It’s hard to hear about the November elections without the role of PACs and big-money donors coming into the conversation. Most voters are aware of the power and sway of the National Rifle Association, Pharma, Tech, and Wall Street. Now, for the rest of the populace, AIPAC (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee) has never been so prominent a factor.

For those who have watched their actions vigilantly, it was hard to miss their efforts to defeat Rep. Andy Levin, who had served as the Congressman from Detroit, Michigan. A Jew who self-identified as a Zionist, AIPAC wanted Levin out of office because they were not happy with his criticisms of the Israeli government.

AIPAC has gained a reputation for specifically working to defeat progressive candidates, often from minority backgrounds, who have called out Israel on its conduct in Gaza. Most recently, they spent $32 million to defeat Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Democratic Senate primary.

The tide appears to be shifting, and the new book, Israel’s Lobby: America In the Grip of a Foreign Power by Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick, finds itself propitiously placed as diverse arguments about Israel and dark dollars in politics swirl around. In 2007, John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt wrote The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. Authors Clifton and Lustick acknowledge their debt to that work. Two decades later, they have a plethora of additional material to buttress their premises.

In the “Introduction” to the book, the authors devote several paragraphs to clarifying that “the overwhelming majority of Jewish Americans do not prioritize Israel’s well-being or its interests at a meaningful level in determining their voting decisions.” They note that Israel “ranked ninth out of eleven issues of importance for Jewish voters in the 2024 election.”

Clifton and Lustick additionally underscore that the term “Israel’s Lobby” covers a wide range of entities that include Christian Evangelical organizations, political neo-conservatives, as well as Jewish or Israeli-American megadonors. All are adding muscle to elevate the perceived needs of Israel over the intrinsic priorities of the United States.

The authors realize they are on “sensitive” ground that puts them squarely in the middle of the most inflammatory issues of the day as they reference “antisemitism, the influence of Jewish and Israeli-American political donors, and the role of a country created in the aftermath of the Holocaust.”

The tone is set with a story about the actions of a couple “at the top of the political donor class,” Sheldon (now deceased) and Miriam Adelson. After three decades of Israel calling upon American Presidents to grant “clemency” to the domestic spy Jonathan Pollard (who stole top-secret American intelligence for Israel, compromising American national security), the Adelsons commandeered Trump as the vehicle to fulfill that request. (There is extensive documentation for each chapter. The damage assessment report from 1987, since declassified, is included.)

Pollard was spirited back to Israel (and met by Benjamin Netanyahu at the airport) in a private jet provided by the couple. Miriam gets plenty of coverage throughout the book with her role as a major player on the political scene ($100 million to a PAC geared toward Trump, with a sidebar of $37 million to Republican down-ballot candidates in 2024). Her overwhelming monetary support of Israel’s agenda will be part of the authors’ proof of the leverage of their money to “extract unconditional aid, coordination, and support at a scale and for a duration beyond anything a great power has ever done for a foreign country.”

Clifton and Lustick give plenty of........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)