How does the pro-Israel lobby in the United States work? Is the extent of its power has been exaggerated? In trying to understand this, it is important to distinguish between the popular notion of Jewish power in the United States and the notion that is derived from the objective and realistic study of the phenomenon.

 

The first notion considers the fate that can lead to despair and submitting to what seems to be unknown or mysterious because the actors cannot understand its reality; an idea that, in practice, benefits the same lobby. But in the second notion, the goal is to identify the true roots of Zionist power in the United States, far from the usual speculation and conspiracy theories. To get this knowledge, only documents and facts should be the basis of the work.

 

In the following sections of this article, we will try to examine the issue of the influence of the Zionist lobby on United States-Israel relations from different angles, citing various opinions of American critics and experts.

 

Reviewing the Zionist Lobby as the Main Influential Factor in Shaping United States Foreign Policy

 

The issue of the Zionist lobby in the United States is so sensitive that it is rarely discussed, and only a few people or media outlets have addressed it.

 

Three years ago, two American professors, John J. Mearsheimer, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, and Stephen M. Walt, a professor of international relations at Harvard University, sought to find answers to these questions. By publishing a book in the United States, they revived the discussions about the role of the Zionist lobby in American society and around the world. In their famous book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, the two challenged the reasons for the full and unconditional support of the United States of Israel. A year before the book was published in 2007, a summary of it had been published in the Book Review journal in London.

 

Of course, in recent decades, other writers have published significant works criticizing the actions of the Israeli lobby in the United States. For example, Dan Fleshler’s book, Transforming America’s Israel Lobby: The Limits of Its Power and the Potential for Change, Michelle Thomas’s Book on United States-Israel Relations in the United States, The Power of Israel in the United States by James Petras, and the book of Paul Findley which addresses the confrontation between the actions of the Israeli lobby and the interests of the American people and institutions. These works have a critical approach to analyzing the role and position of the Israeli lobby in the United States, but for brevity and because of the similarity of the issues, we will only talk about the content of the book written by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt.

 

Mearsheimer and Walt do not use the term “Jewish lobby” because they believe that these groups do not represent the mindset of all the American Jews; also, many of those active in those groups are not Jews. They emphasize the name “Israeli lobby.” According to them, the main purpose of the “Israeli lobby” is to persuade the United States to seek the same interests as Israel. These aids include economic, military and diplomatic assistance.

 

Israel receives about $3 billion in direct foreign assistance each year, most of which is military aid. This marks the highest financial aid that Washington sends to another country. The total direct United States aid to Israel amounts to over $150 billion. Israel is the only country that receives its entire appropriation at the beginning of each fiscal year and the only recipient that does not have to account for how the aid is spent.

 

In addition, the United States gives Israel access to intelligence and classified military information that it denies its NATO allies; also, it sells the most modern weapons to Israel; in practice, it has turned a blind eye towards Israel’s acquisition of nuclear weapons.

 

The United States also takes its side during the peace talks of the Middle East. The United States has vetoed 32 United Nations Security Council resolutions that were critical of Israel and it rarely criticizes this regime because of violating human rights in Occupied Palestine.

 

Mearsheimer and Walt then point to two of the most important reasons which normally are presented to justify such unconditional United States support for Israel:

 

1) The political reasons based on which Israel is seen as a strategic asset to the United States in combating terrorism as well as during the Cold War and afterwards.

 

2) Moral reasons which while highlighting the miseries and sufferings that the Jews have experienced throughout history introduces Israel as the only democracy in the region which defends its legal rights against the threats posed by its neighbours, and that is why it deserves to receive the comprehensive United States aids (as the main advocator of democracy and freedom in the world). However, for Mearsheimer and Walt, each of these arguments is unpersuasive and cannot justify the unconditional support for Israel. In their view, even if Israel was a strategic asset to the United States during the Cold War, it could no longer be seen as such after the end of the bipolar era. In other words, the United States is not receiving anything significant from Israel in return for this assistance.

