Comments on: Liberal Israel lobby: Update I http://southjerusalem.com/2008/03/liberal-israel-lobby-update-i/ A Progressive, Skeptical Blog on Israel, Judaism, Culture, Politics, and Literature Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:35:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Chris Dornan http://southjerusalem.com/2008/03/liberal-israel-lobby-update-i/comment-page-1/#comment-136 Chris Dornan Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:03:03 +0000 http://southjerusalem.wordpress.com/?p=64#comment-136 Gershom, the Mearsheimer and Walt book is clearly not perfect. Part of the problem is that boundaries are so confused that it is difficult to characterise what is going on. I saw it reported that Ann Lewis, a Clinton adviser said "The role of the president of the United States is to support the decisions that are made by the people of Israel. It is not up to us to pick and choose from among the political parties." I believe these are technically treasonous proposals. The US president must represent the interests of Americans things aren't to get hopelessly confused, but that is what is happening. (There is a similar-ish confusion in the UK between US and UK foreign policy, by the way). Obviously any American President must look after the interests of Israel--the American people demand it. But that certainly does not mean supporting the decisions of the people of Israel--the whole point of having friends is so that they can offer the perspective that comes with distance, and indeed tough love. More confusion comes in with the confluence of milinarian Christianity and Judaism, the military-industrial complexes vested interest in arming all sides in the M.E. (except the Iranisns), our needs to secure access to Oil. From what I can tell you do seem to somewaht underestimate the power of AIPAC. They by no means speak for American Jewry (who are much more sceptical of these neo-colonial adventures on average) but AIPAC have access to all of the pressure points and are tremendously skilled at playing the game. I think it is widely acknowledged that no politician in Congress will dare cross them without an extremely good reason to do so. This reputation alone probably does half of the job, but I think Ann Lewis's comments are a testament to it. A fear of antisemitism may be a part (but only a part) of this. I agree with you that the US administration has been poisoning Israeli policy much more than the other way round. The right wing in the US are exploiting Israel to carry out their own right-wing agendas. (Similarly Europeans on the left exploit the Palestinian issue for their own ends.) Gershom, the Mearsheimer and Walt book is clearly not perfect. Part of the problem is that boundaries are so confused that it is difficult to characterise what is going on. I saw it reported that Ann Lewis, a Clinton adviser said “The role of the president of the United States is to support the decisions that are made by the people of Israel. It is not up to us to pick and choose from among the political parties.” I believe these are technically treasonous proposals. The US president must represent the interests of Americans things aren’t to get hopelessly confused, but that is what is happening. (There is a similar-ish confusion in the UK between US and UK foreign policy, by the way).

Obviously any American President must look after the interests of Israel–the American people demand it. But that certainly does not mean supporting the decisions of the people of Israel–the whole point of having friends is so that they can offer the perspective that comes with distance, and indeed tough love.

More confusion comes in with the confluence of milinarian Christianity and Judaism, the military-industrial complexes vested interest in arming all sides in the M.E. (except the Iranisns), our needs to secure access to Oil.

From what I can tell you do seem to somewaht underestimate the power of AIPAC. They by no means speak for American Jewry (who are much more sceptical of these neo-colonial adventures on average) but AIPAC have access to all of the pressure points and are tremendously skilled at playing the game. I think it is widely acknowledged that no politician in Congress will dare cross them without an extremely good reason to do so. This reputation alone probably does half of the job, but I think Ann Lewis’s comments are a testament to it. A fear of antisemitism may be a part (but only a part) of this.

I agree with you that the US administration has been poisoning Israeli policy much more than the other way round. The right wing in the US are exploiting Israel to carry out their own right-wing agendas. (Similarly Europeans on the left exploit the Palestinian issue for their own ends.)

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