Israel Lobby
I was involved with AIPAC for 35 years. Their latest move convinced me to join J Street by Rabbi Marc Israel, Forward, August 23, 2023
The pro-Israel organization I supported for decades is now undermining their own cause
AIPAC steps up efforts to oust anti-Israel lawmakers by Matthew Kassel, Jewish Insider, August 9, 2023
After focusing on open primaries in 2022, the pro-Israel PAC is targeting several left-wing Squad members for 2024.
The largest ‘pro-Israel’ lobby in the US is hurting Israeli democracy by Joel Laitman, The Times of Israel, August 7, 2023
On the consequences of AIPAC’s systematic stifling of any and all criticism of Israel in the US Congress.
In Israel Under Rockets, I’m Grateful for AIPAC by Devorah Marcus, The Times of Israel, May 14, 2023
We Need to Talk… About AIPAC—and Develop a Strategy to Defeat the Lobby Too by Alexandra Rojas and Waleed Shahid, The Nation, April 10, 2023
Summer Lee’s victory in PA is a road map for how progressive Democrats can unite to elect candidates whose values will be consistent at home and abroad.
AIPAC the Unifier by Jacob Herber, The Times of Israel, March 16, 2023
AIPAC does the difficult work for us by David-Seth Kirshner, The Times of Israel, March 15, 2023
I want the US to oppose BDS and efforts to delegitimize Israel, no matter how distasteful I find the relevant congressmen.
The Evolution of AIPAC’s Political Operation in Washington over 50 Years – An Eyewitness Perspective by Lenny Ben-David, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Jerusalem Viewpoints No. 659, December 12, 2022
AIPAC’s New Strategy by David Victor, The Detroit Jewish News, September 9, 2022
It’s No Secret Why Pro-Israel Candidates Are Winning U.S. Elections by Avi Mayer, Newsweek, August 9, 2022
Money doesn’t determine races—voters do. And the reason pro-Israel messages resonate is that Americans are overwhelmingly pro-Israel.
“The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People” by Walter Russell Mead
The antisemitic war waged on AIPAC by Elchanan Poupko, The Jerusalem Post, July 30, 2022
There is no question that we need to see less money in American politics and that America would be better off with campaign finance laws more similar to Israel and Canada than its outrageous system.
AIPAC’s Aggressive Spending Is Bad for the Democratic Party—and Democracy Itself by Jeremy Ben-Ami, The New Republic, July 27, 2022
This election cycle will go down as the one in which the right-wing Israel lobby did something it always swore it would never do: make Israel a partisan political football.
AIPAC’s new political action is legitimate by Herb Keinon, The Jerusalem Post, July 26, 2022
In December AIPAC announced that it was, for the first time, going to change its status, and both endorse and financially support candidates.
Busting myths about the ‘Israel lobby,’ US-Israel alliance in new book by Lahav Harkov, The Jerusalem Post, July 8, 2022
Foreign affairs expert Walter Russell Mead seeks to quash the ‘Israel lobby’ conspiracy theory and bust myths about US-Israel ties in his new book.
Bernie Sanders went to ‘war’ with AIPAC. Now the pro-Israel lobby is pushing back. by Jacob Kornbluh, The Forward, June 30, 2022
The Latest Acceptable Antisemitism by Mark Goldfeder, Jewish Journal, May 24, 2022
The latest wave of “acceptable” antisemitism involves leftwing politicians and liberal media pundits demonizing AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Deplorable politicians, AIPAC and safeguarding Israel’s precarious security by Jacob Herber, The Times of Israel, May 2, 2022
In today’s broken Washington, the crucial efforts to strengthen US-Israel ties must include working with Republican members who are anathema to me.
AIPAC’s new PAC is now the country’s biggest pro-Israel PAC, and endorses 3/4 of Republicans who embraced election falsehoods by Ron Kampeas, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, April 21, 2022
Partisan shots at AIPAC don’t help the US-Israel relationship by Jeff Mendelsohn, Jewish News Syndicate, April 5, 2022
They’re pro-Israel, ‘Dayenu’ by Mitchell Bard, Jewish News Syndicate, April 5, 2022
AIPAC insists that the Jewish community cannot be too selective about its friends.
My AIPAC criticism is rooted in profound appreciation by Alon Tal, The Times of Israel, March 29, 2022
Representing true Israeli interests means drawing the line at endorsing politicians who corrode the very foundations of the democratic system
Can AIPAC help lead a new bipartisan surge of support for Israel? by Jonathan S. Tobin, Jewish News Syndicate, December 20, 2021
The question isn’t whether the pro-Israel community should support candidates; it’s whether those contributions will make a difference if one of the two parties is being led by leftist foes of the Jewish state.
Is pro-Israel advocacy in crisis? How the Gaza conflict exposed political fault lines by Ron Kampeas, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, June 3, 2021
The Israel lobby is good for America by Daniel Pipes, Jewish News Syndicate, January 25, 2021
Each hinterland fights for its cause. Each provides diplomatic support, financial aid and armaments.
Video: AIPAC Proud (1’14”), October 2020
That’s not the AIPAC I know by Wendy Singer, The Times of Israel, September 22, 2020
Misunderstanding AIPAC and American Politics by David E. Bernstein, The Times of Israel, September 8, 2020
AIPAC Confounds the Critics by Mitchell Bard, The Algemeiner, March 4, 2020
Bernie’s AIPAC Snub Throws Liberal Zionists Under the Bus by Andrew Silow-Carroll, The New York Jewish Week, February 24, 2020
The surging candidate shows no interest in forging a wide coalition.