 

The authors of the book do not accept the argument that Israel is a strategic ally of the United States in the “war on terror” in the Middle East. They believe that United States support for Israel provokes waves of anger among Palestinian fighters and within Muslim countries in the region and the world and at the same intensifies the Arab countries’ concerns that export oil to the United States. Israel’s lobby, especially under George W. Bush’s administration, has played and is playing, a key role in the catastrophic invasion of Iraq, waging a soft war against Iran and Syria as well as the 2006 Israel’s war against Lebanon, claiming that it is fighting against terrorism.

 

Also, these two writers do not accept that Israel needs the support of the United States in the face of its enemies. According to them, Israel is a giant that is armed to the teeth and at any time, does not hesitate to use its military power against civilians. Mearsheimer and Walt conclude that the main reason that the United States’ aid to Israel comes from inside the country and is directly related to Zionist lobbying. In other words, if there was no Zionist lobby in the United States, perhaps United States relations with Israel would be far less and more limited than they are now.

 

Examining the sources and reasons for the influence of Israel’s lobby in the United States the authors of the book refer to its economic power. Most of the candidates in the state and federal levels as well as in executive branches of government (from the governor’s office to the presidency) benefit from Zionist lobbying financial aid. On the other hand, the pro-Israel aid comparing to that of the Arab-American groups, spend huge amounts of money for their propaganda activities in the United States.

 

Also, various cultural factors, (especially the shared Christian-Jewish religious heritage, as well as the prevailing sense of empathy with Israel among many Americans) have caused Israel’s lobby to have a unique and superior position among all possible Arab rivals (especially in comparison to the American Arab and Muslims communities).

 

According to Mearsheimer and Walt, the Israeli lobby in the United States, through its open attacks on politicians and analysts who do not adopt the approaches they intend, is effectively influencing the American political landscape. Those who criticize the United States’ support for Israel are aware that they would go through an all-out struggle. For this reason, many of them refrain from expressing this criticism so as not to get into trouble. According to Mearsheimer and Walt, the charge of “anti-Semitism” has become a weapon in the hands of the Zionist lobby to silence Israel’s critics. This silence has created a vacuum in the debates over United States support of Israel and shaped the United States policy in the Middle East.

 

Mearsheimer and Walt introduce AIPAC, the American Jewish Committee, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations and the Christian-Zionist groups as the key organizations in Israel’s lobby. They believe that these organizations are run by hardliners who generally supported the expansionist policies of Israel’s Likud Party, including its hostility to the Oslo Peace Process. Furthermore, over the past 25 years, Israel’s lobby has established a commanding presence at the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, the Center for Security Policy, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Hudson Institute and so on.

 

Israeli supporters are active in the media and universities. Analysts at well-known newspapers and radio and television channels support Israel. And more than 200 units affiliated with AIPAC monitor United States university activities and the attitudes of students and professors towards Israel.

 

Undoubtedly, Israel’s most important lobby base is the United States legislative and executive branches. It has a significant influence in the United States Congress, where, according to Mearsheimer and Walt, Israel is virtually immune from criticism. Many members of Congress and the Senate, enjoy the financial and propaganda support from the Zionist lobby during the election campaigns, and it is less likely that the Congress members take a critical and independent stance towards Israel and find a second chance to enter the Congress again.

 

Zionist lobbies can easily increase or decrease someone’s chances of winning a seat in the Senate by sending e-mails and controlling the press and media. This lobby also exerts influence in the executive branch. The purpose of the lobby is to prevent the appointment of individuals as foreign ministers who have negative and critical views on Israel.

 

Also, almost all United States presidential candidates must declare their commitment to expanding comprehensive relations with Israel in order to increase their chances of winning the election.

 

However, Jewish lobbying power in the United States alone is one of the two main factors influencing the formation of Washington’s Middle East policy. Another factor that from a historical perspective has been more important is America’s strategic interests in the Middle East. The second factor has had a decisive influence on the United States policy toward the Middle East since the late 1960s, creating a wide-ranging scope of action for pro-Israel lobbying. This is exactly the view of a group of critics of Mearsheimer and Walt’s views. In the following articles, we will briefly review this perspective.

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