Status Updates From The Israel Lobby and U.S. F...

Following the invasion and the revelation that there were no WMD in Iraq, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Israeli Knesset released separate reports revealing that much of the intelligence Israel gave to the Bush administration was false.

“By making it difficult for the U.S. government to criticize Israel’s conduct and press it to change some of its counterproductive policies, the lobby may even be jeopardizing the long-term prospects of the Jewish state.”

“There is a strong moral case for Israel’s existence and there are good reasons for the United States to be committed to helping Israel if its survival is in jeopardy. But given Israel’s brutal treatment of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, moral considerations might suggest that the United States pursue a more evenhanded policy toward the two sides, and Abe even lean toward the Palestinians.”

“Why does Israel get a free pass from presidential candidates when its own citizens are often deeply critical of its present policies? These same presidential candidates are all too willing to criticize many of the things that other countries do. Why does Israel, and no other country in the world, receive such consistent deference from America’s leading politicians?”

The United States has three main interests in the Middle East today: keeping Persian Gulf oil flowung to world markets, discouraging the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and reducing anti-American terrorism originating in the region. ... many of the policies that organizations in the lobby have promoted over time have left the US worse off.