Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Sanguinalis (talk | contribs) at 02:23, 31 August 2006 (Agree with BHouston - article should lead with definition). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Israel lobby in the United States is defined by Mitchell Bard as "those formal and informal actors that directly and indirectly influence American policy to support Israel," a large proportion of whom are non-Jews. According to John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, the use of the singular label "Israel lobby" is not to imply that there "is a unified movement with a central leadership, or that individuals within it do not disagree on certain issues."

Debates

Degree of influence

Tony Judt, writing in the New York Times, asks rhetorically " the Israel Lobby affect our foreign policy choices? Of course — that is one of its goals. But does pressure to support Israel distort American decisions? That's a matter of judgment."

Zunes writes that many of the "the most outspoken opponents of U.S. foreign policy in general and of U.S. support for Israel in particular - such as Noam Chomsky, Phyllis Bennis, Mitchell Plitnick, Simona Sharoni, Joseph Massad, Steve Niva, and Norman Finkelstein — have raised serious questions about the supposed power of the Israel lobby, noting that it is responsible, in the words of Professor Massad, for 'the details and intensity but not the direction, content, or impact of such policies.'"

Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State under Bill Clinton, speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in May 2006, said in response to a question that "there is no doubt that there is a very strong Israeli lobby. It is very strong." She also cautioned: "I think it’s very easy to get on this tack all of a sudden that it’s some kind of an overly powerful Jewish lobby. There are other lobbies that are very strong, and Washington is full of lobbyists."

Dennis B. Ross, former U.S. ambassador and chief peace negotiator in the Middle East under Bill Clinton, wrote: "never in the time that I led the American negotiations on the Middle East peace process did we take a step because 'the lobby' wanted us to. Nor did we shy away from one because 'the lobby' opposed it. That is not to say that AIPAC and others have no influence. They do. But they don't distort U.S. policy or undermine American interests."

Mitchell Bard has conducted a study which attempts to roughly quantify the influence of the Israel lobby on 782 policy decisions, over the period of 1945 to 1984, in order to move the debate on its influence away from simple anecdotes. He "found the Israeli lobby won; that is, achieved its policy objective, 60 percent of the time. The most important variable was the president's position. When the president supported the lobby, it won 95 percent of the time. At first glance it appears the lobby was only successful because its objectives coincided with those of the president, but the lobby's influence was demonstrated by the fact that it still won 27 percent of the cases when the president opposed its position."

Political alignment

Need more voices

As detailed earlier, the formal aspect of the Israel lobby, according to some analysts, can be divided into right-leaning and left-leaning components. Of these two components, the right-leaning component is dominant according to Mearsheimer and Walt. They write "Many of the key organizations in the Lobby, such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, are run by hardliners who generally support the Likud Party's expansionist policies, including its hostility to the Oslo Peace Process."

Thomas B. Edsall and Molly Moore reported in the Washington Post that some Israeli politicians regard AIPAC, the leading pro-Israel lobby organization, as "representing the more hawkish factions within the Israeli government." Edsall and Moore go on to quote Yossi Beilin, a prominent a Israeli politician and member of the center-left Labor party, who complains that AIPAC has "their own agenda They contradicted our government. When there was a unity government, they would say, 'But you only represent Labor,' even if I was representing the prime minister."

Media coverage of lobby

Michael Massing argues there is a lack of media coverage on the Israel lobby and posits this explanation: "Why the blackout? For one thing, reporting on these groups is not easy. AIPAC's power makes potential sources reluctant to discuss the organization on the record, and employees who leave it usually sign pledges of silence. AIPAC officials themselves rarely give interviews, and the organization even resists divulging its board of directors."

Steven Rosen, a former director of foreign-policy issues for AIPAC, explained to Jeffrey Goldberg of The New Yorker that "a lobby is like a night flower: it thrives in the dark and dies in the sun."

Massing writes that in addition to AIPAC's efforts to maintain a low profile, "journalists, meanwhile, are often loath to write about the influence of organized Jewry. In the end, though, the main obstacle to covering these groups is fear."

Daniel Fleshler, board member of Americans for Peace Now, related that the "issue of Jewish influence" is "so incendiary and so complicated that I don't know how anyone can talk about this in the public sphere. I know that's a problem. But there's not enough space in any article you write to do this in a way that doesn't cause more rancor."

