For instance, the Saturday before the war began, the Krims were Johnson's company at a fundraiser at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, intended in part to shore up his support in the Jewish community. Arthur Krim hosted the fundraiser; and Johnson sat between Mathilde Krim and Mary Lasker, another huge contributor to the party. The legendary fundraiser Abe Feinberg was there, and served as a conduit for the Israeli war plans, reports William Quandt in his book, Peace Process.
And yes: LBJ looked the other way over the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty on June 8, 1967.
4. Jimmy Carter versus American Jewish groups that sided with a rightwing Israeli PM
Carter repeatedly put pressure on Israeli leaders to freeze or stop settlements so as to allow the possibility of Palestinian political autonomy in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Those leaders refused to budge, and American Jewish organizations stood by the rightwing government of Menachem Begin. In his recent book on Carter, former aide Stu Eizenstat, who would later serve as Hillary Clinton's liaison to Netanyahu, describes the special role of the lobby in language that makes Ilhan Omar's "allegiance" statement look very reasonable indeed.
"[There is a] special triangular relationship among Israel, the America Jewish leadership and the Congress... effectively applying pressure on the presidency to modify U.S. policy to Israel's benefit. This is unique in the annals of diplomacy. There are other countries, such as Britain, that have a favored relationship with the United States but exert their influence through traditional diplomacy rather than relying heavily on a domestic American constituency and lobbying Congress. For a vulnerable, small country like Israel, surrounded by enemies, perfecting this unusual brand of political diplomacy was essential. While it existed to a limited degree before the Carter administration, it was honed to much greater use during our term in office. Since then it has only grown in dimension and intensity to be one of Washington's most effective lobbies.
"Carter was to discover this through painful experience."
When Carter announced a summit on the Middle East with the Soviet Union without consulting US Jewish groups, a political firestorm occurred, "orchestrated" by Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, Eizenstat says. "The American Jewish leadership went into open war against the president in ways rarely seen before or since."
In October 77, Dayan told Carter, "I think you have a problem on your hands, Mr. President. And I can perhaps help you out with it." Eizenstat says Dayan could only have been so brazen because he had the lobby on his side.
"This was an amazing intrusion into domestic politics by a foreign minister, even from a friendly country. But it had clearly been based on Israel's assiduous cultivation of American Jewish groups and Congress, and left no doubt how closely Middle East policy is intertwined with domestic politics.
"It is difficult to imagine the foreign minister of any country being as blunt to the leader of its major benefactor."
Carter continued to insist on opposing settlements, and when he did so at the U.N. in spring 1980, the move revived Ted Kennedy's primary challenge, thanks to the lobby. That challenge helped damage Carter, who lost to Reagan in the fall.
5. George H.W. Bush calls out the lobby.
The late President Bush opposed settlements ferociously, and a political legend has developed that the opposition caused him to lose the '92 election. Even Tom Friedman has espoused that view:
"[A]s you know, President Bush the first stood outside the White House one day and said I'm one lonely man standing up against the Israel lobby. What happened as a result of that... is that Republicans post Bush I, and manifested most in his son Bush 2, took a strategic decision, they will never be out pro-Israel'd again. That they believe cost them electorally a lot."
David Steiner, the former president of AIPAC, recalls making Bush pay for his stance, in a secretly recorded phone call in October 1992, as Bush ran for reelection.
"Steiner: I met with [U.S. Secretary of State] Jim Baker and I cut a deal with him. I got, besides the $3 billion, you know they're looking for the Jewish votes, and I'll tell him whatever he wants to hear...Besides the $10 billion in loan guarantees which was a fabulous thing, $3 billion in foreign, in military aid, and I got almost a billion dollars in other goodies that people don't even know about. Do you think I could ever forgive Bush for what he did September 12th a year ago? What he said about the Jews for lobbying in Washington?"
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
4
3
2
