We first need to acknowledge the tremendous success Jews have attained in furthering their political objectives in the US. Two of the most important Jewish political concerns are Israel and the meaning/interpretation of anti-Semitism. Presently in public discourse, the narrative is dominated by Jews. Anyone - Jew or non-Jew - who seeks to alter that narrative will be severely and personally attacked by Jews. Many citizens and politicians have had their entire careers ruined by such backlash. In recent times, we saw Representative Ilan Omar treated unfairly for making the simplest of comments that most all us knew as factual and provable. Yet, even the Democrat party, spearheaded by Nancy Pelosi and many Jewish Congressmen, demanded - and got - her apology. In this example, the fact that Bernie Sanders, a Jewish Senator, defended her does not erase the fact that a much broader consensus among Jews led the attack. There are many such examples, and it's that broad dominant Jewish consensus underlying those examples that I focus on here.
A big problem with this is that by behaving so, Jews are damaging our democracy. Although Jews comprise only a couple percent of the US population, their political reach is far beyond that. This is not democratic. The writer contends that the unconditional US support for Israel is exceedingly damaging to our democracy, and there's much evidence showing that such support played a large role in the 9/11 attacks. Such a role was notoriously squelched during the hearings of the incompetent 9/11 Commission. In the lead-up to the Iraq War, the role of Israel figured into the political pressure by the Jewish Neocons and the surprising number of Jews within the GW Bush Administration. We can very well argue that the US relationship with the Arab countries - including Iran - would be much better if the US did not provide such uncompromising support for Israel, and no doubt, much of those relationships are as a result of Jewish lobbying.
Currently about 60% of the private campaign contributions to Democrats is provided by Jews, and to Republicans, about 25%, yet Jews are estimated to comprise about 2.5 % of the general population. For decades now, all US presidential candidates of both parties go out of their way to express their support for Israel. The power of the Jewish Lobby is not only obvious, but astonishing, by far dwarfing any other minority lobby, including that of Blacks.
One of the current obsessions of the Lobby is to make criticism of Israel an act of anti-Semitism, and many government agencies in various countries have complied, as has President Biden himself. The Jewish Lobby has succeeded many times in having Federal laws passed specifically for the benefit of Israel, the Lobby itself, and for US Jews. The Lobby has recently succeeded in coercing nearly three dozen state governments to pass laws discriminating against citizens who voice agreement with the Palestinian-originated BDS movement to Boycott, Divest, and Sanction Israel. Such laws are obviously contrary to our first amendment rights, and many Jews oppose them, but the fact is, without a broad Jewish consensus, such political clout would not exist. Similarly, the leaders of a couple dozen of those Jewish organizations mentioned above sent a letter to Facebook leaders, requesting that the social platform use the anti-Israel/anti-Semitism identity. Many of the intentions of the Jewish Lobby are clearly to damage our democratic ideals to their benefit, which has palpable approval among the Jewish community.
The Lobby defends itself by declaring it's methods legal, yet there are many legal behaviors that cause great damage to our democracy. "Money in politics" is something everyone disparages, yet no one fixes, and it illustrates the fact that many things that are legal still cause great damage to our democracy. The undemocratic influence on our government by well coordinated groups such as Wall Street, the Military, Bankers, Corporations, and simply extremely rich individuals, has wreaked havoc on our democracy, leading to much wasted treasure and blood and a nation that has the highest levels of inequality of all western democracies. Surprisingly such tremendous damage has a single, very effective remedy; i.e., a simple, appropriate constitutional amendment. But neither major party really want's to fix the problem, and to the main point, for one to argue that the actions of the Jewish Lobby are entirely okay simply because they are legal is absurd.
At present, the Jewish Tribe has become a means for the Jewish community to gain political advantage over non-Jews. It's cohesiveness and it's intentions, wealth and energy have enabled it. The unprecedented political effectiveness of the Jewish Lobby reflects a most skillful application of propaganda. With the enormous political success of the Lobby in recent decades, we can understand that such power can be intoxicating, leading to the most recent arrogant and shameful bombing massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. This is why Israel gets away with it, and with continued success, the Jewish Lobby will continue to damage our democracy, with Israel becoming more and more untouchable.
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