Israel's intervention in US elections more than Russia's: Chomsky

Tehran, July 31, IRNA - US activist and world-renowned linguist Noam Chomsky accused the Zionist regime of “brazenly” interfering elections in a way that vastly outweighs any efforts that may have been carried out by Russia, wrote Independent website.

Israel's intervention in US elections more than Russia's: Chomsky

“If you’re interested in foreign interference in our elections, whatever the Russians may have done barely counts or weighs in the balance as compared with what another state does, openly, brazenly and with enormous support,” Chomsky said.

In comments in which he accused much of the media of concentrating on stories he considered marginal and ignoring issues such as the “existential threat” of climate change, the 89-year-old linguist said in much of the world, the US media’s focus with Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 was 'a joke'.

Speaking to Democracy Now, Chomsky said, “Israeli intervention in US elections vastly overwhelms anything the Russians may have done, I mean, even to the point where the prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu, goes directly to Congress, without even informing the president, and speaks to Congress, with overwhelming applause, to try to undermine the president’s policies - what happened with Obama and Netanyahu in 2015.”

In March 2015, at the invitation of then Republican House Speaker John Boehner, and assisted by Israel’s Ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the joint houses of Congress about the yet to be signed Iran nuclear deal, wrote Independent.

Netanyahu made clear his opposition to the deal in a speech to Congress; more than 50 Democrats boycotted the speech.

Chomsky added that Putin had never made such a speech to Congress, which political observers said was unique in the way a foreign leader so acidly attacked the policy of the US government.

“And that’s just a tiny bit of this overwhelming influence.”

The power of the pro-Israel lobby has long been a contentious issue in Washington; in 2007, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, published The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, which described the lobby as “loose coalition of individuals and organizations who actively work to steer US foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction”.

The coalition includes groups such as the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) a US-based pro-Israel lobbying group this year has spent $1.75 million to promote pro-Israel policies.

“Of all Trump’s policies, the one that is the most dangerous and destructive, in fact poses an existential threat, is his policies on climate change, on global warming,” Chomsky said.