Most US citizens believe America should stand behind Israel, a poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and commissioned by The Israel Project found this week.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas meets with US President-elect Barack Obama in Ramallah this July.
Photo: AP

Most people surveyed also said that the US should prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

The poll, which was published for the non-profit organization on Sunday, found that 66 percent of respondents thought that the US should support Israel, whilst only six percent said it should back the Palestinians. 72% of respondents said that despite US domestic problems, a nuclear Iran must be prevented.

According to Stanley Greenberg of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, the data showed that regardless of the Democratic-Republican divide, Americans “find Iran with nuclear weapons to be a grave threat to the (United States) and feel the need to work hard to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.”

The poll also showed that 56% backed US President-elect Barack Obama prioritizing the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, while only 19% of respondents said that “making peace between Israel and the Palestinians” should be one of Obama’s two top foreign policy priorities.

US Congressman Rahm Emanuel, who served as Clinton’s adviser after volunteering for IDF service during Gulf War, may be appointed chief of staff if Democratic presidential candidate wins elections

Israel may earn more White House representation than it bargained for, in the event that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama emerges victorious from the November 4 elections.
Congressman Rahm Emanuel, who has served in the Israel Defense Forces and even speaks a little Hebrew, could be appointed the White House’s next chief of staff.

Chicago-born Emanuel, 49, is currently representing the state of Illinois in the House of Representatives. He is also one of Obama’s most trusted advisors, and the presidential candidate has called him a friend as well as a political associate.
Emanuel’s father, Benjamin, is an Israeli-born doctor. His mother, Martha, is an American Jew who works for a Chicago civil rights organization. As a child, Emanuel received a Jewish education at a conservative school and spoke Hebrew with his father at home.
When Bill Clinton began his campaign for presidency, he appointed Rahm Emanuel to direct the campaign’s finance committee. But Emanuel left when the Gulf War broke out, in order to volunteer in the IDF.

He served in one of Israel’s northern bases until the war ended, and upon his return to the US became Clinton’s advisor in the White House for almost eight years.
In 2003 Emanuel decided to embark on his own political career, and was elected representative of the state of Illinois. In 2006 he was elected chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and assisted the party in gaining a majority in the House of Representatives.
Emanuel joined the Obama campaign during its dawning stages, after turning down an offer from Bill Clinton asking him to join his wife Hillary’s campaign for the Democratic nomination to presidential candidacy.

The congressman’s wife, Amy, converted to Judaism a short time before they were married. They have two children, both of whom study at a Jewish school in Chicago.

Obama has already announced that if he becomes the next US president, he would take Emanuel with him to the White House, possibly to serve as chief of staff.

Conspiracy theories linking Jews and Israel to the global financial meltdown are taking on global reach as the financial crisis on Wall Street continues to affect markets around the world.

According to Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which first reported a spike in anti-Semitic postings on U.S. financial Web sites, “anti-Jewish invective and conspiracy theories are spreading globally” in European and Latin American countries and the Middle East as a result of the global economic crisis.

One widely circulated conspiracy theory suggests that “$400 billion in funds was secretly transferred to Israeli banks” just prior to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and other major investment banks. Launched on an anti-Semitic Web site sponsored by a Washington, DC-based Holocaust denial publication, the false rumor has ricocheted across the Internet and around the world, appearing on numerous Web sites and comment boards with few questioning its veracity or citing its origins.

“One disturbing side effect to the global economic meltdown is the resurgence of the Big Lie,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. “Anti-Jewish invective and conspiracy theories are spreading globally. While it is still early, we know from experience what can happen when anti-Jewish myths gain a foothold and move from the far fringes into the mainstream.”

Mr. Foxman pointed to similarities between the “$400 billion” conspiracy theory and the myth that spread around the world after 9/11 — that “4,000 Jews” did not report for work the day of the attack on the World Trade Center � which is today believed by many around the world. “Whenever world events are difficult to explain or understand, Jews are the most convenient scapegoat,” said Mr. Foxman.

