It is certainly true that the United States is, in the words of Mearsheimer and Walt, "out of step" with the vast majority of the international community on the question of Israel and Palestine.
Kind of easy to be "in step" with the international community (whoever they may be?.. possibly the non-democratic members of the world) when they don't have to bear the political cost of their decisions, riding upon the coat-tails of US security policy.
Or maybe it's because they remember all the hijackings and terrorist bombings perpetrated by the Palestinians against them when they refused to support their cause?
Or maybe it's a little of both... ;0)
For example, we can recall French and Russian support for Iraq. But folks like you don't think about the amount of ECONOMIC INTEREST they had in keeping Saddam in power.
They didn't give a sh*t if he was a brutal dictator.. they know that the US/UK would contain him if he got out of line. So it was an easy decision for them to muck around and put their own interests ahead of those of the UNSC, as well as regional security. They had money to make.. and all of those oil concessions that Saddam promised to them was a tremendous incentive that motivated them to have the sanctions removed, or at least undermined.
And now we're seeing the Russians and Chinese doing the same thing with Iran, as they try to PREVENT the UNSC from becoming involved and applying sanctions against that intransigent government.
So tell me.. if the Israeli lobby is so powerful, can not the same be said for the Palestinian lobby in Europe and Russia??
Could it be that the Israeli lobby depends upon the US to prevent being walked over by the European-Palestinan block?
Could it be that maybe it's the RIGHT THING TO DO supporting a democratic state, flawed as it might be, over non-democratic dictatorships and monarchies??
And what about the Saudi lobby in the US? There's been tremendous controversy about the level of Arab lobbying support in the US as well.. They certainly have more financial resources than does Israel (and they generally pay cash for the things they buy from us).
Bottom line, as the authors seem to imply, there is no clear "black and white" with regard to the measure of control the Israeli lobbies have, or do not have. There is certainly major support for protecting Israel from it's enemies, but there is also tremendous criticism levied at Israel by the US Jewish lobby (which is quite liberal).
And I found it curious, though it makes sense, that Israel would have lobbied on behalf of Syria, to prevent Assad's government from falling and ushering in an Islamist regime.
Hawk |
