Israel is becoming a liability to the United States, bringing US into the same international isolation into which Israel itself was cast.

The so-called "Israel Lobby", which prevents Israeli misconduct from ever being corrected, is a grave danger to Israel's future.

The vote in the U.N. shows the entire world unanimous in regarding settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as manifestly illegal and a major obstacle to any chance of peace. It is clear to the entire world that there is no point to negotiations while the State of Israel is daily creating accomplished facts in the territory which is the subject of negotiations.

President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, too, are well aware of this. They gave unconvincing excuses for their act of imposing a veto on a highly justified and needed resolution, which all other countries supported. These excuses cannot hide the one and only reason for this illogical vote: the intervention of the government of Israel in American politics, using the power of the so-called "Israel Lobby" in the U.S. Congress.

The veto they were forced to cast should not mislead the Netanyahu government. It is clear for everybody to see that Israel is becoming more and more a liability to the US - bringing the United States into the same international isolation as that into which Israel itself was brought by the actions of its government.

President Obama was well aware that the imposition of the veto will impart additional momentum to settlement construction, that it shattered any remaining chance for resuming negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and that it causes great damage to the United States' status in an Arab World going through revolutionary upheaval. In Obama's weighing of interests party-politics prevailed once again over what he himself has declared to be the strategic interest of the United States, as well as over the chances of bringing an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by a united effort of the Family of Nations.

It should be stated clearly and unequivocally: the body known as "AIPAC" is not an "Israel lobby", but an anti-Israel lobby, a body which accumulated enormous power which it uses for preventing Israeli ruthless politics from being ever corrected. By thus stifling Israel in a self-destructive mode it helps to destroy the future of Israel, to deny Israel any chance of achieving peace with its neighbors, to push our country deeper and deeper into the abyss of occupation, settlement and racism. It is the duty of all who consider themselves true friends of Israel, Jews and non-Jews alike, to confront AIPAC and break its power of silencing criticism. This is the only hope for Israel's future.

Contact: Adam Keller, Gush Shalom Spokesperson, 054-2340749