Distinguishing between fair criticism and anti-Semitism

The March 2006 publication of Mearsheimer and Walt's bluntly worded essay, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, promoted a charged debate as to what constitutes anti-Semitic conspiracy theorizing when criticizing the Israel lobby. The essay's central controversial claim was that the Israel lobby's influence has distorted U.S. Middle East foreign policy away from what the authors referred to as "American national interest."

The matter was further complicated, as Michelle Goldberg reported on Salon.com, because this was "not just a case of brave academics telling taboo truths" but that they had "blundered forth with an article that has several factual mistakes and baffling omissions" and that seemed "expressly designed to elicit exactly the reaction it has received."

It is anti-Semitic

Aaron Friedberg takes issue with the suggestion that lobby members put the interests of Israel above the interests of the United States: "at a minimum, this is a slanderous and unfalsifiable allegation of treason leveled at individuals whose views on Middle East policy differ from the authors. At worst, it is an ugly accusation of collective disloyalty, containing the most unsavory of historical echoes."

Ruth Wisse, a professor of Yiddish Literature and Comparative Literature, wrote, "When the authors imply that the bipartisan support of Israel in Congress is a result of Jewish influence, they function as classic conspiracy theorists who attribute decisions to nefarious alliances rather than to the choices of a democratic electorate".

Eliot A. Cohen, a professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, argues that the paper bears all the traditional hallmarks of anti-Semitism: "obsessive and irrationally hostile beliefs about Jews", accusations of Jews of "disloyalty, subversion or treachery, of having occult powers and of participating in secret combinations that manipulate institutions and governments" and systematical omits "any exculpatory information".

Daily Mail journalist Melanie Phillips writing in her own blog called the paper a "particularly ripe example of the global Zionist conspiracy’ libel".

It is dangerous territory

Madeleine Albright suggests caution "I think it’s very easy to get on this tack all of a sudden that it’s some kind of an overly powerful Jewish lobby. There are other lobbies that are very strong, and Washington is full of lobbyists. So I would not, in fact, stress that as much as I would stress the fact that the U.S. does have an indissoluble relationship with Israel that is based on history and culture."

Stephen Zunes, professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, writes that "there is something quite convenient and discomfortingly familiar about the tendency to blame an allegedly powerful and wealthy group of Jews for the overall direction of an increasingly controversial U.S. policy. Indeed, like exaggerated claims of Jewish power at other times in history, such an explanation absolves the real powerbrokers and assigns blame to convenient scapegoats. This is not to say that Mearsheimer, Walt, or anyone else who expresses concern about the power of the Israel lobby is an anti-Semite, but the way in which this exaggerated view of Jewish power parallels historic anti-Semitism should give us all pause."

It is fair criticism

Mark Mazower, a professor of history at Columbia University, wrote that it is not possible to openly debate the the article's critical thesis: "What is striking is less the substance of their argument than the outraged reaction: to all intents and purposes, discussing the US-Israel special relationship still remains taboo in the US media mainstream. Whatever one thinks of the merits of the piece itself, it would seem all but impossible to have a sensible public discussion in the US today about the country’s relationship with Israel."

Criticism of the paper has itself been called "moral blackmail" and "bullying" by an opinion piece in The Financial Times: "Moral blackmail - the fear that any criticism of Israeli policy and US support for it will lead to charges of anti-Semitism - is a powerful disincentive to publish dissenting views Bullying Americans into a consensus on Israeli policy is bad for Israel and makes it impossible for America to articulate its own national interest." The editorial praised the paper, remarking that "They argue powerfully that extraordinarily effective lobbying in Washington has led to a political consensus that American and Israeli interests are inseparable and identical."

Molly Ivins, who voiced support for Mearsheimer and Walt's thesis, wrote that "in the United States, we do not have full-throated, full-throttle debate about Israel. the truth is that the accusation of anti-Semitism is far too often raised in this country against anyone who criticizes the government of Israel. Being pro-Israel is no defense, as I long ago learned to my cost. Now I've gotten used to it. Jews who criticize Israel are charmingly labeled 'self-hating Jews.'"

In relation to special interest groups

Noam Chomsky, political activist and professor of linguistics at MIT, writes that "there are far more powerful interests that have a stake in what happens in the Persian Gulf region than does AIPAC , such as the oil companies, the arms industry and other special interests whose lobbying influence and campaign contributions far surpass that of the much-vaunted Zionist lobby and its allied donors to congressional races."

