America's Defense Line: The Justice Department's Battle to Register the Israel Lobby as Agents of a Foreign Government [Hardcover]

Grant Smith continues his scholarly exegesis into the history of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). His previous works included- "Foreign Agents: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee from the 1963 Fulbright Hearings to the 2005 Espionage Scandal" and "Deadly Dogma: How Neoconservatives Broke the Law to Deceive America." His latest study- "American's Defense Line: A Declassified History of the Justice Department's Battle to Regulate the Israel Lobby as Agents of a Foreign Power"- is based on heretofore unavailable classified government documents. Smith tells the depressing tale of how U.S. law was systematically undermined by base political motives and questionable loyalties. The Smith trilogy is timely and required reading by all Americans concerned about the integrity and future of the United States. Smith dispassionately reveals how United States foreign policy in the Middle East was high jacked by a cadre of agents representing a foreign country- Israel. While his current study documents how AIPAC and its predecessors successfully evaded U.S. law to register as a "foreign agent," is it also a study in the usurpation of national sovereignty. This challenge to American sovereignty can no longer be ignored, as the consequences to the United States have been disastrous. The intrusion of the Israeli lobby goes well beyond ensuring that Israel receives its customary tribute from hard working American taxpayers. The Iraq War demonstrates this danger where Israel lobby cadres and fellow travelers were able to manipulate a weak, poorly informed president after the 9-11 crises to effect a launch a long-planned invasion of Iraq. While Iraq presented no discernable threat to the United States, it was a long-term adversary of Israel, as outlined in another Smith book- "Neocon Middle East Policy: the Clean Break Plan Damage Assessment". Thus, Israeli regional interests were advanced at the expense of American lives and treasure. This story within the Israel lobby narrative still needs to be told. Once again we are witnessing a repeat of Iraq with Iran- the House of Representatives recently passed a non-binding resolution urging a United States blockade of Iran's gasoline imports- a clear act of war. This resolution was authored at AIPAC and transmitted to a spineless Congress for passage. I suspect it was largely conceived in Jerusalem. The prostration of all major U.S. candidates before AIPAC should shame Americans watching each candidate outbid the other in the annual "pandering" exercise¬- Obama pledges Jerusalem will never leave Israeli control; McCain would move our embassy there immediately regardless of the consequences to vital U.S. interests while Clinton promised to "obliterate" the nation of Iran if it attacked Israel!

"American's Defense Line" can be described as the "Pentagon Papers" of AIPAC. Smith has combed through hundreds of recently declassified documents- internal letters, legal briefs, analyses, reports- to produce the first objective, detailed analysis of the struggle of the Department of Justice (DoJ) to regulate the American Zionist Committee (AZC)- the precursor of today's AIPAC. The DoJ was determined that the AZC be classified as an agent of Israel. Its investigations along with those of Senator Fulbright's and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, documented that the AZC was funded and directed by the State of Israel. As such, AZC was required to publicly disclose it's funding and all lobbying and public relations activity with the U.S. government. The AZC opposed this classification, as it would give lie to its claims to represent legitimate domestic political interests. "American Defense Line" is thoroughly documented having more than 437 footnotes and previously unpublished declassified papers, which allow readers to verify Smith's claims and undertake further research at their own leisure.

"America's Defense Line" is an admirably readable book. While the book deals with complex legal and historical issues spanning sixty years, the layman need not be dissuaded. No prior knowledge of law or Middle East affairs is required. Smith uses clear, concise prose and takes time to explain the historical context as each event in this sorry saga of American history unfolds. There are heroes in this book- Senator Fulbright, a rare political figure that courageously stood against the ruinous power of the Israel lobby and DoJ employees, such as Irene A. Bowman, who refused to subvert U.S. law to foreign interests to gain political favor. There are also cowards and cynics who compromised U.S. strategic interests to gain temporary political advantages. Smith neither plays partisan favors nor spares any of the players. The usual suspects will surface to discredit this book. Given the extraordinary documentation and research invested by Smith in "America's Defense Line," this reader looks forward to seeing Smith and his opponents do something the lobby avoids at all costs: an honest public debate.

Grant smith's book, America's Defense Line, is about the efforts of the American government to force the Zionists in the USA to register their organizations with the federal government, as is required by law in order to give the American public the transparency they need to judge the agendas and motives of what they read in the media. It was a long history - the reason it covers an entire 208 page text - and goes into well-researched recounting of the many people invoved on both sides of the effort, including many American presidents who were personally involved, and because of whose political problems and needs, the Zionist organizations have always been able to avoid the requirement of registering their propaganda efforts under the Agents for Foreign Governments Act. Some of the documentation referred to by the author is copied intact in the 84 pages of appendices that follow the text, and his sources are listed in another 22 pages following the appendices. Everything in the book is important for Americans, but of special interest are the individual reasons that personally governed the decisions of Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, Clinton, and other well known figures. Most Americans will not even know the names of such people as Isaiah Kenen who orchestrated most of the Zionist efforts in the US, or Abraham Feinberg who collected and personally gave Truman the money he needed for a cross county-wide whistlestop train tour that allowed Truman to overcome Dewey's lead in the campaign and pull out an upset victory in his campaign for the presidency. The interesting sideline to that story is that the first approaches to Truman by the Zionists was through a Missouri Jew, Edward Jacobson, who had been a partner of Truman's in the failed haberdashery business that preceded Truman's entry into politics. The book also covers the conflicts that the Zionist agencies had with other Jewish relief agencies in the USA who were collecting money for Jewish support world wide, and who resented the efforts of the Zionists to channel all collected monies into creation of the new state in Palestine. The book covers that fight over the proceeds from American charitable donations, how the Zionists slowly got control of these charity assets, and how the other Jewish agencies kept complaining to the US government about the non-transparent ways in which the Zionists were avoiding complying with US law.