Influence of the Israel Lobby

I don't think I've ever been this riled up about a conflict before, and with that said, I am having a hard time staying neutral on this issue. My fiance and I had a long debate over it last night (to his displeasure I might add) and the issues between the Israeli's and the Palestinians make me want to pull my hair out. I did a little bit of research on the Israel Lobby after watching Mersheimer and Foxman's debate, and here's what I came up with:

The Israel Lobby, or AIPAC, has been most influential on American foreign policy concerning Israel. I found an article called "Can American Jews unplug the Israel Lobby?" that shone some light on just how persuasive they are. Michael Massing, who has done reporting on AIPAC for the New York Review of Books, said "You can't have an Israel policy other than what AIPAC gives you around here." And later he quotes a congressional staffer, "We can count on well over half the House -- 250 to 300 members -- to do reflexively whatever AIPAC wants." How scary is that?

And what's worse is, the policies that the American Jewish people are trying to lobby for are detrimental to US security, or so Mearshiemer argues. John Mearsheimer, the author of the "Israel Lobby," believes that Israeli supporters in the US have too much influence on policy concerning Israel, which ultimately distorts foreign policy to take a shape that is favorable to the Jewish people in the Middle East. He states his tribulations as being accused of being an anti-Semitist and having his politics called "shotty" but I really cannot ignore his argument. We are doing things that are pissing the terrorists off, and that is going to stir the pot.

In the article, Mearsheimer makes some major points that quite honestly scare me. The US cannot really give good reason for it's showering of three billion (that is with a B) of aid to Israel other than the strong Israel Lobby "pulling the strings of the institution". Although I don't really understand all of why we support them, I do see the points Mearsheimer makes of why we should not.

One of the big points Andy and I argued last night was the military support that Israel provided and still provides to the US military during the Iraq War. In the article there is a paragraph that sums up why Israel has become a strategic burden rather than ally:

"The first Gulf War revealed the extent to which Israel was becoming a strategic burden. The US could not use Israeli bases without rupturing the anti-Iraq coalition, and had to divert resources (e.g. Patriot missile batteries) to prevent Tel Aviv doing anything that might harm the alliance against Saddam Hussein. History repeated itself in 2003: although Israel was eager for the US to attack Iraq, Bush could not ask it to help without triggering Arab opposition. So Israel stayed on the sidelines once again."

So we are giving them $3billion a year, 25% for which is unaccounted for, and they didn't even help us during the recent Iraq War. What's worse is that America cannot just "cut-off" their funding without major opposition from the powerful Jewish Lobby. And that $750 million they recieve without having to tell us what they do with it could be going anywhere, including building settlements in the West Bank.

What upsets me the most about all of this is the plight of the Palestinians. I do NOT in any way shape or form condone the terrorists' actions, because they are wrong and the people who commit them should be persecuted. But I can understand why they are making this desperate attempts to be heard. The Israelis are like a big brother picking ruthlessly on their little brother, and the US (mom) isn't paying attention. And taking away their 'allowance' may cause more damage than the US turning its cheek.

Something Abraham Foxman said about how the "deadliest lies" Mearsheimer is telling like "the Jews control the government to support their own interests" caught my attention. How is this a lie? The Israel Lobby, according to the article I found above, is the second most influential group behind the AARP, and they are even ahead of the NRA. They are pushing their goals and their views for Israel as its own nation and twisting it so our government caters to them. Meanwhile back in the Middle East, the Jewish people are doing the same thing-using their aid money to build settlements against the wishes of the entire Arab region for their own benefit.

I'm sorry if I'm getting "tunnel vision" as Andy calls it, but doesn't this all sound like the Jewish people are trying to control the Middle East? It's a reverse of the Holocaust....and it makes no sense to me that they would do the same thing to their enemies that Hitler and his Nazis did to them. I understand why the terrorists have done the things they have in the Middle East, and why they would be angry at us for aiding the people who are trying to control them by force. Again, the terrorists are wrong in the way they have chosen to react, but what how are they supposed to be heard under such oppression and with so few resources? How can they compete with the all powerful, American-backed Israelis? The reciprocations that are going to ensue from this conflict are not something I'm looking forward to seeing.