Eric Alterman writes in The Nation, that "while it's fair to call AIPAC obnoxious and even anti-democratic, the same can often be said about, say, the NRA, Big Pharma and other powerful lobbies."

Arab lobby

The examples and perspective in this article may not include all significant viewpoints. Please improve the article or discuss the issue. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

There are a number of differences between the Israeli lobby and Arab lobby according to Mitchell Bard . In general the Arab lobby "suffers from a very negative image and Israel enjoys a very positive image." In terms of activities "the Arab lobby almost always lobbies negatively; i.e., against pro-Israel legislation rather than for pro-Arab legislation." Also, the Arab lobby, unlike the Israeli lobby, makes use of paid foreign agents "Pro-Arab U.S. government officials can look forward to lucrative positions as lobbyists, spokesmen, and consultants for the Arab cause."

Public opinion polls also show both less suspicions of the Israel lobby ("polls indicate the public sees the Arab lobby as more of a threat than the Israeli lobby") and greater overall effectiveness ("Israel varied between 32 and 64 percent, averaging 46 percent, while sympathy for the Arabs has oscillated between 1 and 30 percent and averaged only 12 percent.").

Former U.S. President Harry Truman famously said to Paul Porter, an appointed ambassador to the Arab-Israeli peace talks in Geneva in 1948:

"I won't tell you what to do or how to vote, but I will only say this. In all of my political experience, I don't ever recall the Arab vote swinging a close election."

Structure

The examples and perspective in this article may not include all significant viewpoints. Please improve the article or discuss the issue. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The "Israeli (or pro-Israel) lobby" is composed of formal and informal components according to Bard . The components "tend to intersect at several points so the distinction is not always clear-cut."

Informal lobby

Mitchell Bard defines the "informal lobby" as the indirect means through which "Jewish voting behavior and American public opinion" influence "U.S. Middle East policy."

Bard describes the motivation underlying the informal lobby as follows:

"American Jews recognize the importance of support for Israel because of the dire consequences that could follow from the alternative. Despite the fact that Israel is often referred to now as the fourth most powerful country in the world, the perceived threat to Israel is not military defeat, it is annihilation. At the same time, American Jews are frightened of what might happen in the United States if they do not have political power."

Formal lobby

The formal component of the Israel lobby consists of organized lobby groups, political action committees, think tanks and media watchdogs groups.

There are, according to Bard, two key formal lobbying groups:

• The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) which directly lobbies the legislative branch of the U.S. Government
• The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations which "is the main contact between the Jewish community and the executive branch" of the U.S. Government.

These two key groups aim to present policy makers with unified and representative messages via the aggregation and filtering of the diversity of opinions held by smaller pro-Israel lobby groups and the American Jewish community at large.

The diverse spectrum of opinions held by American Jewry is reflected in the many formal pro-Israel groups, and as such some analysts make a distinction within the Israel lobby between right-leaning and left-leaning groups.

Right-leaning groups

Mearsheimer and Walt claim that the contemporary Israel lobby is dominated by a number of right-leaning organizations. They claim that tone of the right-leaning component of the Israel lobby results from the influence of the leaders of the two top lobby groups: AIPAC, and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

They go on to list, as right-leaning think tanks associated with the lobby, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Hudson Institute.

They also claim that the media watchdog group Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America is part of the right-wing component of the lobby.

Left-leaning groups

Stephen Zunes, in a response to Mearsheimer and Walt, list "Americans for Peace Now, the Tikkun Community, Brit Tzedek v' Shalom, and the Israel Policy Forum" as "pro-Israel" organizations that, unlike the right-leaning organizations focused on by Mearsheimer and Walt, are opposed to "the occupation, the settlements, the separation wall, and Washington's unconditional support for Israeli policies."

Means of influence

The examples and perspective in this article may not include all significant viewpoints. Please improve the article or discuss the issue. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The means via which the Israel lobby exerts influence are similar to the means via which other similar lobbies, such as the National Rifle Association and the AARP (formerly known as "American Association of Retired Persons"), exert influence.

Voting power

According to Bard , "Jews have devoted themselves to politics with almost religious fervor." He cites that "Jews have the highest percentage voter turnout of any ethnic group" and that of the US Jewish population "roughly 89 percent live in twelve key electoral college states" which alone "are worth enough electoral votes to elect the president." "If you add the non-Jews shown by opinion polls to be as pro-Israel as Jews, it is clear Israel has the support of one of the largest veto groups in the country."

