Middle East Quarterly

Winter 2002

Volume 9: Number 1

Invisible Enemy

Israel, Politics, Media, and American Culture

For an example of the utter debasement of the anti-Israel argument in the United States, go no further than Invisible Enemy, a quite stunning screed. Abboud’s thesis is apparent from his title: that Israel is in fact, despite widespread ignorance of this fact, the enemy of the United States. Indeed, Israel poses “beyond a doubt the most serious threat to U.S. democratic institutions, freedom, and society since the Civil War.” At the high end, Israel “can control the outcome” of many decisions from the White House, the Senate, and the media, even as its agents are “effectively in control” of the CIA. At the low end, Israel floods the mean streets with assault weapons, leading to a “spree of street crime unique to the civilized world.” Abboud finds all this leads to high crime rates, high divorce rates, and low military morale. He blames weak American presidents for allowing this terrible things to happen.

The reason no one knows about this is a vast conspiracy by Israel’s agents. Thus does one find at PBS, for instance, that the “censors” have carefully presented an image of Jews “as Americans caught up in American traditions.” At the same time, Jewish control of the media insures the production of “racist” movies such as Fiddler on the Roof.

Trouble is, our author never explains why Israel, which depends heavily on American support, should want its main ally weakened as he describes. Maybe that will be the subject of the eagerly-awaited volume two.

See more on this Topic
By Nubar Hovsepian. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2025. 317 pp.; $49.95 (hardcover); $24.95 (paperback)

Reviewed by Craig Considine
By Shaherzad Ahmadi. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2024. 256 pp.; $55 (hardcover)

Reviewed by Michael Rubin
By Rahaf Aldoughli. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2024. 224 pp.; $130 (hardcover)

Reviewed by Zainab Al-Suwaij