“This belief that only Jews could be responsible for something so catastrophic and damaging to the global economy plays directly into some of the worst anti-Semitic stereotypes,” said Mr. Foxman. “The idea that there is Jewish control of the banking system and the world economy has its antecedents in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Nazi-era propaganda.”

International Response: Europe and Latin America

Anti-Semitic expressions in response to the financial crisis are spreading in European and Latin American countries, with many appearing on Web sites as articles or comments from unidentified individuals who are angry and seeking to place blame for the spreading impact of the crisis. Some are accompanied by vicious anti-Semitic caricatures and images.

The following is a snapshot of the global anti-Semitic reaction that has emerged as a result of the ongoing financial crisis as compiled by ADL:

� United Kingdom: The Web site of the mainstream British newspaper, The Independent, featured in its comments section a post by a visitor identifying himself as “Errol Flynn” that repeated the claim about the alleged $400 billion transfer from Lehman Brothers to Israeli banks.  In response to a second article on the economic crisis, another reader commented, “So the banks used to be Jewish-owned � has anything changed?”  Both posts were eventually removed by the site’s administrators.

� Russia: The Web site of Pravda newspaper published an article arguing that French, German and Italian leaders are advocating a bailout of European banks to benefit “Rothschild, Kuhn Loeb, and other banking magnates,” a reference to well-known Jewish banking families.  The article continued, “The trouble is most of Europe is sick of their Zionist puppet governments, the wrecking of the universities and the flood of third world immigration.  Another Hitler, running a united Europe, could be elected in a heartbeat.”

� Germany: Some discussion forums and blogs made casual linkage between the crisis and Jews or repeated anti-Semitic stereotypes of the “money-savvy” and “financially dominating Jew.”  One comment on Ariva.de, an independent provider of financial news, stated: “When it comes to money Jews are always in the say.”

� Spain: Op-eds making reference to Jews and the financial crisis appeared in diario El Pais.  While the articles did not directly accuse Jews of causing the crisis, the comments section following the articles contained several anti-Semitic entries.  One writer declared, “The crisis is not a financial problem but an economic one � it is what is behind this gruesome scene of savage capitalism of the Zionist students of Milton Friedman.” Additionally, several financial Web sites featured articles with anti-Jewish themes, including one stating that “Lehman’s management board is made up of Jews who were only interested in results no matter at what price.” (Cincodias.com).

� Venezuela: The host of a virulently anti-Semitic radio program claims that the fact that the U.S. Congress recessed for the Jewish High Holidays after voting on the $700 billion bailout proposal was evidence “that the U.S. government is controlled by the Jewish lobby.”

A new anti-Semitic conspiracy theory has been spreading online over the last few days, claiming that on the eve of Lehman Brothers’ collapse last month, the firm transferred $400 billion to Israel.

The theory, which comes in the form of a news report, has already been distributed on dozens of anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli sites. It alleges that senior Jewish officials at the Lehman Brothers investment bank passed their clients’ money on to three Israeli banks, with the intention of then escaping to Israel to enjoy the take without fear of extradition.

Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which was founded in the United States by Jewish immigrants from Germany in 1850, Web forums and comment pages have been flooded with anti-Semitic comments accusing Jews of causing the global economic crisis and branding them the greatest beneficiaries of the disaster. Such statements are especially common on clearly racist sites, but can also be found on more popular mainstream sites.

The Anti-Defamation League in the U.S. and other international bodies monitoring anti-Semitism have documented hundreds of such cases in the past two weeks.

A number of Islamic organizations, including Hamas in Gaza - which called the economic crisis America’s punishment for its bad deeds - have joined the chorus and accused the Jewish lobby of causing the crisis.

But the allegation of the transfer of $400 billion of Lehman Brothers’ cash to Israel is much more focused. The story making the rounds was written as if it were a news report from Washington, and has a byline of the “Voice of the White House.” The story names three Israeli banks that allegedly received the money, explains in detail Israel’s extradition laws and bank-secrecy act, and charges American law-enforcement authorities of having knowledge of the transfer. It also cites excerpts from a real story that appeared on the Bloomberg economic news service wire about estimated losses of $400 billion in the brokerage division of the investment bank.

