The Council on Foreign Relations, the Israel Lobby, and the War on Gaza

Laurence H. Shoup
 

For many decades, there has been a continuing dialogue about U.S. military, financial, and diplomatic support for Zionist Israel. However, even in the progressive and left media there has been a lack of discussion of the lesser known political and economic forces that have enabled this support. One key, but often ignored, source has been the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the think tank of monopoly-finance capital, also known as Wall Street’s think tank.

The CFR is the world’s most powerful private organisation. It is the ultimate networking, socialising, strategic planning, consensus-forming, and foreign policy lobbying institution of the dominant sector of the U.S. capitalist class. As a think tank and policy center, it is the most important U.S. locus of the deep state exerting influence behind the scenes. In the United States, it mainly focuses on directing the federal government, but has power in many areas of life in the United States, such as elite universities, finance capitalist firms, other think tanks, nonprofits, Congress, top corporations, and the mainstream media. While some of its activities are semisecret, for members only, much of what it does can be revealed by perusing its website; reading its journal, Foreign Affairs; examining its annual reports; and following the activities of its members and leaders.


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