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Commentary;
On Wednesday, 5 September, 2007 George Friedman of Strategic Forecasting, Inc. released a paper which debunks the myths of Harvard professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt regarding the activities and “manipulations (sic)” of the “Israel Lobby.”
This blog has excerpted only the summation of Friedman’s paper.
Contrary to Mearsheimer and Walt’s assertions that successive adminstration’s having been manipulated “The Israel Lobby”, Friedman’s paper on the history of US/Israel relations shows conclusively that the United States dogmatically pursues it’s own interests and extends support and cooperation to another country ONLY when that country’s interests are deemed amenable by a US administration, the state department, etc. to the perceived interests of the U.S. Thus we see, for example, perennial US support for such as Saudi Arabia, primarily based on Saudi oil leverage and America’s gas needs and mobility.
Friedman’s paper is an important contribution to clarity in light of the hesitation, equivocation and abrogations of responsibility on the parts of successive Israeli governments and leaders in their tendencies toward either subserviance to and hiding their true intentions behind the cloak of American pressure.
In the view of this author, the Friedman paper also dispels the widely held Israeli notion that we must be “dying to please, dying to comply” with American pressure and demands, and the word “dying” is used literally.
Hopefully, the Friedman paper will add weight, as if any weight need be added, to the fact that there is an Ultimate Authority beyond the United States; an Authority who is on our side and who has taken B’nei Yisrael as His Nation, as His Own. All we need do is put aside our foolish, senseless notions and reach out to Shemayim and not look, for our security and survival, to the nations. MB
The Israel Lobby in U.S. Strategy, by George Friedman Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (IMRA)
Excerpts;
There is a powerful Jewish, pro-Israel lobby in Washington, though it was not very successful in the first 20 years or so of Israel’s history. When U.S. policy toward Israel swung in 1967 it had far more to do with geopolitical interests than with lobbying. The United States needed help with Egypt and Syria and Israel could provide it. Lobbying appeared to be the key, but it wasn’t; geopolitical necessity was. Egypt was anti-American even when the United States was anti-Israeli. Al Qaeda would be anti-American even if the United States were anti-Israel. Rhetoric aside, Iran has never taken direct action against Israel and has much more important things on its plate.
Portraying the Israel lobby as super-powerful behooves two groups: Critics of U.S. Middle Eastern policy and the Israel lobby itself. Critics get to say the U.S. relationship with Israel is the result of manipulation and corruption. Thus, they get to avoid discussing the actual history of Israel, the United States and the Middle East. The lobby benefits from having robust power because one of its jobs is to raise funds — and the image of a killer lobby opens a lot more pocketbooks than does the idea that both Israel and the United States are simply pursuing their geopolitical interests and that things would go on pretty much the same even without slick lobbying.
The great irony is that the critics of U.S. policy and the Israel lobby both want to believe in the same myth — that great powers can be manipulated to harm themselves by crafty politicians. The British didn’t get the United States into the world wars, and the Israelis aren’t maneuvering the Americans into being pro-Israel. Beyond its ability to exert itself on small things, the Israel lobby is powerful in influencing Washington to do what it is going to do anyway. What happens next in Iraq is not up to the Israel lobby — though it and the Saudi Embassy have a different story.
To read the entire paper, click here or here.