The “story” first appeared a week ago on the Web site of Jeff Rense, a former journalist who has published numerous conspiracy theories involving Jews, Israel and the American administration.

Since then, it has been picked up and posted on dozens of sites and anti-Semitic blogs. Surfers who read it tried to copy it to more respectable forums and comment pages such as The Huffington Post in the U.S. and The Independent in Britain.

The conspiracy theory is reminiscent of past allegations about Jews, ranging from the czarist-era “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” to the widely circulated libel that the Israeli Mossad knew in advance about the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and warned all of the complex’s Jewish employees not to come to work that morning.

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The Israeli Mossad did indeed know about the coming 9/11 attack and Israelis were warned as well as such is no ‘anti-Semitic’ conspiracy theory either:

9/11 Missing Links: The Real Enemy pt.4/12

Los Angeles, Alta Califronia - October 7, 2008 - (ACN) The New York Times published a statement by the director of the ADL of B’nai B’rith, Abraham Foxman, reporting that many Americans are blaming the Jewish lobby and Israel for the current catastrophic financial crisis affecting the USA and the world.

Abraham Foxman’s report mentions the now bankrupt Jewish firm Lehman Brothers. CEO Richard Fuld, who is a Jew, was recently punched in the face by an angry American who lost all of his retirement savings when Fuld declared the firm bankrupt. Richard Fuld, however, took home an estimated $450 million dollars in compensation.

Foxman also mentions two other Jews that have been criticized by Americans for having had a major part in the crisis. They are the present and former Chairmen of the Federal Reserve Board Ben Bernanke and Allan Greenspan.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben BernankeThe Federal Reserve is a private cartel of banks controlled by international Jewish families say the Americans who are blaming the Jewish lobby and Israel for the financial crisis. The Federal Reserve was given the exclusive right to create and print money by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. These Americans say that the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 was the creation of New York “banksters” and approved by crooked congressmen in the pockets of the Jews.

Abraham Foxman quotes one American as saying “While pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into a rescue package, US President George W. Bush has remained silent about the Jewish lobby that put the US banking and financial sector into place. The Jewish lobby controls the US elections and defines the foreign policy of any new administration in a manner that allows it to retain control of the American government and economy.”

Abraham Foxman of the ADL of B’nai B’rithMany Americans also criticize the Jewish lobby, whose principal tool is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), for each year ordering the US Congress to approve multi-billion dollar aid packages for Israel. Much of this aid is in the form of military weapons but some is to fund the Orthodox school system, including yeshivas and kollels. Kollels are yeshivas for married rabbis who do not work. American taxpayer monies are used as welfare benefits for these rabbis and their families. Many of these rabbis can be seen every day weaving their heads back and forth in front of the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

One prominent American who is very critical of the Jewish run Federal Reserve Board is Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. He says the Federal Reserve Board is a big scam and should be abolished. He is continously making efforts to educate the American public on the US monetary system — who controls it and how. He oftens talks about how the Federal Reserve Board creates money out of thin air, on the concept of charging interest on money loaned and on the effects of inflation on savings. Of these, inflation is the most sinister. The $700 billion dollar bailout of Wall Street and banks is going to have a devastating effect on all savings deposits. The Federal Reserve is going to print $700 billion dollars and add that amount to the total money supply in circulation. This means that if you have $10,000 dollars in a savings account today, in a few months it may only be worth $7,000 in terms of the goods you can buy. The $3,000 that disappeared is the essence of the scam.

Abraham Foxman of the ADL of B’nai B’rith was also instrumental in having YouTube and other Internet services remove a certain video critical of the Jewish lobby from their servers. This attests to the power and influence this organization has in the USA and throughout the world. This is pure censorship of information and ideas. If video recorders were available in the time of Jesus Christ and someone recorded Jesus kicking out the “money lenders” from the Temple, would the ADL censor the video if it was being shown on YouTube?