pervert states to act against their own interests; and it’s not the first time that Jews have been accused of starting wars in which they were not themselves prepared to fight.…
Hirsh, like so many Zionists, seems incapable of understanding that the reasons behind US support for Israel may not be pure or rational. He doesn’t want to analyse the profound influence of conservative Jewry on US foreign policy. The use of the anti-Semitic label both devalues Hirsh’s arguments and proves his inability to realise that Israel can no longer expect blind support from the US – it will not last forever (though the Bush administration is doing its best to continue the tradition).