Volume 34, Number 15 · October 8, 1987
The 'War for Washington'
By Stanley Hoffmann
The Israeli Connection: Who Israel Arms and Why
by Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi
Pantheon Books, 289 pp., $18.95
The Lobby: Jewish Political Power and American Foreign Policy
by Edward Tivnan
Simon and Schuster, 304 pp., $19.95
The Israeli connection remains one of the mysteries of the Iran-contra affair. The Tower Commission report mentioned the importance of Israeli initiatives aimed at pushing the American government, by means of arms sales, toward a better relationship with Iran. The report said that David Kimche, the director-general of Israel's Foreign Office, had first suggested such an approach to Iran to administration officials in Washington; but the report drew no lessons from this.[1] Israelis, if one believes some of the witnesses at the Congressional hearings, may also have suggested the diversion of funds from these arms sales to the contras—whom Israel itself had been helping for years. But again, the members of the House and Senate committees showed little curiosity. The issue of Israel's influence on American foreign policy and of the extent of cooperation between the two countries' secret services was avoided.
Review, 4298 words
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