Israel Lobby Research Articles

The Council on Foreign Relations, the Israel Lobby, and the War on Gaza

As dangerous trans-Atlantic crossings between Africa and Europe continue to rise, Hannah Cross examines the roots of the ongoing crisis. The discussion around migration, she notes, "overlooks the imperial role of Europe and the United States over borders, migration regimes, regional (de-)integration, and national development projects within Africa." The solution, therefore, can only be found through genuine liberation and autonomy across the continent, rather than internationally imposed mechanisms benefitting the powerful in the Global North.

What Drives Nuclear-Aspiring States? The Cases of Iran and North Korea

What Drives Nuclear-Aspiring States? The Cases of Iran and North Korea

The Palestine Exception, Racialization and Invisibilization: From Israel (Palestine) to North America (Turtle Island)

This paper contends that the Zionist policies implemented by Israel had and continue to have a grave impact not only on the Palestinians in historic Palestine alone but also follows them in the diaspora, where some Palestinians have taken refuge. This article argues that Israel’s apartheid regime, exposed by various international Human Rights Organizations, is not a recent discovery. Apartheid, the exclusion of the natives, and their racialization have accompanied the Zionist movement since its inception. Crucial questions raised in this paper include how Palestine and the Palestinians are conceived by Zionism, in and outside of Israel, and how they are perceived by the West, especially within the Canadian context. This paper pays special attention to comparing the experience of Palestinians with that of North America’s Indigenous population, specifically concerning Israel’s and Canada’s colonial policies towards the Indigenous peoples. It also discusses the impact of Israel’s policies of silencing and vilification that doggedly follow Palestinians into the diaspora: vilifications and silencing enacted by the Israel lobby through its various Zionist (Jewish) branches, whose primary role is to silence and vilify the Palestinians and curb criticism of Israel and Zionism. This policy, it is argued, is strongly supported by Canada, structurally, institutionally and through media propaganda.

Israel's Armor: The Israel Lobby and the First Generation of the Palestine Conflict

After World War II America had three objectives in the Middle East: contain Soviet influence, assure oil supplies to the West, and support Israel. Although the last objective often conflicted with the first two, strong support of the Jewish state became an enduring foundation of American policy. Walter L. Hixson's Israel's Armor is a meticulous examination of the influence of the Israel lobby on this process. He defines the lobby as “a continuous campaign of advocacy on the part of Israel and its American supporters to secure foreign policies perceived as favorable to the Israeli national interest” (p. 1). The lobby's ability to influence American decisions concerning both Israel and the Middle East, he maintains, often resulted in actions and policies at odds with America's broader interests. This thesis is not new; it was stated most famously and controversially in John J. Mersheimer's and Steven M. Walt's The Israel Lobby...

‘Arrow’ Mythology Revisited: The Curious Case of the Reagan Administration, Israel and SDI Cooperation

When the Reagan administration first invited Israel to join the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) in 1985, Israel was only expected to play a relative minor role in the program and bid for non-sensitive research grants. However, starting in 1986, the focus of the endeavor began to shift. In time, the US was funding Israeli efforts to indigenously develop the Arrow, a missile defense system designed to use land-based interceptors to address regional ballistic missile threats. This was a sharp departure from the objectives of SDI and the imagined role that Israel was supposed to play within that initiative. This article addresses how and why this shift had occurred. I examine the existing narrative in the literature which maintains that Israel had initiated Arrow with the help of the Israel Lobby, and dispel it. I demonstrate that it was the Reagan administration, motivated by domestic political considerations, legal and diplomatic calculations, and strategic priorities, which pushed for Arrow’s initiation, despite reservations expressed by the Israeli government and the Israeli military.

Walter L. Hixson. Israel’s Armor: The Israel Lobby and the First Generation of the Palestine Conflict.

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The Roots of the Israel Lobby

The Roots of the Israel Lobby

The Peace Process Carousel: The Israel Lobby and the Failure of American Diplomacy

More than 50 years of American diplomacy in the Arab-Israeli "peace process" have revealed it to be a carousel of constant activity with no forward movement. Despite chronic failure and embarrassment, it continues in great measure because of the cumulative effects of the influence of the Israel lobby in the United States, through cycles of opportunity, initiative, retreat, and compensation. Mathematician John Nash's theory of an inefficient equilibrium is offered as an explanation for the still-sustained pretense of the possibility of a negotiated peace agreement and the conditions under which the peace process carousel could finally stop turning.

‘Therefore They Shouldn’t Exist’: The Carter Administration, the ‘Israel Lobby’ and the Sinai Settlements

The Israeli settlements in Sinai could have been a fatal obstacle to Egyptian–Israeli peace, but the Jimmy Carter administration overcame it. The established narrative of how Israel ceded the Sinai settlements focuses on the Camp David summit. However, the real battle over the fate of the settlements was fought previously. In February–April 1978, the Carter administration attempted to turn pro-Israeli supporters in the United States against the Israeli position, according to which the Sinai settlements should remain in place. The Menachem Begin government mobilized to counter that push but lost the battle. Contrary to his image as an awkward political operator, Carter won over supporters of Israel effectively. The case raises questions regarding the oft-mentioned role of the ‘Israel lobby’ in preventing peace.