Bard goes on to say that for United States congressmen "there are no benefits to candidates taking an openly anti-Israel stance and considerable costs in both loss of campaign contributions and votes from Jews and non-Jews alike."

Campaign donations

Mitchell Bard writes:

"Political campaign contributions are also considered an important means of influence; typically, Jews have been major benefactors. It is difficult to assess the impact of campaign giving on legislative outcomes, particularly with regard to Israel-related issues, where support or opposition may be a consequence of non-monetary factors. In addition, one does not know if a candidate is pro-Israel because of receiving a contribution, or receives a donation as a result of taking a position in support of Israel. In the past, Jewish contributions were less structured and targeted than other interest groups, but this has changed dramatically as Israel-related political action committees (PACs) have proliferated."

Bard points to a summary of pro-Israel campaign donations for the period of 1990 - 2004 collected by Center for Responsive Politics.

Education of politicians

Israel lobbyists also educates politicians by "taking them to Israel on study missions. Once officials have direct exposure to the country, its leaders, geography, and security dilemmas, they typically return more sympathetic to Israel. Politicians also sometimes travel to Israel specifically to demonstrate to the lobby their interest in Israel. Thus, for example, George W. Bush made his one and only trip to Israel before deciding to run for President in what was widely viewed as an effort to win pro-Israel voters' support." The sponsoring of "study missions" for politicians is also done by the Arab lobby -- most recently to war torn Southern Lebanon .

Coalitions with other interest groups

The Israel lobby seeks out other interest groups as coalition partners (a fairly common practice amoung interest groups) in part, Bard writes, because "even with the Jewish population concentrated in key states, there is still only a total of about six million Jews; therefore, the Israeli lobby is dependent on the support of non-Jewish groups and actively works to form coalitions with broad segments of American society."

Christian evangelicals

The right-leaning component of the Israel lobby, according to Mearsheimer and Walt, finds support from "prominent Christian evangelicals like Gary Bauer, Jerry Falwell, Ralph Reed and Pat Robertson, as well as Dick Armey and Tom DeLay all of whom believe Israel's rebirth is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and support its expansionist agenda; to do otherwise, they believe, would be contrary to God's will."

Madeleine Albright similarly noted a "linkage between the Christian evangelicals and a lot of part of the Jewish lobby, if you want to call it that, because the Christian evangelicals in reading the Bible believe that Israel has to be—the people of Israel have to be free so that the Messiah can come back."

News media and public discourse

Stephen Zunes writes that "mainstream and conservative Jewish organizations have mobilized considerable lobbying resources, financial contributions from the Jewish community, and citizen pressure on the news media and other forums of public discourse in support of the Israeli government."

Mearsheimer and Walt, who focus on the right-leaning component of the Israel lobby, write that "the Lobby doesn’t want an open debate, of course, because that might lead Americans to question the level of support they provide" to Israel.

Massing writes that "Jewish organizations are quick to detect bias in the coverage of the Middle East, and quick to complain about it. That's especially true of late. As The Forward observed in late April , 'rooting out perceived anti-Israel bias in the media has become for many American Jews the most direct and emotional outlet for connecting with the conflict 6,000 miles away.'"

The Forward relates how one individual feels: "'There's a great frustration that American Jews want to do something,' said Ira Youdovin, executive vice president of the Chicago Board of Rabbis. 'In 1947, some number would have enlisted in the Haganah,' he said, referring to the pre-state Jewish armed force. 'There was a special American brigade. Nowadays you can't do that.' 'The battle here is the hasbarah war,' Youdovin said, using a Hebrew term for public relations. 'We're winning, but we're very much concerned about the bad stuff.'"

Indicative of the diversity of opinion is a 2003 Boston Globe profile of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America media watchdog group in which Mark Jurkowitz observes: "To its supporters, CAMERA is figuratively - and perhaps literally - doing God's work, battling insidious anti-Israeli bias in the media. But its detractors see CAMERA as a myopic and vindictive special interest group trying to muscle its views into media coverage."

"At times", Stephen Zunes writes, the vigilance of the mainstream and conservative Jewish organizations have "created a climate of intimidation against many who speak out for peace and human rights or who support the Palestinians' right of self-determination."

College campuses

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to itadding to it or making an edit request.

