The israel lobby is too powerful to ever have their funding cut. Very few in Washington are critical of israel and those that are will be labled anti-semetic because no distinction can ever exist between criticism of israel and anti-semitism apparently.
It's truly pathetic how openly American polticians will kowtow to israel and even china these days. Whatever they are getting in return must be worth it.
What I wonder is why Israel is so ignored when they have orders of magnitude more money and influence in Washington than Russia. One of the top lobbyists in the US is AIPAC, giving money directly to politicians. The hypocrisy is absurd.
To my understanding BDS is effectively neutered in the US.
Israel lobby (AIPAC, DMfI) has spent hundreds of millions defanging any left-based dissent to Israeli policies and pushing for candidates that s don’t dare to say anything about Palestinians much less all the money sent to Israel.
aipac is rather minor donor/lobbyist in usa. you should look up statistics.
those billions are peanuts in israeli budget. majority of population in israel in favor of stopping taking it. it works actually as lever that usa is using, so it actually beneficial to usa (and all the money going back to it anyway)
usa doesn't grovel at feet of bibi. it just usa has more guts than other countries to support israel.
There is a book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (by two political scientists), that argues the Jewish/Israeli lobby is one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful, in the US.
From Amazon:
"Mearsheimer and Walt, political scientists at the University of Chicago and Harvard, respectively, survey a wide coalition of pro-Israel groups and individuals, including American Jewish organizations and political donors, Christian fundamentalists, neo-con officials in the executive branch, media pundits who smear critics of Israel as anti-Semites and the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, which they characterize as having an almost unchallenged hold on Congress. This lobby, they contend, has pressured the U.S. government into Middle East policies that are strategically and morally unjustifiable: lavish financial subsidies for Israel despite its occupation of Palestinian territories; needless American confrontations with Israel's foes Syria and Iran; uncritical support of Israel's 2006 bombing of Lebanon, which violated the laws of war; and the Iraq war, which almost certainly would not have occurred had [the Israel lobby] been absent. The authors disavow conspiracy mongering, noting that the lobby's activities constitute legitimate, if misguided, interest-group politics, as American as apple pie. Considering the authors' academic credentials and the careful reasoning and meticulous documentation with which they support their claims, the book is bound to rekindle the controversy."
No chance, AIPAC, BICOM and various lobby groups ensure politicians are in the pockets of the Israel lobby. This isn't to say other countries don't have corrupt lobbying practices. But the unilateral multibillion dollar IDF funding raies questions.
That's stretching the meaning of "democratic". From the report:
The bottom line is that AIPAC, which is a de facto agent for a foreign government, has a stranglehold on the U.S. Congress. Open debate about U.S. policy towards Israel does not occur there, even though that policy has important consequences for the entire world. Thus, one of the three main branches of the U.S. government is firmly committed to supporting Israel. As former Senator Ernest Hollings (D-SC) noted as he was leaving office, “You can’t have an Israeli policy other than what AIPAC gives you around here.” Small wonder that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon once told an American audience. “When people ask me how they can help Israel, I tell them—Help AIPAC.”
[..]
The Lobby also has significant leverage over the Executive branch. That power derives in part from the influence Jewish voters have on presidential elections. Despite their small numbers in the population (less than 3 percent), they make large campaign donations to candidates from both parties. The Washington Post once estimated that Democratic presidential candidates “depend on Jewish supporters to supply as much as 60 percent of the money.”
The idea that an "all-powerful small ethnic Jewish lobby" can trick the corporate elite of America for decades to do things against their interests is, putting aside its anti-semitic implications, utterly ridiculous. It is a way of deflecting blame away from the U.S. government itself.[1]
The strategic interests are obvious: Israel is one of the largest military powers in the middle east and a means to project U.S. power over it. This was observed by the Pentagon as early as the late 1940s.[2] This is why the U.S. has given so much financial, military and diplomatic aid to Israel, one of the effects of which has been to build up its tech industry.
Are you sure the lobbying didn't come first? From the linked report:
Second, the Lobby strives to ensure that public discourse about Israel portrays it in a positive light, by repeating myths about Israel and its founding and by publicizing Israel’s side in the policy debates of the day. The goal is to prevent critical commentary about Israel from getting a fair hearing in the political arena. Controlling the debate is essential to guaranteeing U.S. support, because a candid discussion of U.S.-Israeli relations might lead Americans to favor a different policy.
The US give Israel billions of dollars in foreign aid every year. Allows them to disgregard UN resolutions and prevents the recognition of Palestine.
Israel has nuclear weapons and is outside the Non proliferation treaty and yet the US goes crazy about other countries that try to get weapons.
Meanwhile AIPAC isn't even registered as something foreign.
This can be happily discussed online and in every non US country it amazes people how a tiny country like Israel can get the US to support them no matter what they do.
Now even Jerusalem is recognized as the capital of Israel, by one country in the whole world.
What’s described in the article as the “Israel lobby” would be better described as the “Pro-Israel lobby,” as it consists largely of Americans democratically expressing their preferences, rather than a foreign entity buying influence.
I think it's far more accurate to call this the Israeli lobby. There is plenty of Jewish opposition to the Israeli government's actions, both inside and especially outside of Israel.
That issue came up regarding China's Confucius Institutes.[1] There's been something of a crackdown on those.
Politico has some coverage of the current Israel-related lobbying push.[2] There are a lot of players. "An unsanctioned coterie of pro-Israel quasi-lobbyists has descended on D.C." Some have formally registered as agents of Israel. Some haven't.
The big issue here is when activities go beyond lobbying. Anyone can lobby Congress; that's a constitutional right in the US. Getting people fired on behalf of a foreign power, though, is a legally questionable activity.
But you didn't say that AIPAC is powerful (it is) or people like Sheldon Adelson are influential (they are.) You said:
"But Israelis have bought our corruptible political system to the point where all our politicians fight each other to prove who is more of a "friend" to Israel. If the US where acting in its real best interest it would keep Israel at much more of an arm's length. In a way Israel is much more of a dangerous enemy to American democracy than Iran, Russia, China or any other country."
That's a lot more serious than dispassionately noting how one nation among many that has an influential lobby in the United States.
But one other point that is worth considering: American public opinion of Israel is generally around 60% positive, 30% neutral, and 10% negative (source: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/poally...). Is it particularly shocking that politicians go where the votes are? No conspiracy theory required.
From the outside it sure looks like AIPAC has a lot of influence and US politicians by and large are absurdly committed to supporting Israel no matter how flagrantly it violates international law and human rights. You can try to dismiss this observation by joking about a secret cabal of evil Jews (maybe they can be lizards as well!) but that doesn't change the reality that the USA seems to be grovelling at the feet of Bibi as if Israel is giving it free billions each year instead of the other way round.
It's truly pathetic how openly American polticians will kowtow to israel and even china these days. Whatever they are getting in return must be worth it.
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