The Palestine Policy of the US before the Israel Lobby

In their well-known book, The Israel Lobby, John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt argue that the Israel lobby has a significant influence on American policy towards the Middle East. As a consequence of Israeli lobbying, US-Israeli relations warmed by late 1950s and the United States became more committed to protecting Israel’s interests. In my article, I analyse the policy of the US towards the Palestinian question before the Israel lobby gained that influence on US foreign policy, and I try to understand the making of American policy during the establishment of Israel. I also examine the factors that shaped the American policy and focus on Zionist lobbying in this period and question its influence. The period that I examine starts just before World War II under the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) and I end the period with the recognition of Israel by the US under the presidency of Harry S. Truman (1945-1953). Many different domestic and foreign factors shaped the Palestine policy of the US in that period. However, I argue that even before the Israel Lobby was consolidated in the country, the Zionists had already gained a significant influence on American policy towards the Middle East region.

His Landand the Origins of the Jewish-Evangelical Israel Lobby

The 1970 release ofHis Land, a religious documentary about Israel produced by Billy Graham's film studio, World Wide Pictures, took the evangelical world by storm. It was shown to hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of churchgoers and encapsulated the mix of prophecy beliefs and cultural arguments that cohered a decade later into the Christian Zionist movement—a major component of the religious right. Surprisingly, American evangelicals were not the only fans ofHis Land. American Jews, led by the American Jewish Committee(AJC), helped make the film an international success. AJC officials organized ecumenical screenings and kept detailed records of the film's reception, praising it as “an authentic interpretation” that “strengthen[s] the current interreligious discussion on the Middle East question.” By 1971, the AJC was showing this unabashedly evangelical film to Jewish audiences in synagogues and community centers. Through reconstructing His Land's production and reception, this article provides a new interpretation of the origins of bipartisan, Jewish and evangelical support for Israel in the late-twentieth century. It recasts the rise of a Jewish-evangelical pro-Israel lobby as an important religious episode to understanding the rise of the religious right and the continuing importance of confessional and theological identity even in the era of the “culture wars.”

The Israel Lobby, Islamophobia and Judeophobia in Contemporary Europe and Beyond: Myths and Realities

Accusations of anti-Semitism have become the habitualised weapon used against critics of Israeli war crimes. Most of such claims are built on the argument that there is a ‘New anti-Semitism’ of the political left, as this is where the most critics of Zionism are based. This article maps the development of such bogus claims, originating in France and the US, where the two varieties of the argument are based; by analyzing such claims, it becomes clear that these are defence mechanisms of Zionism, designed to silence both the supporters of Palestine, as well as obscure the much more meaningful racism and xenophobia directed against Arabs and Muslims.

“The Edge of the Abyss”: The Origins of the Israel Lobby, 1949–1954

The main components of the Israel lobby in the United States were organized in the spring of 1954, six years after the State of Israel declared independence, in response to a crisis in U.S.–Israel diplomacy that erupted in October 1953. Israeli soldiers had massacred more than sixty Palestinian villagers in Qibya, on the West Bank, eliciting widespread condemnation; American Jews, in reply, mobilized to defend Israel in new ways. The American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs (later renamed AIPAC) and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, established at this time, displayed two outstanding features. They were Jewish united front organizations that brought together Zionist with “non-Zionist” groups. They also emerged from transnational contacts with Israeli leaders and realities. A staunch near-consensus in defense of Israel in the most trying circumstances established a lasting framework in American Jewish life.

The Myth of a Palestine Exception to Free Speech

Despite their editors' claims that such books are extremely difficult to smuggle past the “Israel Lobby,” essay collections detailing ostensible attempts to damage the careers of anti-Zionist academics have appeared in print with great regularity in the past several years.1 What is truly remarkable about these books is that not only do they fail to prove their central contention, that a network of pro-Israel organizations censors and punishes academics who do not toe their line, but they also end up demonstrating the opposite: individual academics' claims that a Zionist conspiracy is out to get them offer a reliably successful gambit…

Overreach: Delusions of Regime Change in Iraq

Michael MacDonald’s book may not be to everyone’s taste, but it most certainly is to mine. In his opening pages, MacDonald goes through a list of several leading explanations for the American decision to invade Iraq in March 2003, demonstrating that each of them is limited in its ability to capture more than a small part of a much larger story. Thus, he minimizes personal quirks of President George W. Bush (and his relations with his father) or Dick Cheney, geopolitical considerations focusing on Iraqi energy resources or strategic location, the role of the military-industrial complex, or the pressures of the Israel lobby. Ultimately, his primary explanatory vehicle is a kind of groupthink or collective conscience that had come to possess a good part of the foreign policy elite in Washington by the time of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Put simply, with the Cold War over and America’s superpower status unchallenged, the attitude grew that the United States was a power beyond challenge and that it had a blueprint for remaking foreign peoples to its liking—meaning their conversion, should the occasion warrant, into what by the end of the first year of the Bill Clinton administration had become known as the “enlargement” of the zone of “free market democracies.” In other words, liberal imperialism came fully into its own, its “universal appeal” widely acknowledged with the “responsibility to protect” (a concept MacDonald does not discuss), which constituted a new version of “just war.”