What I Saw at AIPAC 2019: Celebrating the Bipartisan Support for Israel by David Gerstman, The Tower, March 26, 2019
AIPAC is not the victim but the victimizer by Peter Beinart, The Forward, March 25, 2019
The Case for AIPAC by Mark Horowitz, The New York Times, March 22, 2019
Critics say that the pro-Israel group is too powerful and too far to the right. Neither is true.
Is ‘Democratic Majority for Israel’ Intended To Clean Up J Street’s Mess? by Bennett Ruda, Daled Amos, March 18, 2019
The myth of the pro-Israel lobby by Steve Israel, The Hill, March 13, 2019
AIPAC Is the Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace Lobby by Mitchell Bard, The Times of Israel, March 30, 2017
No One Is Afraid of AIPAC by Armin Rosen, Tablet, January 5, 2017
The flagship pro-Israel lobbying organization failed to stop Obama’s Iran Deal. It may lose even more influence under Trump.
AIPAC Shatters Myth of Not Representing American Jews by Mitchell Bard, The Times of Israel, March 23, 2016
Why I’m increasing my donation to AIPAC by Uri Pilichowski, The Times of Israel, September 16, 2015
How Social Psychology Explains the Erosion of the Bipartisan Pro-Israel Consensus in America, and why this trend is disastrous for pro-Israel policy by David Schraub, Tablet, August 31, 2015 (see also Part II, How To Save The Bipartisan Pro-Israel Consensus—Without Compromising Its Message: Three steps the pro-Israel community should take today by David Schraub, Tablet, September 2, 2015)
Aipac Is Good for America by Shmuel Rosner, New York Times, March 4, 2014
After AIPAC and J Street, Israel’s third lobby: ZPAC? by Ben Caspit, Al-Monitor Israel Pulse, February 28, 2014
Walt and Mearsheimer’s victory by Richard Baehr, Israel Hayom, February 13, 2014
Why AIPAC Is Good for the Jews – and For Everyone Else by Walter Russell Mead, The American Interest, April 5, 2010
The Israel Lobby is Me by Michael Sean Winters, America (The National Catholic Magazine), March 12, 2009
An open letter to Professors Mearsheimer and Walt by Maurice Ostroff, June 12, 2008
The Fraudulent Scholarship of Professors Walt and Mearsheimer by Alex Safian, CAMERA, February 11, 2008
Israel’s true friends by Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL) and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Los Angeles Times, January 12, 2008
“The pro-Israel lobby is not responsible for congressional support for a strong alliance with Israel. Like the vast majority of Americans, we support Israel for a very basic and obvious reason: America is at its best when we align ourselves with allies that share our values of tolerance, freedom and democracy.”
Israel’s ties that bind: Shared history and values, not the lobby, unite Israel and the U.S. by Mitchell Bard, Los Angeles Times, January 10, 2008
“Although John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt accuse the ‘Israel lobby’ of bullying American politicians into a positive relationship with Israel, the truth is that the long-standing U.S.-Israel alliance exists because it is good for America.”
Are American Jews Too Powerful? Not Even Close. by Ruth Wisse, Washington Post, November 4, 2007
Dual Loyalties by Leslie H. Gelb, New York Times, September 23, 2007
“The authors are mostly wrong, as well as dangerously misleading. [….] Why have two such serious students of United States foreign policy written so weak a book and added fuel, inadvertently, to the fires of anti-Semitism?”
Rationalizing Israel Out of Existence by Richard Cohen, Washington Post, September 11, 2007
“Mearsheimer and Walt disappoint. They had an observation worth making and a position worth debating. But their argument is so dry, so one-sided — an Israel lobby that leads America around by the nose — they suggest that not only do they not know Israel, they don’t know America, either.”
Deceitful Academics Spin Paranoid Fantasy of Pro-Israel Lobby by Charles Taylor, Bloomberg News, September 10, 2007
Anti-Semitism and the Anti-Israel Lobby by Jeff Robbins, Wall Street Journal, September 7, 2007
Mearsheimer’s Blunder by Alex Safian, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), September 5, 2007
The Lobby, by David Remnick, New Yorker, September 3, 2007
Understanding the U.S.-Israel Alliance: An Israeli Response to the Walt-Mearsheimer Claim by Dore Gold, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Jerusalem Viewpoints, September 2007
Two Professors Fail To Clean Up Their Act by Ira Stoll, New York Sun, August 29, 2007
Missing the Point by Ben Fishman, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, National Interest Online, August 27, 2007
The Wrong Guys, The Forward editorial, August 22, 2007
“The trick follows a typical pattern. Step one: Publish your views in as provocative a manner as possible. Use words like “apartheid,” as Jimmy Carter did in his book, or paint Jewish lobbying efforts in darkly conspiratorial terms, as Walt and Mearsheimer did in a paper published last year. Step two: Dare the Jewish community to lash out at you, then whine about being victimized by bullies. Step three: Implore fair-minded liberals to line up behind you, forcing them to choose between endorsing your vision — however skewed — or becoming part of the censorship juggernaut.”
Backlash Over Book on Policy for Israel by Patricia Cohen, New York Times, August 16, 2007
Yes, It’s Anti-Semitic by Eliot A. Cohen, Washington Post, April 5, 2006
Overstating Jewish Power: Mearsheimer and Walt give too much credit to the Israeli lobby by Christopher Hitchens, Slate, March 27, 2006
Kalb Upbraids Harvard Dean Over Israel by Meghan Clyne, New York Sun, March 21, 2006
“They quote only those people who basically have this point of view and don’t take a serious look at anything in a more profound way. It is masquerading as scholarship.” –Dennis Ross (President Clinton’s special Middle East envoy)
When Should We Stop Supporting Israel? by Victor Davis Hanson, Private Papers, March 28, 2004