Israel exerts too much influence over US policy

Dear Editor: The New York Times quotes Alexander Hamilton to support the impeachment of Donald Trump. Hamilton wrote that a president who fosters “the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils” is betraying our trust. First is was Trump colluding with Russia, and now it is with Ukraine.

Yet there is one country that has gained almost unlimited power in the U.S. government, and that country is Israel. Its extraordinary influence hardly ever makes it onto the pages of the Times.

There is little written about links between Trump and his largest campaign donor, the Israeli/American and radical Zionist Sheldon Adelson. Trump benefited greatly from the $100 million Adelson gave to Republicans in 2016, and quickly rewarded Israel by moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli, and pulling out of the Iran nuclear agreement.

In fact, Israel has dominated American foreign policy since its lobby funded Harry Truman’s famous whistle-stop tour. Once elected, Truman recognized the state of Israel just minutes after it was declared in 1948.

John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, in their groundbreaking book “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” cite the lobby as a major factor in the invasion of Iraq, a misadventure that has cost U.S. taxpayers over a trillion dollars. Now Israel insists that we spend another trillion attacking Iran.

When will Americans start seeing this insidious Israeli influence for what it is, a wellplanned and well-funded assault on our democracy? Fred Nagel Rhinebeck