CAIRO: The Israel lobby in the US has managed to veer foreign policy in the Middle East in a direction that has been harmful to the interests of both the US and Israel, co-author of “The Israel lobby and US foreign policy Stephen Walt said.
“The Israel lobby is an interest group like any other interest group in the US.
However, it is influential in the US, has a profound impact on our foreign policy in the Middle East in particular and its influence has not been good for the US, other countries in the region and Israel, he said.
Speaking at a public lecture at the American University in Cairo Thursday night, Harvard professor Walt, who co-wrote the book, which has raised a storm of criticism from the lobby in the US, with John Mearsheimer of Chicago University, stated that the only explanation for US favoritism of Israel was the effective work of the Israel lobby.
“On balance, having the special relationship with Israel is a strategic liability for the US, he said. “The primary reason [for unconditional US support for Israel] is the influence of the Israel lobby [which] is a loose coalition of groups and individuals which works openly in the American political system to support the special relationship between the US and Israel.
“In the US, interest groups are at the center of how politics works. They can give money to candidates who are running for office. They can try to put pressure on media organizations so [they can] provide information that supports their cause, Walt added.
He indicated that the lobby does not include all Jewish-Americans, and also includes non-Jews such as Christian Zionists and neo-conservatives.
“The lobby is defined by its political agenda. In the US, relatively small groups with a focused agenda often have disproportionate influence, he said.
Shedding light on their modus operandi, Walt said, “The Israel lobby works in two main ways. It tries to get politicians who are sympathetic to their views elected to office or appointed to key positions in the government and then it tries to give them a clear incentive to do what the lobby wants.
He singled out AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee) as the most influential group in the lobby, which also includes the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) amongst others.
“AIPAC helps draft legislation in congress, and has an annual budget of about $50 million. And although AIPAC does not give money to people running for office, it does ask anyone who is running where they stand on these issues and then it helps guide campaign contributions from other organizations that do give money in elections, he said.
Political action committees – such as AIPAC – help steer funds to candidates and since 1992, pro-Israel political action committees have given over $55 million to people running for office. In comparison, Arab political action committees have given $800,000 in the same time period, Walt said.
Another strategy of the Israel lobby is “to try and shape public discussion in the US so that Israel is viewed favorably by most Americans. Mainstream media in the US tend to be very pro-Israel, especially in terms of editorials, commentary and columnists. If you compare coverage in the US with either Europe or Israel itself you see a much narrower range of views, he said.
“Although the coverage tends to be pro-Israel, groups in the lobby monitor what newspapers print and what radio and TV stations broadcast and they put pressure on these organizations when they do anything that’s critical of Israel, Walt added.
He said, “Efforts to stifle criticism of Israeli policy often include charging critics with being anti-Semitic. The main reason why some groups and people in the lobby use this charge is because the case they are defending is so weak. Not the case for Israel’s existence, which I support and my co-author supports, but rather for America giving Israel unconditional support.
Walt added, “The result of this is that there has been very little serious debate about the relationship with Israel, especially in Congress, even at a moment where it’s obvious to almost everyone that American Middle East policy has gone badly off course.
According to Walt, the lobby played a key part in promoting the Iraq war but it wasn’t the sole reason. Those who pushed for the war were the neo-conservatives. The 9-11 attacks allowed them to finally convince the administration that regional transformation in the Middle East was a sound policy.
Additionally, Walt pointed out, Israel was skeptical at first of the Iraq war because they preferred the US to focus on Iran. However, when told that it would be a pathway to Iran they supported it.
He added that the war was not due to Jewish influence, but rather the lobby’s influence, which was not solely comprised of Jews. Walt argued that the lobby was often out of step with the broader population of the US including Jewish-Americans.
If the 9-11 attacks had never happened, the US would not be in Iraq today, Walt said. He stated that entry to the war wasn’t because it was perceived to be good for Israel and bad for the US, but that it would be good for the US first and also good for Israel. This was clearly “wrong according to Walt because the biggest beneficiary of the war in his view is Iran, and its consequences were harmful to both the US and Israel.
Walt also applied the same concept to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, stating that the current policy application (pushed by the lobby) to this issue was also harmful to both the US and Israel. It was, amongst other things, a source of Islamic radicalization, though not the only one. Additionally, it had harmed the image of the US in the Arab and Islamic world.
Walt’s recommendation was “the US should treat Israel like a normal country, not like the 51st state. We should support them when they do things that are in our interests, and that we think are right. And we should distance ourselves when they take actions which are harmful to American interest, or not in Israel’s interests.
“There is certainly little reason for the US to continue to provide generous and unconditional support to a very wealthy country. We should be committed to Israel’s right to exist, but not to its effort to colonize the territories, he added.
In the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the US “should act like an honest broker and pursue an even-handed policy. We should be making it clear to Israel that it should leave the occupied territories and allow for the creation of a viable Palestinian state on those lands, he said.
“But that won’t change until the influence of the Israeli lobby is reduced or until the major organizations in the lobby come to understand that the policies they have been pressing for for many years have not been in the American national interest, not been in the interest of other states in the Middle East and not been in Israel’s interests as well, he concluded.
