FAQ 6
Does Israel control US foreign policy?
The allegation
The Israel lobby, through a combination of its funding of political candidates, its influence on the media and through its supporters in and pressure on members of the US Congress and successive administrations, has bent US policy to prioritise Israel’s interests over those of the US.
Brief rebuttal
No, Israel does not control US foreign policy, but its supporters do have a very powerful influence on some aspects of it. The US’s uncritical support for Israel serves the US’s own perceived interests.
More detail
Israel’s creation and recognition in 1948 owed a great deal to the United States, and the strong links between the two countries continue to this day. Power brokers in Washington see this linkage with Israel as strategic, securing an important ally in a sensitive and oil-rich region of the world.
It was Britain that nurtured a Jewish colony in Palestine after the First World War as a “loyal little Ulster” in the Middle East – to protect its interests there (the Suez Canal, its oil holdings in the region). After the Second World War the US took over the UK’s role. Until 1990 the existence of Israel served well the US concern to combat possible Soviet influence in the region. Since then, Israel and the US have shared a common aim in opposition to the influence and power of Iran and much else besides.
Reinforcing these ‘realpolitik’ considerations is the close identification that many Americans feel, as a matter of belief and conviction, with the state of Israel. This has enabled the formation of an elaborate network of pressure groups, largely funded by Jews and Jewish-controlled businesses, that put into effect this sentiment. AIPAC – the American Israel Public Affairs Committee – is the most formidable of these but there are many more.
For Jewish Zionists Israel represents a key part of their identity. But this is also true for 20+ million Christian Zionists, who in the United States greatly outnumber those Zionists who are Jewish. A branch of American conservative evangelicalism, Christian Zionists believe that the establishment of Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel is a prerequisite for Christ’s return to earth and the “great rapture”. Naturally this makes fervent support for Israel a crucial priority.
Both Jewish and Christian Zionists are strongly motivated and well organised. They exert powerful influence over those they choose to support in political office while actively denying those opportunities to those they see as critical of Israel. Candidates for political office who do not support Israel may well find themselves ousted in primaries by well-funded opponents who do.
For many years this lobbying activity was largely invisible to all but the most diligent observers. (US politicians did sometimes reveal the Israel lobby’s influence and reach, but only when they were no longer seeking election.) The internet has now ended much of that opacity. Millions can see the events in Gaza and the West Bank and are responding politically by challenging those in power.
Further resources
1. John J Mearsheimer and Stephen M Walt, The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy by (2007) makes the case for the overarching power of the Israel lobby.
Here are two contemporary reviews:
The Israel Lobby: How Powerful Is It Really? Stephen Zunes, Foreign Policy in Focus, 2006
The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, review by Richard Kuper in Red Pepper, 2007
2. Chris McGreal, The work of pro-Israel groups in the 2024 US elections, Guardian explainer, Apr 2024
3. Carlo Aldrovandi, Forcing the End Times: US Christian Zionism and Israel, University of Oxford podcast, 11 Jan 2021
4. Historian Tony Judt speaks on YouTube about the Israel lobby in 2010 in Don’t Talk about Israel. Podcast
5. Former Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg, A struggle for the souls of two nations, Prospect, 12 Feb 2024
6. Peter Oborne, review of Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic Ilan Pappe 2024.