Final_Judgment

[380] Final Judgment 477
THE ASSASSINATION OF JOHN CONNALLY
In the meantime, John Connally, like Agnew, was also indicted for
bribery under circumstances which suggest another calculated "frame-up."
One Jake Jacobson, a lobbyist for the milk industry, claimed that Connally,
a multi-millionaire, had accepted a $10,000 bribe (while serving as
Treasury Secretary) in return for helping secure a 1971 increase in
government milk price supports. However, the fact is that in his capacity as
treasury secretary Connally had no official powers in regulating the
Department of Agriculture's milk price support programs.
Connally's accuser Jacobson had previously been indicted by the
Justice Department for misappropriation of funds involving nearly $1
million in loans from a Texas savings and loan—but when Justice
Department lawyers learned of his past association with Connally, Jacobson
suddenly remembered the "bribe" he purportedly had given to Connally and
entered into a plea bargain. In order to avoid going to jail himself, Jacobson
became the "star witness" against Connally.
Connally was acquitted, but his 1976 White House ambitions were
shattered, even though the evidence against him had been brought by an
unsavory felon who was angling for a reduced sentence in an unrelated
criminal case. As in the Agnew case, however, the media gave full play to
the charges against Connally and helped further the perception that Nixon
and his intimate associates were engaged in widespread criminal conduct. In
fact, most of Nixon's key lieutenants, with the notable exception of
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Chief of Staff Alexander Haig and legal
adviser Leonard Garment—pro-Israel partisans—ultimately went to jail.
But although some anti-Semites said that Jacobson (who was Jewish)
was part of a "Jewish plot" to "get" John Connally, the fact is that the
outspoken Texan did ultimately, in fact, fall victim to a very real "Jewish
plot" that prevented him from achieving the presidency.
In 1979 when Connally launched a well-financed bid for the 1980
Republican presidential nomination, he publicly challenged the power of
the Israeli lobby in a highly controversial speech that, by all accounts, led to
the end of Connally's presidential ambitions once and for all.
But what is interesting is that Conally' s speech was considered so
inflammatory by the Israelis and their Americans supporters that a
prominent Israeli educator and philosopher, Emmanuel Rackman, president
of Bal Ilan University, actually called for Connally's assassination.
Comparing Connally to Haman, the ancient enemy of the Jewish
people, Rackman—a rabbi—issued his call for Connally's assassination in
the November 18, 1979 issue of The Jewish Week-American Examiner, the
publication of the Israeli-government owned Jewish Telegraph Agency, a
subdivision of the worldwide Jewish Agency.
Rackman's vicious attack on Connally was headlined: "John Connally
Campaign Seen as Dire Threat to Israel and U.S. Jewry." Rackman quoted