Effect of AIPAC Lobby on America's Foreign Policy towards the Islamic Republic of Iran

Undoubtedly, no countries have been, by now, the host and under the influence of pressure groups as far America would, the issue make difficult to make a decision in foreign policy affairs, because of the benefits and the valuation system in America. It seems that among the pressure groups in America, the Israel lobby in America has the most influence on the foreign policy-making; accordingly it can be said almost there has been a special relationship between America and Israel after World War II and AIPAC always guarantees this relationship to continue. In shaping the foreign policy of any country, a collection of internally, nationally and internationally different-level factors would contribute that the outcome of the interaction between these factors has been provided as an output and called by "foreign policy". United States of America's foreign policy has been the outcome of such a process, accordingly, on the basis of theories of international relations that the internal level would be the most essential level of the analysis of the foreign policy of the United States of America, which one of its components is to examine the role of pressure groups in shaping this country’s foreign policy, actually in this regard, there is no the most prominent and significant lobby group except Israel lobby in America. So, author intends to investigate the influence of various forms of Israel lobby and this regime position and performance within America’s foreign policy against Iran and thereby, the lobby’s directed activates in the arena of Iran were investigated; followed by the research process, stated that the penetrating element in the decision-making system of the United states of America is undeniably in terms of the Israeli-centered influential lobby groups’ contribution and the unsparing support of the United states for this lobby.

واقع ممارسة حرية التعبير في الإعلام الأمريكي في ظل اللوبي الإسرائيلي : دراسة وصفية = The Actual Practice of Expression Freedom in the US. Media in the Shadow of the Israel Lobby : A Descriptive Study

حرية التعبير | اللوبي الإسرائيلي | الأيباك | الإعلام الأمريكي | صورة العرب والمسلمين | الحجر الصحفي | القضية الفلسطينية | Freedom of Expression | Israel Lobby | AIPAC | American Media | Representation of Arabs and Muslims | Censorship | The Palestinian Question

Comparison of the Influence of the Chinese Lobby and the Israeli Lobby in the United States

The article is about how pro-Israel and pro-China interest groups try to lobby on the ground of Capitol, White House and executive branch. The study of the lobbying results is based on «General theory of action» T. Parsons. It is concluded that for lobbying interests the main point will be the representation of the interests in the political and public spaces and the creating of advocacy and lobbying infrastructure. The ability of the Israeli lobby to achieve the goal can be explained, firstly, by political inclusion in the decision-making process, and, secondly, by almost axiomatic representation Israel interests through the national interests of the United States. The Israeli lobby can be considered as the religious lobby. It can use the possibilities of Jewish religious organizations in grass root action. Also this gives the opportunity to avoid the requirements of the LDA. From the point of view of the theory of Talcott Parsons, the success of the Israeli lobby is the cause of the action of a large number of actors that may form in large groups. Another advantage of the Israeli lobby is the ability of its members to get relevant information about the current situation in different spheres of political life in the U.S. The objective of the present study was to reveal the ways in which China lobby succeeds. The influence of China lobby on decision-making process in the United States can be explained through strong economic ties between American corporations and the Chinese market. When lobbying China uses numerous Chinese Diaspora in many States, as well as trying to interest of the former high-ranking American officials, granting them special privileges for doing business in China. In comparison to the Israeli lobby, the Chinese lobby has weaknesses. Chinese interest groups are not included in the political system of the USA and this is the disadvantage of the Chinese way of lobbying. Unlike Israel lobby Chinese one is external. The interests of the chinese pressure groups do not coincide with American national interests. Their actors are not rooted in the American political system.

American Friends of the Middle East: The CIA, US Citizens, and the Secret Battle for American Public Opinion in the Arab–Israeli Conflict, 1947–1967

In 1951, the CIA secretly funded the creation of an ostensibly private group of US citizens called the American Friends of the Middle East (AFME). Pro-Arab and anti-Zionist in orientation, AFME was repeatedly attacked by pro-Israel groups before seeing its links to the CIA exposed by investigative journalists in 1967. Drawing on recent scholarship about “state–private networks” and the cultural history of US–Middle East relations, this article examines the origins of AFME, its characteristic values and relations with the CIA, and the reasons for the decline of its influence vis-à-vis the emergent “Israel lobby.”

The Clash between Islamism and the Israel Lobby

The Clash between Islamism and the Israel Lobby