{"id":1865,"date":"2022-11-01T17:37:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T17:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scribemedia.org\/?p=1865"},"modified":"2022-11-16T20:00:09","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T20:00:09","slug":"israel-lobby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scribemedia.org\/israel-lobby\/","title":{"rendered":"The Israel Lobby: Does it Have Too Much Influence on US Foreign Policy?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last March, John Mearsheimer, and Stephen Walt published an article in the London Review of Books. Entitled \u201cThe Israel Lobby: Does it Have too Much Influence on US Foreign Policy<\/a>,\u201d it drew swift charges of anti-Semitism in the editorial pages of American newspapers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the root are passages like the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2026the thrust of US policy in the region derives almost entirely from domestic politics, and especially the activities of the \u201cIsrael Lobby\u201d. Other special-interest groups have managed to skew foreign policy, but no lobby has managed to divert it as far from what the national interest would suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that US interests and those of the other country \u2014 in this case, Israel \u2014 are essentially identical.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Those attacking Mearsheimer and Walt suggest the duo outline a nefarious Jewish cabal with a stranglehold on American Mideast policy. Think smokey backrooms; think political and media domination; think subtle and sneaky manipulation of the unsuspecting, innocent gentile. Think historical stereotype.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mearsheimer, Walt, and their defenders counter that they neither suggest a cabal nor a monolithic Jewry driving the American body politic. Instead, a close alliance of disparate groups form a capital “L” Israeli Lobby that distorts US interests in the region. While this is led by the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Lobby includes Jews and Gentiles alike:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Lobby also includes prominent Christian evangelicals like Gary Bauer, Jerry Falwell, Ralph Reed and Pat Robertson, as well as Dick Armey and Tom DeLay, former majority leaders in the House of Representatives, all of whom believe Israel\u2019s rebirth is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and support its expansionist agenda; to do otherwise, they believe, would be contrary to God\u2019s will. Neo-conservative gentiles such as John Bolton; Robert Bartley, the former Wall Street Journal<\/em> editor; William Bennett, the former secretary of education; Jeane Kirkpatrick, the former UN ambassador; and the influential columnist George Will are also steadfast supporters.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The above debate centers around these two perspectives as the panelists move among issues such as US-Israeli relations, the Middle East peace process, the origins of the Iraq War, and Israeli settlement policy, to name a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Panelists<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n