The Israel Lobbies: A Survey of the Pro-Israel Community in the United States

Abstract

Th e infl uence of the pro-Israel lobby in US foreign policymaking toward the Middle East has been a subject of great interest and fi erce controversy in recent years. Yet, despite being the object of a massive amount of critical scrutiny, the pro-Israel lobby remains poorly understood. All too oft en it is depicted as a highly organized, cohesive political actor pursuing an agenda in line with, and even determined by, Israel's right-wing Likud party. By undertaking a detailed empirical survey of the pro-Israel community in the United States, this article shows that such a view is grossly inaccurate. Th e pro-Israel community is neither monolithic nor a unitary actor. It is fragmented into a number of diff erent groups, many of which disagree sharply over their understanding of Israel's real interests. In lobbying the US government for what they believe is in Israel's interests, therefore, the pro-Israel community rarely, if ever, speaks with a single voice.

Reactions of the American Jews to Trump’s Jerusalem Embassy Move: Continuation of the Historical Pattern?

“…Israel's handling of the Palestinian issue since the late 1970s has also resulted in significant disagreements among Jewish diaspora organizations in the United States. With the exception of the leftwing organization Breira ("Alternative" in Hebrew), which was founded in 1973 and forced to dissolve in 1977 under intense pressure from Jewish community leaders and professionals for its vigorous criticism of Israel and its advocacy of the establishment of a Palestinian state in the occupied territories (Waxman, 2010), Jewish diaspora organizations that provide unconditional support for the positions of Israeli governments, particularly the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Conference of Presidents (CoP) of Major American Jewish Organizations, did not face any serious challenge from within the Jewish community until the early 1980s (Elazar, 2001;Gertheiss, 2016;Sasson, 2014;Waxman, 2016).…”

“…Considering the positions they have taken on issues concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, American Jewish organizations can be divided into three categories: right-wing, centrist, and leftwing groups (Sasson, 2014;Waxman, 2010). Right-wing groups-namely, Americans for a Safe Israel, American Friends of Likud, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, and the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA)-tend to see the Palestinians not as potential partners with whom they can come to the table for reconciliation but rather as Israel's fierce enemies, and as such, they believe that the use of hard power will lead to more effective results than diplomacy and negotiations (Waxman, 2010).…”

“…Consequently, these groups reject any Israeli territorial concessions to the Palestinians. They support settlement construction and Israeli domination in the West Bank and persistently oppose the division of Jerusalem and the two-state solution (Fleshler, 2009;Rynhold, 2015;Waxman, 2010).…”

“…Centrist groups, such as AIPAC, the ADL, and the CoP, viewing U.S. support as an indispensable element of Israel's security act as an intermediary between the two countries (Waxman, 2010). They are of the view that the expression of critical thoughts about Israel's policies in public could damage the United States-Israeli alliance.…”

The American Politics of a Jewish Judea and Samaria

“…Third, on the right side of the continuum I introduced in Chapter One (Waxman 2010) are organizations such as ZOA and Americans for a Safe Israel. According to a conversation with a ZOA representative, ZOA's mandate is not to argue for Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, and thus the PCJc would not fit into that organization.…”