What If the Israel Lobby was the African-American Lobby?
By B. R. GOWANI Imagine if the Blacks, 13 per cent of the population, had the wealth and the power of the Lobby? They would have got their reparations for slavery long ago, the prison population would reflect a true color spectrum, their image in the media wouldn’t be a distorted one, Haitian refugees wouldn’t be turned back, Africa would get some real aid and attention, Hollywood and TV networks would be churning out movies and programs on the inhumanity of the slave trade (instead of holocaust), and so on and so forth. Or think about the original inhabitants of the US — now only 1 per cent of the population —had the wealth and the power of the Lobby? Many indigenous people in North and South Americas would benefit greatly. Or the Hispanics had the wealth and the power of the Lobby? The undocumented workers would have been legalized long ago. Every year, Israel receives about $3 billion aid from the US government, or 20 per cent of the US foreign aid budget. (In 2003 dollars, the tota
