The existence of the Reagan peace plan, at a time of extreme public outcry in the aftermath of Israel’s brutal invasion of Lebanon, is not evidence that the Israel lobby is controlled by the president. In fact this is a great example of how the Israel lobby works against the president. AIPAC immediately got to work to undermine Reagan’s plan, including opposing restrictions on aid to Israel and opposing forcing Israel to withdraw from Lebanon (https://archive.ph/Olfz6). It was effective because Congress completely sided with the lobby, funding for Israel continued to be increased and Israel remained in Lebanon until they were forced out in 2000 by Hezbollah. If AIPAC was controlled by the president, they would not work to undermine his plan. They would reinforce the president’s plan.
In order to show that AIPAC answers to the president or anyone else, you would need to show that AIPAC’s behavior is generally steered by the president. There is simply no evidence of this. However, there’s lots of evidence that they are steered by Israel’s president - for that I would recommend The Israel Lobby by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt.
How do you propose a country less than 1% the population of the US while also being completely militarily and financially dependent on the US is somehow controlling the US?
“Controlling” is a very strong word that I never said, so don’t put words in my mouth. I think it is accurate to say that they “exert profound influence” in DC. In the United States there are a great many wealthy individuals who have strong personal feelings for Israel because they are Jewish ethnonationalists. Examples include Larry Ellison and Bill Ackman. There is a grassroots Christian Zionist movement as well - but Christian Zionism is a right wing movement and doesn’t explain rigid bipartisan support for Israel. These groups provide lots of funding for lobbying groups such as AIPAC which act forcefully to make sure that no one in Congress opposes their Israel policies. Examples of actions include dumping over $14 million in a Democrat primary to defeat Israel critic Jamaal Bowman, and dumping over $9 million in another primary to oust Cori Bush. These are unprecedented sums in primary elections, and are just the most recent examples. These actions work to create a culture of fear in Congress, as Barack Obama would state: “Those who criticised Israeli policy too loudly risked being tagged as ‘anti-Israel’ — and possibly anti-Semitic — and confronted with a ‘well-funded opponent in the next election.” (in A Promised Land). Obama’s statement predicted the future for Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. The result is that roughly 80% of Congress is funded by AIPAC, and AIPAC wins 95% of the elections it backs.
This is how the profound influence is mediated. Size of the country has nothing to do with it.
And to say that this is an elaborate kayfabe, with the President only pretending to oppose the lobby’s goals, is a bigger conspiracy theory than simply saying AIPAC does what it publicly says it is doing, on its own accord.
The existence of the Reagan peace plan, at a time of extreme public outcry in the aftermath of Israel’s brutal invasion of Lebanon, is not evidence that the Israel lobby is controlled by the president. In fact this is a great example of how the Israel lobby works against the president. AIPAC immediately got to work to undermine Reagan’s plan, including opposing restrictions on aid to Israel and opposing forcing Israel to withdraw from Lebanon (https://archive.ph/Olfz6). It was effective because Congress completely sided with the lobby, funding for Israel continued to be increased and Israel remained in Lebanon until they were forced out in 2000 by Hezbollah. If AIPAC was controlled by the president, they would not work to undermine his plan. They would reinforce the president’s plan.
In order to show that AIPAC answers to the president or anyone else, you would need to show that AIPAC’s behavior is generally steered by the president. There is simply no evidence of this. However, there’s lots of evidence that they are steered by Israel’s president - for that I would recommend The Israel Lobby by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt.
“Controlling” is a very strong word that I never said, so don’t put words in my mouth. I think it is accurate to say that they “exert profound influence” in DC. In the United States there are a great many wealthy individuals who have strong personal feelings for Israel because they are Jewish ethnonationalists. Examples include Larry Ellison and Bill Ackman. There is a grassroots Christian Zionist movement as well - but Christian Zionism is a right wing movement and doesn’t explain rigid bipartisan support for Israel. These groups provide lots of funding for lobbying groups such as AIPAC which act forcefully to make sure that no one in Congress opposes their Israel policies. Examples of actions include dumping over $14 million in a Democrat primary to defeat Israel critic Jamaal Bowman, and dumping over $9 million in another primary to oust Cori Bush. These are unprecedented sums in primary elections, and are just the most recent examples. These actions work to create a culture of fear in Congress, as Barack Obama would state: “Those who criticised Israeli policy too loudly risked being tagged as ‘anti-Israel’ — and possibly anti-Semitic — and confronted with a ‘well-funded opponent in the next election.” (in A Promised Land). Obama’s statement predicted the future for Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. The result is that roughly 80% of Congress is funded by AIPAC, and AIPAC wins 95% of the elections it backs.
This is how the profound influence is mediated. Size of the country has nothing to do with it.
And to say that this is an elaborate kayfabe, with the President only pretending to oppose the lobby’s goals, is a bigger conspiracy theory than simply saying AIPAC does what it publicly says it is doing, on its own accord.