Jewish lobby
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Jewish lobby is a phrase sometimes used to refer loosely to the Israel lobby in the United States, primarily AIPAC, the AJC, and other Jewish-American lobbying organizations. Its validity as a term is disputed by a number of commentators and on several grounds. Some claim that it is an inaccurate label for a political coalition that doesn't represent most American Jews and includes many non-Jews, and whose primary concern is policy towards Israel.[1][2] Others argue that it attributes undue influence to Jews and is fundamentally antisemitic[3].
Usage
The term 'Jewish lobby' has often been used descriptively to refer to one or more of the organizations and special-interest lobby groups in America that lobby for Israel. For example The Jerusalem Post wrote in 2004 of "The Jewish lobby ... Organizations such as B'nai B'rith, the American Jewish Committee, and AIPAC"[4] In 1999 the Jerusalem Post covered the first visit to Washington of the then new Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak, writing: "Barak, who has been said to have relatively little familiarity with the workings of Congress, or with the importance of the Jewish lobby in Washington, is proving a fast learner."[5]
More recently some writers have complained about the inaccuracy of the term. According to Mitchell Bard, director of the non-profit American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE), "...reference is often made to the 'Jewish lobby' in an effort to describe Jewish influence, but this term is both vague and inadequate." Bard argues the term Israel lobby is more accurate, because it is comprises both formal and informal elements (which includes public opinion), and "...because a large proportion of the lobby is made up of non-Jews." [1]
Stephen Walt comments that he and co-author John Mearsheimer of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy "never use the term 'Jewish lobby' because the lobby is defined by its political agenda, not by religion or ethnicity."[2] In a letter to the editor of The New York Times, Mearsheimer and Walt state "Indeed, we explicitly rejected this label as inaccurate and misleading, both because the lobby includes non-Jews like the Christian Zionists and because many Jewish Americans do not support the hard-line policies favored by its most powerful elements."[6] David Cesarani, commenting in The Guardian on Richard Dawkins use of the term, states that "Mearsheimer and Walt would doubtless chide Dawkins for using the term 'Jewish lobby', which they studiously avoid in order to give no truck to anti-Jewish innuendo."[7]
Bruno Bettelheim detested the term, arguing "The self-importance of Jews combined with the paranoia of the anti-Semite had created the image of this lobby."[8]
Michael Visontay, editor at the The Sydney Morning Herald, writes that "The way the phrase 'Jewish lobby has been bandied about in numerous letters implies there is something inherently sinister in lobbying when Jews do it."[9] Dominique Vidal, writing in Le Monde diplomatique, says that in France "only the far right used to refer to a 'Jewish lobby'", but that in 2004 it had been used by "a Jewish writer, Elisabeth Schemla".[10]
Commenting on Chris Davies, MEP for the northwest of England's use of the term, The Guardian's David Hirsh feels that the term indicates a lack of "care, thought" and "self-education." Davies resigned after having used the term in an e-mail considered inappropriate by the public and the Liberal Democrats.[11]
Reviewing Queen Noor of Jordan's memoir Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life, Kenneth Jacobson of the Anti-Defamation League writes that though she refers to the "Zionist lobby", "...Queen Noor is not so insensitive or crass as to actually use the phrase 'Jewish Lobby,'."[12] Joseph Lelyveld, in a The New York Review of Books review of Jimmy Carter's Palestine Peace Not Apartheid points out that Carter "doesn't resort to the term 'Jewish lobby'".[13]
In his 2006 speech at Rutgers University, the editor of The Forward, J.J. Goldberg, talked about his 1996 study of American-Jewish politics titled Jewish Power. He called for an open and frank discussion of the "Jewish lobby" as a positive force in the United States. "We do good. We should be proud of it... If you look at the programs in Jewish studies departments around the country... you can learn about the Talmud, you can learn about Jewish history in the 1500s, you can learn about the Jewish theater, but what we don’t have is Jewish political science." He described the milestones in Jewish political activism, which included the alliance of Jewish defense organizations and black groups that fought for civil rights legislation in the 1950s and 1960s. Goldberg stated: "We are here not to make people feel better about being Jewish, not to massage them, not to defend the good name of the Jews to the world, but to help Jews be better citizens of the Jewish community." and noted that in recent years The Forward has reported on sex abuse in synagogues and labor abuses in kosher slaughterhouses, among other unsavory topics. Goldberg said that part of his paper's task is "holding the Jewish leadership to account the same way The New York Times holds the White House and the Pentagon to account."[14]
Association with antisemitism
It has been claimed that the term is a pejorative, and some of those who have used the term have been attacked for being Antisemitic. According to George Michael, it is used most commonly by the far right, far left, and Islamists.[15]
It has been argued that 'Jewish lobby' is used to allege that the money spent by Israel lobby in the United States has caused Jews to exercise undue influence in a number of areas, including politics, government, business, the media, academia, popular culture, public policy, international relations, and international finance. [3][16][17] Numerous writers have claimed that the expression is associated with antisemitic aspersions.[18][19][20][10] Chip Berlet of Political Research Associates, an American research group that tracks right-wing extremists, writes that it combines the classic elements of anti-Semitic stereotyping and scapegoating, and is part of the discourse of conspiracism.[16] Susan Jacobs of Manchester Metropolitan University states that the phrase, when used "without mentioning other ‘lobbies’ or differentiating Jews who have different political positions on a number of questions, including Israel and Palestine", is a contemporary form of the fear of a Jewish conspiracy.[19] Robert S. Wistrich, of the International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, sees reference to the phrase as reliance on a classic antisemitic stereotype.[20] Dominique Vidal, writing in Le Monde diplomatique, says it is "a phrase that combines standard anti-semitic fantasies about Jewish finance, media control and power; the term is the contemporary equivalent of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[10]
See also
- Anti-Zionism
- New antisemitism
- American Jewish Committee
- American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)
- Israel lobby in the United States
- Zionist Occupation Government
References
- ^ a b Bard, Mitchell. The Water's Edge and Beyond: Defining the Limits to Domestic Influence on United States Middle East Policy, Transaction publishers, 1991, p. 6. ISBN 088738286X
- ^ a b John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt: Authors, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy", Washington Post, Book World Live, October 9, 2007. Accessed January 7, 2008.
