The Arab American Institute outlined a plan to undermine pro-Israel support in America — and it worked. Around 1990, James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, traveled to Jordan to raise interest in his plan to undermine the Jewish community in America by organizing the Left here against Israel’s “oppression” of Palestinians. Zogby saw the power of framing Israelis as “white oppressors” of innocent, indigenous, darker-skinned Palestinians. And he saw the possibilities of mobilizing left-leaning ethnic, racial, and religious groups against “Israeli oppression.” The prescient Zogby understood how the Jewish left could easily become the willing lynchpin of his strategy.
Zogby’s initiatives, which were likely funded with petro-dollars, promoted Jews as privileged “whites.” Today, 30 years later, one sees the power of this concept: Jews in the United States, like those in Israel, are now viewed by a generation of progressives as “oppressors.” Indeed, radicals today are erroneously connecting American police officers being trained by Israeli police to American officers’ treatment of black Americans — as Jewish leaders sit paralyzed and bewildered. Watch Zogby pitch his plan to a skeptical Jordanian TV interviewer, who doubts him: “But please, Mr. Zobgy! How can you possibly defeat the Jews in America? They control the media, the cultural institutions, the academy, and the politicians?” Zogby tells him exactly how it will be done. He understood that demonization along racial lines would provide cover for anti-Semitism, while it would morally confuse progressive Jews.
Daniel Pipes put it this way: “Who, a hundred years ago, would have believed that the Jews would make the best soldiers and the Arabs the best publicists?” Well, here’s how it all started.
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