Ayatollah Khamenei's 'Zionist claws'

The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, gave a speech a few days ago in which he explained how to interpret American policy towards his country:

The claws of the Zionist financial powers and companies are so firmly sunk into the American government, its officials and the Congress that they [Americans] have to look out for their [Zionists'] interests. But, we do not have to look out for their [Zionists'] interests. We said right from the start and repeat it today and will say it in the future that we consider the Zionist regime an illegitimate and bastard regime. [Chants of God is great, Khamene'i is our leader, death to America, death to Israel]

[Israel] is a regime which has been founded on conspiracy and is being preserved based on conspiracy and conspiratorial policies. They [Americans] have to look for their interests. Now, why is this the case? That remains to be the topic of another discussion. The money, power and capital of the Zionists have their impact. The Americans are forced [to look out for the Zionists' interests], they have no choice but to consider their [the Zionists'] interests. This is not just restricted to the Americans, many other Western politicians have the same problem.

(Text and translation from BBC Monitoring)

Khamenei has a history of explaining world events via antisemitic conspiracy theories. He is also a Holocaust denier. It is fair to assume, therefore, that his claim about Zionist "claws" is not another espionage scare about an Israeli bird of prey, as has happened previously in Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey (twice), but is in fact an antisemitic metaphor.

Whether this antisemitic metaphor of "the claws of the Zionist financial powers" has anything to do with Baroness Jenny Tonge's claim that "The pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the western world, its financial grips", is something that only the Ayatollah and the Baroness can answer.