The Israel lobby: Underestimated

By Amitai Etzioni
November 20, 2007

A recent book has been criticized for vastly exaggerating the influence of the Israel lobby in Washington. As a former senior advisor to the White House, and a longtime active resident of Washington, let me tell you that the opposite is the truth. As all the other lobbies are shutting down, as one office after another on the notorious K Street is emptied out, these vacant spaces are all picked up by the Israelis. In effect, Hebrew is now the language most often heard in the fancy, expense account restaurants of Washington.

Some have argued that the military-industrial lobby and the oil lobby arranged for the 10-billion dollar arms deal for Saudi Arabia, the mother of the 9/11 terrorists. Actually, this too is the work of the Israel lobby, although its reasons for pushing through this deal for one of Israel's enemies remain murky. Also, one should grant that at least in this case the lobby has been quite generous: it succeeded in inserting into the relevant congressional bill a clause that requires that three out of every four dollars of the funds involved will be spent buying the weapons from American arms dealers rather than from the burgeoning Israeli military industry.

The Israel lobby also exerts a major influence over the media. In effect, a large chunk of the media is owned by one famous South African rabbi, Rupert Murdoch. One of the most influential TV news program is that of Bill O'Reilly of Fox, whose great grandmother is reported to have been Jewish. The most influential radio program is that of Rush Limbaugh, who is believed to study Kabala with Madonna herself. [More...]