Don't Mention the Israel Lobby

The Sydney Morning Herald's international editor, Peter Hartcher, has no difficulty being objective about the US. Now that it has pulled out of its international agreement with Iran, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the EU, enshrined in UNSC resolution 2231, he declares: "Trump's America has just become a rogue nation." (New world order: US goes rogue over Iran deal, 10/5/18)

(Leave aside the word "just.")

What exactly, according to Hartcher, are the forces at work in the US that have brought about this withdrawal?

He pays lip service to the deal's "unpopularity with Republican voters" (as if they spend their every waking moment worrying about what Iran is or isn't up to) and to Trump's inability to think straight "on even the weightiest of matters." And then there's this quite casual observation:

"The Iran deal has been opposed vociferously by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and he carries much of the US Republican Party with him."

Could this then be the real reason for the withdrawal? A foreign power, referred to by Hartcher merely as a "US ally" (but never, God forbid, a "rogue nation") has the Republicans by the balls? And this while Trump, as Hartcher acknowledges, "doesn't care about the interests of America's allies," Britain, France and Germany?

Is this not a most extraordinary state of affairs?

Then why has Hartcher avoided writing about it all these years?

Justin Raimondo could have had the likes of Hartcher in mind when he wrote the following:

"Let's drop the pretenses and tell it like it really is: this is being done for the benefit of Bibi Netanyahu and his amen corner in the United States. For all the brouhaha about foreign influence in American politics, the pundits are eerily silent as the Israel lobby succeeds in an all out effort to drag us into their conflict with Iran. The 'special relationship' has gotten much more special in recent months, according to reports. Trump recently sent Ivanka and Jared to Israel to inaugurate the opening of the Jerusalem embassy, with casino billionaire and pro-Israel fanatic Sheldon Adelson in tow. Adelson gave millions to the Trump campaign and the GOP. While Trump rose to power as a critic of the Iraq war, and, by implication, George W. Bush's Israel-centric foreign policy, he has now positioned himself to replicate Dubya's mistakes - times ten." (From Iran deal exit: America first, or Israel first? antiwar.com, 10/5/18)