- ^ a b Aaronovitch, David. "Message to the left: there is no all-powerful Jewish lobby", The Guardian, May 27, 2003
- ^ Seven Days - Diplomacy, Jerusalem Post, June 18, 2004
- ^ Standing room only in the PM's office, Jerusalem Post, August 10, 1999
- ^ Mearsheime, John and Walt, Stephen. "The Israel lobby", letters to the editor, October 14, 2007.
- ^ Cesarani, David. "Exerting influence", The Guardian, October 8, 2007.
- ^ Sutton, Nina (David Sharp trans.) Bettelheim: A Life and a Legacy, BasicBooks, p. 486. ISBN 0465006353
- ^ Visontay, Michael. "Free speech for some, others pay", The Sydney Morning Herald, November 14, 2003.
- ^ a b c Vidal, Dominique. "France: racism is indivisible", Le Monde diplomatique, May 2004.
- ^ Hirsh, David. "Revenge of the Jewish lobby?", The Guardian, May 5, 2006.
- ^ Jacobson, Kenneth. "Queen Noor's Blind Spots", Anti-Defamation League, May 12, 2003.
- ^ Lelyveld, Joseph. "Jimmy Carter and Apartheid", The New York Review of Books, Volume 54, Number 5 · March 29, 2007.
- ^ Weiner, Robert (September 21, 2006). "'Jewish power' is a force for good, says Forward editor". Weehawken, NJ: New Jersey Jewish Journal.
- ^ Michael, George. The Enemy of my Enemy: The Alarming Convergence of Militant Islam and the Extreme Right, 2006, pp. 46-47 & 228-238.
- ^ a b Berlet, Chip (October 2004). "ZOG Ate My Brains"". New Internationalist. No. 372. Market Harborough, UK.
- ^ The myth of the "Jewish lobby" by Vijay Prasad in the Frontline (India's National Magazine) Volume 20 - Issue 20, September 27 - October 10, 2003.
- ^ Ramadan, Tariq. "Muslims and Anti-Semitism", UN Chronicle, June 10, 2005:
"Much like the situation across the Muslim world, there exists in the West today a discourse which is anti-Semitic, seeking legitimacy in certain Islamic texts and support in the present situation in Palestine. This is the attitude of not only the marginalized youth but also of intellectuals and Imams, who see the manipulative hand of the “Jewish lobby” at each turn or every political setback."
- ^ a b Jacobs, Dr. Susan. "AntiSemitism and other forms of racism Continuities, discontinuities, (and some conspiracies….)" Paper presented at the 2005 CRONEM (Centre for Research on Nationalism, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism) Conference, Roehampton University, Southlands College, 14th-15th June 2005:
"As is well-known, the Procotols was a forged document written in Russia in 1897, alleging that a worldwide Jewish conspiracy existed. This document attempted to explain a seeming contradiction: Jews were (are) prominent both in capitalist and in socialist/communist circles: the ‘explanation’ was that both were shams: capitalist and communist Jews were not really at odds, as it might seem. They were in fact united (secretly) in a bid for world domination. Although this conspiracy theory lay at the heart of Nazism it is also widespread outside neo-fascist groupings. Many of these are right-wing/neo-Nazi (e.g. Pamyat in Russia) but the Protocols have had some influence on movements with some claim to progressive credentials. The Protocols have also had some influence elsewhere, so that Eyptian and Syrian state-sponsored TV serials have produced soaps which dramatise the allegations of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Mohamed, 2002; Kaba and Tubiana, 2002).
That some type of shadowy Jewish conspiracy exists is commonsense, taken-for-granted element in many quarters: e.g. rumours that the predominance of neo-conservatives in the USA is a ‘Jewish conspiracy’ (Greenspan, 2003; Berlet, 2004; Interview, 2004 ). Perhaps even more common is a vague suspicion that such a conspiracy might exist but that it is impolite to articulate this. A contemporary form of this fear is the phrase ‘the Jewish lobby’ without mentioning other ‘lobbies’ or differentiating Jews who have different political positions on a number of questions, including Israel and Palestine." - ^ a b Klug, Brian & Wistrich, Robert S. "Correspondence between Prof. Robert Wistrich and Brian Klug: When Is Opposition to Israel and Its Policies Anti-Semitic?", International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Retrieved January 11, 2008:
"Does he or she rely on classic anti-Semitic stereotypes in so doing: for example, by dredging up the alleged Jewish/Zionist 'conspiracy' to dominate the world, or by evoking Jewish/Israeli 'warmongers' who supposedly run American foreign policy; or through referring to an all-powerful "Jewish Lobby" that prevents justice in the Middle East."