THE FINEST SENATE THAT MONEY CAN BUY

Will the Americans pay the huge amounts of money Israel is demanding to help alleviate the economic holocaust it has brought upon itself? There is no doubt that the U.S. will pay. Why? Because politically they have no choice.

Take, for example, the story of Clarence Long, member of the U.S. Congress and Chairman of the Foreign Relations Sub-Committee and also of sections of the Aid Committee in the U.S. Congress. He is the "man in charge" of paying the allocations granted to Israel.

This man is well-known to hundreds of thousands of Israelis who watched him on their TV screens when Ely Millikh Ram, the Israeli TV correspondent, interviewed him regarding Israel's economic problems. Like other U.S. diplomats, Long expressed the view that Israel must take "steps and measures" -- most important of which are austerity measures and the raising of interest rates.

Listening to him, I came to the conclusion that the man did not know what he was saying, nor was he saying what he really felt. But the coup de grace came when, concluding his interview, Long hinted -- not very subtly -- that Israel would get all it had asked for, as a result of the careful and very positive spirit in which the US had considered its demands. This will come as a surprise to no-one.

In order to comprehend full the meaning of what he said, we have to add one very small thing to what Long did not say in his TV interview: that he, Clarence Long, has received, this year alone, the total of $97,500 from Israel to support his election campaign, which means that the above-named is no more than a paid agent employed by Israel. Israel has not paid the amount directly to him; it has been transferred to him, in the manner of all such transactions, by the so-called "Political Action Committees", which play a very important role these days in the Israeli foreign affairs system.

Where did I get my information? I have not hired spies or detectives, there was no need for that as there is, in the U.S. a law which makes it compulsory duty for all candidates for public office to submit detailed and public statements showing all the donations they receive. Such a law does not exist in Israel. The New York Times has published a detailed press investigation on the methods used by pro-Israeli lobbies to influence presidential elections in the US. The study revealed that pro-Israeli institutions have allocated $4.25m to be spent buying the minds and votes of Senate and Congress members.

It is the usual practice to spend such sums according to a very precise and carefully calculated procedure, so that every single dollar spent in this respect is guaranteed maximum return. The sum of $576,000 was handed to the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee which backed, without any reservation, every single act by the Israeli government. It has also been paid to new candidates, usually running against committee members who have not submitted to the instructions of the Israeli embassy in Washington.

Other pro-Israeli sums have been spent in 29 of the 33 Senate constituencies scheduled to have had elections this past year, as well as in 154 Congress constituencies of the total 435.

The largest sum spent in this direction was paid to Paul Simon, a new figurehead who got away with $147,870 from Israel's supporters in the US because he had decided to run in the election against Charles Percy, the former chairman of the Congress Committee who has been consistently critical of the Israeli government and was courageous enough to say that the Palestinians also have their own legitimate rights.

Another sum of $140,063 was paid to one Carl Levin, not because he is a good Jew, as his name indicates, but because he is a member of the Congress Military Committee.

Also, conservative Senator Jesse Helms provoked Israel's wrath because he discussed the Palestine issue while he was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. This motivated the pro-Israeli lobby to pay $130,350 to his rival James Hart.

On one occasion while on a visit to the US and during the outbreak of war in Lebanon, I was advised to hold a meeting with Senator Roddy Posvic to relate to him what happened and what was said during my meeting with Yasser Arafat in Beirut. Small wonder, for Senator Posvic is vice-chairman of the Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee on the Middle East. The senator's behaviour and attitude were a surprise to me, but I have since come to know the reasons for his indifferent attitude: from the pro-Israel lobby in the US he had already received $95,100 to help him get re-elected.

What are these mysterious pro-Israeli circles that buy and sell members of the Senate and Congress in the US? The best-known is "The National Political Action Group", known as the "Israeli lobby".

Side by side with this openly publicised group, there are many secret bodies active in the field under pseudonyms like "The San Francisco People's Committee for a Better rule", the "Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs", "Desert Conference", and "The Political Conference of Disciplined Citizens".

In order to conceal the truth, none of these pro-Israeli groups identify themselves by any names that might point to Israel, Jews or zionists, in a clear attempt to avoid antagonising non-Jews. Nor do they stir the issue of anti-semitism, because non-Jews may realise that a small gang of Jews is trading in the American people's votes.

The aforementioned sums, small as they might appear, are not small at all considering the state of affairs in the US for elections in that country cost far less than they do in Israel. A $50,000 donation to any candidate is considered substantial in the US, considering the far greater advantages and returns the donor hopes to receive from the influence of the fortunate candidate.

After the Israeli lobby in the US grants a Congress member $100,000 such a member will never dream of backing a motion which contravenes the interests of the government of Israel.

When Prime Minister Shimon Peres arrives in the US he will expect, of course, to receive a warm welcome. He will meet members of the Congress and the Senate, who will urge him to take austerity measures, to reduce bank interest rates, to reduce spending and to impose new taxation. But Peres, on the other hand, can laugh up his sleeve, having already received a secret report from the Israeli embassy in Washington specifying, in great detail, the sums already paid to every one of those Congress and Senate members who met him, to satisfy the wishes of the Israeli government.

Israel will no doubt receive the most generous increase in aid from the US in its history. In fact, the US grant to Israel has already exceeded any US grant ever given to any other country anywhere in the world. A simple calculation shows that every single American family pays Israel well over $40 annually, and that every Israeli family receives $2500 every year.

This would be very natural if Israel were a superpower and the US were one of its colonies. Had there been, in a far-off planet, an intelligence agency monitoring what was going on on planet Earth, and had its researchers "listened" to the US-Israel transactions, they would have undoubtedly believed that the US was no more than an Israeli satellite and that the population of Israel was surely greater than that of the US.

A few weeks ago the "Voice of America", a US government radio service, arranged an interview with a PLO leader. Israel protested in the strongest possible terms, which forced the US government to apologise publicly to Israel, promising never to let such an event happen again.

This has been the usual practice of occupying powers; to rebuke countries under their occupation. In the US presidential election campaign, competition between candidates is at its fiercest when trying to win Israel's approval and support.

Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale lost their breath in that competition, behaving as if they were African colonial chieftains of the last century, who used to compete to win the favours and sympathies of the British or French High Commissioner.

In the US Congress they talk, not only of granting Israel the money it asks for, but also of exciting initiatives of goodwill as, for example, the transfer of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Such steps are bound, of course, to undermine the US position and prestige in all the Islamic states; but such considerations do not worry most Congress and Senate members overmuch, as their sole aim is to be re-elected.

The paying of donations to US administration officials is considered one of the most vital sections of Israeli expenditure. Once having paid these tributes to US officials, Israel is thus guaranteed, in return, huge sums of money in the form of US grants.

For the $4.25m Israel has paid to prime the US Congress, Israel will receive a US grant totalling $2.6bn. for its money, therefore, Israel will have struck the bargain of the century, receiving an interest of 60,000 per cent on its original investment. The extra grant to Israel will increase that interest even more.

Had it been possible to cure the Israeli economic disease with the flood of US dollars, there would have been no problem. The problem is that all this cash flow is to no avail for, according to many economic experts, such arrangements make the situation even more complicated.

One thing, however, is quite clear: Israel is not the 51st state of the United States of America, as some would like to think; rather, the US Congress is one of the occupied areas of Israel.

by Israeli Knesset member Uri Avenim, published originally in the Israeli Daily Haaretz