WASHINGTON, 14 September — Many in Washington have noted the emerging strong-arm tactics of the neo-conservative Christian coalition in the Bush administration working with pro-Israeli lobbies.
This summer, for example, the American Alliance of Jews and Christians (AAJC) was formed, an advocacy group created by former Republican president hopeful Gary Bauer and Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Daniel Lapin, with a high-powered board of advisers including the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the Rev. Pat Robertson, Charles Colson of Prison Fellowship Ministries, film critic Michael Medved and Rabbi David Novak.
Now, Dr. Clifford Kiracofe, a professor at Virginia Military Institute says he knows what’s going on: This neo-conservative network is working to destabilize the Middle East, which they believe will benefit Israel.
It has also caused a severe internal crisis within the Republican Party, according to Kiracofe, “Congress today sees a sharp split between pro-Zionist Republicans and non-Zionist Republicans.”
Despite the best attempts of “sensible and respected Republican leaders of an older generation, such as James Baker and Brent Scowcroft,” Kiracofe says the “neo-conservative network of a younger generation of ideological zealots operating inside the Bush administration… goes about its work unimpeded.”
He describes their work as nefarious: “The neo-conservative policy network advocates a destabilization, a Balkanization of the Middle East. Out of the chaos, they say, will come a new order through ‘regime change,’ the redrawing of borders, and the reallocation of the control the hydrocarbon resources of the region,” Kiracofe said during an address to the National Council on US-Arab Relations earlier this week.
Although he strongly disagrees with the theory, Kiracofe says “these neo-conservatives see the destabilization of the Arab and Muslim Middle East as good for Israel” which he views as dangerous for the long-range security of Israel and the region as a whole.
Furthermore, he says this neo-conservative network wants to link Turkish lobbying efforts with the activities of the pro-Israel lobby in Washington: “This is no secret to anyone who has been around this town a while. And it is no secret that the neo-conservatives seek to cynically use Turkey, a friend of the United States, as a counterweight to Arab and Muslim states in the Middle East.”
Kiracofe’s theory gets bleaker as he describes the aims of the neo-conservatives as going further than “mere routine imperialism.” He believes they advocate “active ‘pre-emptive’ warfare, and the erection of a ‘new order’ in the Middle East. Their policy position is akin to cynical German macht-politicians and diplomats who sought a ‘New Order’ in Europe, and launched a ‘pre-emptive’ attack on Poland that triggered World War II.”
Why has Congress become an engine of the destruction of US relations with the Arab and Muslim worlds, Kiracofe asks? He says “Christian Zionists such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson” follow a cult that “underlies the Christian Zionist influence in Congress and the administration.”
These neo-conservatives, Kiracofe says, “under the protection of ‘pro-Israel’ George Schultz, were able to form the so-called ‘Vulcan Group’ of policy experts — led by (Deputy Secretary of Defense) Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle (chairman of the Defense Policy Board, an advisory panel to the Pentagon), and coordinated by Condoleezza Rice (assistant to the president for National Security Affairs) — that advised presidential candidate George W. Bush.” Kiracofe says their advice to Bush was to “put Iraq on the front burner, and to put the Palestine question on the back burner, if not in the freezer.”