Mearsheimer and Walt claim that there has been a recent campaign by the right-leaning elements of the Israel lobby to influence debate on college campuses with regards to Israel. "In the 1990s, when the Oslo peace process was underway, there was only mild criticism of Israel, but it grew stronger with Oslo’s collapse and Sharon’s access to power, becoming quite vociferous when the IDF reoccupied the West Bank in spring 2002 and employed massive force to subdue the second intifada. The Lobby moved immediately to ‘take back the campuses’."

Mearsheimer and Walt write, in reference to the U.S. Congress bill HR 3077/HR 509, that "perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this campaign to eliminate criticism of Israel from college campuses is the effort by Jewish groups to push Congress to establish mechanisms that monitor what professors say about Israel."

Coordination with Israeli officials

Bard writes that "by framing the issues in terms of the national interest, AIPAC can attract broader support than would ever be possible if it was perceived to represent only the interests of Israel. This does not mean AIPAC does not have a close relationship with Israeli officials, it does, albeit unofficially. Even so, the lobby some times comes into conflict with the Israeli government."

Mearsheimer and Walt make the more blunt claim that "American Jewish leaders often consult with Israeli officials, so that the former can maximize their influence in the United States."

See also

References

1. ^ Mitchell Bard, "The Israeli and Arab Lobbies", Jewish Virtual Library, published 2006, accessed August 26 2006.
2. ^ Mearsheimer, John J. and Walt, Stephen. The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, London Review of Books, Volume 28 Number 6, March 22, 2006. Accessed March 24, 2006.
3. A Lobby, Not a Conspiracy, Tony Judt, New York Times Op-Ed, April 19, 2006
4. ^ Stephen Zunes, The Israel Lobby: How Powerful is it Really?, Foreign Policy in Focus, May 16, 2006, accessed August 27, 2006.
5. ^ Madeleine Albright, The Mighty and the Almighty, Council on Foreign Relations, May 1 2006, accessed August 27 2006
6. Dennis Ross, The Mind-set Matters Foreign Policy, Jul/Aug 2006
7. ^ Thomas B. Edsall and Molly Moore, Pro-Israel Lobby Has Strong Voice, Washington Post, September 5 2004, accessed August 27 2006
8. ^ Michael Massing, The Israel Lobby, The Nation, June 10, 2002, accessed August 27 2006.
9. Jeffrey Goldberg, Real Insiders, The New Yorker, July 4 2005, accessed August 27 2006.
10. Michelle Goldberg, Is the "Israel lobby" distorting America's Mideast policies?, Salon.com, April 18 2006, accessed August 29 2006
11. Aaron Friedberg, An Uncivilized Argument, Foreign Policy, Jul/Aug 2006, accessed August 27 2006
12. Harvard attack on ‘Israel lobby’ is actually a targeting of American public, www.jewishexponent.com Accessed July 28, 2006
13. Cohen, Eliot (April 5, 2006). "Yes, It's Anti-Semitic". The Washington Post. {{cite news}}: External link in |title= (help)
14. Phillips, Melanie. "The graves of academe", March 21, 2006. Accessed April 6, 2006.
15. Stephen Zunes, The Israel Lobby: How powerful is it really?, Mother Jones, May 18, 2006
16. Mazower, Mark. "When vigilance undermines freedom of speech" , Financial Times, April 3 2006
17. America and Israel, The Financial Times, April 1, 2006. Copied here.
18. Molly Ivins, The Israeli lobby, CNN, April 26 2006, accessed August 27 2006
19. Noam Chomsky, The Israel Lobby? ZNET, March 28, 2006
20. Eric Alterman,AIPAC's Complaint The Nation, May 1, 2006 (posted April 13, 2006)
21. Pro-Israel Political Contributions, Center for Responsive Politics, hosted by the Jewish Virtual Library, accessed August 27 2006.
22. NDP MP heads to Middle East on fact-finding mission, New Democratic Party Press Release, August 15 2006, accessed August 27 2006.
23. Rachel Donadio, For U.S. Jews, the Media Is the (Biased) Message, The Forward, April 26 2002, accessed via Archive.org August 27 2006
24. Mark Jurkowitz, Blaming the Messenger, Boston Globe Magazine February 9, 2003: 10, History News Network (George Mason University) April 24, 2006.

• United States-Israeli relations
• Foreign policy political advocacy groups in the United States