Is It Good for the Jews?: The Crisis of America's Israel LobbyIn 2005, two then-officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee were indicted for handing over classified information to a foreign power. That the power in question was assumed to be Israel brought fresh credibility to a conspiracy theory that had been floating around Washington for years: that a powerful “Jewish lobby” controls U.S. policy in the Middle East. The run-up to the Iraq war had provided new grist for this theory. A group of largely Jewish neoconservatives were among the architects of the war, and their motivations for removing Saddam Hussein were alternately ascribed to oil interests and the need to protect Israel. The allegations against these neoconservatives—especially former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz—echoed the case of the notorious Jonathan Pollard who pled guilty of spying for Israel in 1986. In this biting and incisive polemic, journalist and author Stephen Schwartz confronts the myth of a Jewish lobby head on, asking questions that no one else has dared to pose. What is the “Jewish lobby”? How powerful is it? What was its involvement in the preparations for war in Iraq? Was there really a “cabal” of neoconservative Jews in the administration of George W. Bush? How did AIPAC officials come to be accused, in 2004, of espionage? Above all, what is good for the Jews, and who decides it? Many of us forget that in the 1930s, a genuine home-grown fascist movement arose in America. At that time, Schwartz reminds us, it was not the official representatives of the Jewish community that stood up to the fascist goons of New York City, but Jewish socialists—the antecedents of today’s neoconservatives. Likewise, today, it has not been the meek and timid leaders of the supposedly all-powerful Jewish Lobby that have defended the Jews but the reviled “neocons” in the Bush Administration. Their strategic vision projects a foreign policy that is both good for America and good for the Jews. As a result, Schwartz predicts an increasing turn for Jewish voters away from their dysfunctional marriage with the Democratic Party and toward the Republicans. Ultimately Schwartz concludes that in today's America, a “Jewish lobby” may no longer be necessary. In the face of the threatened collapse of the Lobby, he argues, American Jews should openly and proudly assume their proper role as moral and religious exemplars for their fellow Americans and cease acting like a frightened minority. |
Contents
Assault on Jew York Jewish SelfDefense Before the Lobby | 1 |
Jews and Democrats Origins of a Dysfunctional Marriage | 30 |
Hopes Orphan Israel and Its American Friends | 63 |
Estrangement The Agony of the JewishDemocratic Marriage | 96 |
Jewish Washington Jews in Power from Reagan to Clinton | 121 |
George W Bush and the Jews Before September 11 | 163 |
The Silence of the Lobbies September 11 and the Jews | 189 |
The AIPAC Scandal Proof of a Conspiracy? | 221 |
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Common terms and phrases
African American AIPAC alliance allies American Jews anti-Communist anti-Jewish anti-Semitism Arab attack AWACS became bombing campaign century Christian Front Clinton Communist conservative Deal defense democracy Democrats Dubinsky elected fascist Feith foreign Franklin Gentile global Grynszpan Hillman Hitler Holocaust Howard Kohr Iran Iranian Iraq Iraq war Iraqi Islam Islamist Israel lobby Israeli issues Jew-baiting Jewish leaders Jewish lobbies Jewish-Democratic Kristol Kurtzer Kuwait labor Lebanon leftist liberal major ment Middle East militant military movement Muslim Nazi neocons neoconservatives never Norman Podhoretz numbers official organization Oscar Straus Palestinian Party peace Pentagon Podhoretz political Powell President pro-Israel radical Reagan remained represented Republican Roosevelt Rosen and Weissman Rumsfeld Russian Saddam Saudi Arabia secretary September 11 Shachtman Shachtmanite Shanker Shia shtadlan social Soviet Stalin Stalinist Steve Rosen Straus Suez terrorism terrorist tion Trotsky Trotskyist union United vote Wahhabi Washington Wolfowitz York Zionist
References to this book
American Policy Toward Israel: The Power and Limits of Beliefs Michael Thomas No preview available - 2007 |