Israel Matzav

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Book recommendation

The next time someone tells you that the Israel Lobby controls the US, tell them about the silent lobby that really controls the US: The Arab Lobby. Get it in paperback here.

Labels: Arab lobby

Monday, December 13, 2010

Stephen Walt's conspiracy theory

Stephen Walt attacks Jeffrey Goldberg for disputing Walt's claim that there is no Arab lobby (or no effective Arab lobby as he revises his claim to say here). Eli Lake notes that Walt is incapable of distinguishing between opinion journalism and lobbying, mistaking the former for the latter (Hat Tip: Soccer Dad).

While Lake is undoubtedly correct that Walt has a problem distinguishing between something that is very public and something that is largely very private, there is a much simpler answer to each of the claims (there are eight of them) that Walt makes.

When voters overwhelmingly support a policy position, that position's coinciding with an interest represented by lobbyists is a redundancy. When voters overwhelmingly oppose a position and that position gets a hearing anyway, that's a lobby's influence. In the case of Israel, the American people are overwhelmingly sympathetic to the Jewish state both in absolute terms and in terms relative to the Arab sheikhdoms whose bidding is done by Walt and his ilk.

An astounding 93 percent of those polled say the United States should be concerned about the security of the state of Israel. A majority—54 percent—say the U.S. should be “very concerned” about Israel’s security. Virtually the same number care that their elected representatives be pro-Israel. When asked, “Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for a candidate whom you perceive as pro-Israel?,” 53 percent say they would be more likely to vote for a candidate they saw as pro-Israel, 24 percent less likely. Even more striking, the same number—53 percent—say they could not vote for a candidate if he were anti-Israel, even if that candidate agreed with them on most other issues.

There is an Israel lobby in the United States, and it's not insidious at all. It's called the American people.

In fact, if anything, it can safely be said that were it not for the Arab lobby and their patrons' control of a large portion of the World's fossil fuels, no one other than Barack Obama would and the Muslim world would give a damn about the 'Palestinians.'

Labels: Arab lobby, Eli Lake, Israel Lobby, Jeffrey Goldberg, Stephen Walt

Sunday, November 07, 2010

The real Arab lobby: Europe

Former AIPAC director Steve Rosen argues that the real Arab lobby in the United States is not Arab Americans or even the Saudis: It's the Europeans.

The Europeans are particularly formidable in their influence over U.S. Middle East policy because of four advantages.

First, although there exist subtle differences, many European leaders share a broad set of common beliefs about Israel, the Palestinians, the Arab world, and the Middle East conflict that are considerably closer to the Arab perspective than to Jerusalem's point of view, and closer to the Arab end of the spectrum than the prevailing views of U.S. policymakers.

Second, they—especially representatives of Britain, Germany, and France—have easier and closer access to U.S. officials up to and including the president than do either the Arabs or the Israelis.

Third, the Europeans couch their presentations within a wider framework of shared values and interests and mutual trust with the United States, so the message is taken more seriously than if it came from an unelected leader of an Arab society vastly different from the United States.

Fourth, U.S. officials believe that it is in the national interest to keep the European allies happy, lest they change to an independent European policy toward the Middle East, falling under the sway of such Europeanists as former European Union commissioner for external affairs Christopher Patten. Thus, for example, Patten said in July 2010, "The default European position should not be … if the Americans don't do anything, to wring our hands. We should … be more explicit in setting out Europe's objectives and … try to implement them."

This is kind of long, but read the whole thing. He tells a fascinating story about how British Prime Minister John Major was the cause of the biggest blowup (at least until last March) in US - Israel relations.

Labels: Arab lobby, European Union, George H. W. Bush, John Major, US - Israel relationship