As I Think You Know Mr President'.

As I think you know, Mr. President, but dare not say, the game plan of Israel's leaders is to make life hell for the occupied and oppressed Palestinians in the hope that they will either abandon their struggle and surrender to Zionism's will by accepting crumbs from its table - a few Bantustans here and there which they could call a state if they wished, or, preferably, pack up and leave their homeland to make a new life elsewhere.

A question arising is what will Israel's leaders do when they come to the conclusion that they cannot break the spirit of Palestinian resistance with bombs and bullets and humiliations of all kinds? My fear is that they will create the pretext for a final ethnic cleansing of Palestine. (They could do it by getting half a dozen of their agents to dress as Palestinians and kill 30 or 40 or more Israeli Jews. That done the IDF would be ordered to drive the Palestinians off the West Bank and into Jordan, Syria, Lebanon or wherever. Those who didn't flee would be slaughtered. And while the IDF was doing the slaughtering Israel's leaders would say to the world, "Surely you understand why we had to do this.")

In the American system, and given that for various reasons the mainstream media prefers Zionist propaganda to the truth of history, there is only one person who can reach the people with the truth - the president. The how is very simple. He takes to what is called on your side of the pond the "bully pulpit", which means that he goes over the heads of Congress with a prime time tv and radio address to his fellow Americans.

In 1957 President Eisenhower, a leader with principles and balls, did just that to prevent the Zionist lobby and its traitor agents in Congress blocking him from demanding an unconditional Israeli withdrawal from occupied Egyptian territory. (You'll recall, Mr. President, that in 1956, in secret collusion with Britain and France, Israel invaded Egypt to trigger war with the intended purpose of overthrowing President Nasser and grabbing back control of the Suez Canal which he had nationalised). In his address from the bully pulpit Eisenhower explained why he was insisting that Israel should with without conditions.

“Israel insists on firm guarantees as a condition to withdrawing its forces of invasion. If we agree that armed attack can properly achieve the purposes of the assailant, then I fear we will have turned back the clock of international order. We will have countenanced the use of force as a means of settling international differences and gaining national advantage... If the UN once admits that international disputes can be settled using force we will have destroyed the very foundation of the organization and our best hope for establishing a real world order.”

The sad truth today, Mr. President, is that the UN Security Council is impotent because of your willingness as the prisoner of a political system that has been corrupted by lobby funding to follow Zionism's orders and veto any resolution designed to call and hold Israel to account for its crimes and bring an end to its occupation of the West Bank.

Now to the main point of this letter.

If you did take to the bully pulpit after the upcoming mid-term elections in order to set in motion the process needed to give America some real democracy, you would have to do much more than tell the truth about the making and sustaining of the Israel-Palestine conflict and who must do what and why for justice and peace.

You would need above all to explain why legislation is urgently needed TO TAKE LOBBY FUNDING OUT OF POLITICS - I mean out of election campaigning and electioneering in all its forms. The case to be made in favour of that can be stated very simply. There is no other way to clean up and out the corruption of American politics. As long as those seeking election or re-election to Congress can be bought by powerful vested interests (not only the Zionist lobby) America will remain a democracy in name only not substance. And on policy for Israel-Palestine the President whoever he (or she) is will remain a prisoner in the White House.

The case for believing that a good majority of your fellow Americans would welcome and support an initiative by you to give substance to democracy can also be stated very simply. According to reputable polls over recent years the vast majority of Americans have little or no respect for Congress and many have at least a degree of contempt for it. They know it is corrupted by lobby money. (In my opinion it would be surprising if this contempt for Congress was not strengthened in the minds and hearts of some Americans when, in mid-July, the Senate passed by a vote of 100 to 0 a resolution fully supporting Israel's war on the Gaza Strip and not mentioning Palestinian deaths).

In conclusion I'll touch upon, again very briefly, the reasons why I think you should take to the bully pulpit after the mid-term elections to launch and lead a campaign for real democracy in your own country.

The first and prime duty of any president is to serve and protect America's own best interests. Support for Israel right or wrong (an Israel that can be described today as a racist, going-fascist, out-of-control monster) is not in America's own best interests. It is a major factor in the radicalization of the entire Arab and wider Muslim world which contains roughly a quarter of the human population of Planet Earth. A truth is that the vast majority of all Arabs and other Muslims would prefer to be America's friends but American policy is turning them into enemies. With their war on Iraq "Dubya" Bush and Tony Blair became the best recruiting sergeants for violent Islamic fundamentalism in all its forms. By continuing, if only by default not design, to allow Israel to act with impunity in defiance of international law you, Mr. President, are helping to create an environment which will assist the growth of violent Islamic fundamentalism. (Yes, I know that's what the neo-cons and probably some within the Military Industrial Complex want).

Like many Arabs and other Muslims I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I hear some of your statements. When, for example, you announced new sanctions on Russia, you said, "We stand up for rights and freedoms around theworld." Should you not have added "with the exception of the rights and freedoms of the Palestinians"?

And please, Mr. President, consider the following very, very seriously.

If Israel continues on its present course there is a real possibly that at some point in the foreseeable future the rising, global tide of anti-Israelism will be transformed into anti-Semitism, leading to Holocaust II, my shorthand for another great turning against Jews everywhere.

If that happens it will be not only because the policies and actions of Israel's leaders awakened the sleeping giant of anti-Semitism. (In my view this giant would most likely have died in its sleep after and because of the Nazi holocaust if Zionism had not been allowed by the major powers to have its way in Palestine). If there is another great turning against Jews everywhere it will also be because successive American presidents did not use the leverage only they have to require Israel to live in accordance with international law and the norms of civilized nation state behaviour in general, and to respect the rights and freedoms of the Palestinians in particular.

Do you want that on your conscience, Mr. President?

I am, of course, aware that after the upcoming mid-term elections your main concern in what is left of your presidency will be your legacy. If on policy for Israel-Palestine you remain a prisoner of a political system corrupted by election campaign funding, I don't think it, your legacy, will be one that you could be proud about.

But it would be an entirely different story if as I have suggested you broke out of prison by launching and leading a campaign to give your country some real democracy. If you set the necessary process in motion. and if then enough of your fellow citizens played their necessary part in keeping it going to a successful conclusion, you would go down in history as one of the greatest American presidents and arguably the greatest of them all. And you would be respected and admired by the citizens of the world instead of being seen by an increasing number of them as you are at present - a Zionist stooge (a reluctant one I believe) and a joke.

With best wishes,

Sincerely,

Alan Hart

P.S. There's a question I'd like to ask you about Netanyahu in the light of his absurd statements of justification for Israel's latest war on the Gaza Strip. (I think his single most obnoxious statement was his endorsement of the assertion made by Elie Wiesel - that "Hamas engages in child sacrifice.") My question has a context.

Way back in 1980 I had conversations with the best and the brightest of Israel's former Directors of Military Intelligence. (I name him in my book). I said to him over coffee one morning that I had come to the conclusion that it was all a myth. What I meant and went on to say was that Israel's existence had never, ever, been in danger from any combination of Arab force. Through a sad smile he replied, "The trouble with us Israelis is that we have become the victims of our own propaganda."

Netanyahu is obviously a victim of his own propaganda. But is there more to it than that? Is he deluded to the point of clinical madness? In other words, is he insane?