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Jewish lobby is a term referring to allegations that Jews exercise influence in a number of areas, including politics, government, business, the media, academia, popular culture, public policy, international relations, and international finance. It is used most commonly by the far right, far left, and Islamists.
The expression is commonly associated with antisemitic aspersions. Chip Berlet of Political Research Associates, an American research group that tracks right-wing extremists, writes that it combines the classic elements of anti-Semitic stereotyping and scapegoating, and is part of the discourse of conspiracism.
History
For centuries, a key element of antisemitic thought were conspiracy theories that the Jews, as a group, were plotting to control or otherwise influence the world. Vijay Prasad described The myth of the "Jewish lobby" in India's magazine Frontline:
The idea of the "Jewish lobby" is attractive because it draws upon at least a few hundred years of anti-Semitic worry about an international conspiracy operated by Jewish financiers to defraud the European and American working poor of their livelihood. The "Jew," without a country, but with a bank, had no loyalty to the nation, no solidarity with fellow citizens. The anti-Semitic document, "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," is a good illustration of this idea. The Nazis stigmatized the "Jew" as the reason for poverty and exploitation, and obscured the role played by capitalism in the reproduction of grief. The six million Jews in the U.S. do not determine U.S. foreign policy; nor are they united. Jews in America, like other communities, are rent with division, not united behind one agenda.
Uses
Mark Strauss links the term's use to a sentiment present in the Anti-globalization movement. The Guardian's David Hirsh feels that it indicates a lack of "care, thought" and "self-education," commenting on Chris Davies, MEP for the northwest of England. Davies resigned after having used the slur in an e-mail considered inappropriate by the public and the Liberal Democrats.
Madeleine Albright commented about a link between the Jewish lobby and Christian evangelicals to the Council on Foreign Relations that "it's very easy to get on this tack all of a sudden that it’s some kind of an overly powerful Jewish lobby."
Writing in The Guardian, David Aaronovitch asserted:
"too many leftwingers and liberals are crossing the magic line right now. Let me spell it out for you. There is no all-powerful Jewish lobby. There is no secret convocation. Most journalists with Jewish names do not write the things they do because of loyalty to their race or religion. Nor can you simply change the word "Jewish" to "Zionist" and somehow be exempt from the charge of low-level racism. And it's no good wiffling on about your Jewish friends or trying to slip your prejudices past the guards by boldly proclaiming your refusal to be intimidated. There are no Elders and there are no Protocols."
Stephen Zunes wrote in 2006 that in his "interviews with a half-dozen Arab foreign ministers and deputy foreign ministers in recent years have confirmed that US diplomats routinely blame the "Jewish lobby" as a way of diverting blame away from the US government. This cynical excuse has contributed to the frightening rise in recent years of anti-Jewish attitudes in the Arab world." Regarding the situation in France, Leslie Stein and Sol Encel write "...the notion of a Jewish lobby is largely a fantasy of anti-Semites..."
In their 2005 opinion piece in Ynetnews, Nahum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer write: "No Jewish lobby has more political power than the 100,000-strong AIPAC organization. This power is one of Israel’s greatest global assets."
In 2007, Yossi Klein Halevi of the Shalem Center said: "What we know today as the Jewish lobby largely owes its empowerment to the Six Day War".
References
- ^ Aaronovitch, David. "Message to the left: there is no all-powerful Jewish lobby", The Guardian, May 27, 2003
- ^ Berlet, Chip. "ZOG Ate My Brain," New Internationalist, 372, October 2004.
- ^ The myth of the "Jewish lobby" by Vijay Prasad in the Frontline (India's National Magazine) Volume 20 - Issue 20, September 27 - October 10, 2003.
- Michael, George. The Enemy of my Enemy: The Alarming Convergence of Militant Islam and the Extreme Right, 2006, pp. 46-47 & 228-238.
- Ramadan, Tariq. "Muslims and Anti-Semitism", UN Chronicle, June 10, 2005:
"Much like the situation across the Muslim world, there exists in the West today a discourse which is anti-Semitic, seeking legitimacy in certain Islamic texts and support in the present situation in Palestine. This is the attitude of not only the marginalized youth but also of intellectuals and Imams, who see the manipulative hand of the “Jewish lobby” at each turn or every political setback."
- Strauss, Mark. "Antiglobalism's Jewish Problem", Foreign Policy / YaleGlobal Online, November 12, 2003.
- Hirsh, David. "Revenge of the Jewish lobby?", The Guardian, May 5, 2006.
- Albright, Madeleine. "The Mighty and the Almighty", Council on Foreign Relations, May 1, 2006, accessed August 27, 2006.
- The Israel lobby: How powerful is it really? Zunes, Stephen, Asia Times, May 23 2006
- Stein, Leslie & Encel, Sol Continuity, Commitment, and Survival: Jewish Communities in the Diaspora, Praeger/Greenwood, 2003, ISBN 0275973379, p. 141.
- Nahum Barnea, Shimon Shiffer Mr. Sharon goes to Washington, Opinion in Ynetnews, March 27 2005
- Yossi Klein Halevi (Apr. 23, 2007). "Coming together, falling apart". Jerusalem Post.
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See also
- Anti-Zionism
- New antisemitism
- American Jewish Committee
- American Israel Public Affairs Committee
- Israel lobby in the United States