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The Israel lobby theory has gained a lot of fans since it was first published by University of Chicago and Harvard professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, respectively.
There is a lot of merit in these two fine scholars write, but they do exaggerate the influence and power of the lobby and some of their less educated, astute and restrained do not just overstate the power of the lobby on a marginal basis; but entirely go overboard in their statements.
No one should overstate the power of the Israel lobby, but it is powerful in certain arenas and is not the unchallenged maker of American policy in support of Israel. The U.S. supported Israel before the Israel lobby and America will still support Israel, albeit less unconditionally and less militantly, if the Israel lobby suddenly became defunct.
And the Israel lobby theory is faulty for implicitly stating that if it were not for the nefarious Israel lobby then American foreign policy in the Middle East would be benign. That America would have no problems with the Arabs were it not for the Israel lobby pushing for U.S. hostility. In reality, anti-American antagonism is not exclusive to U.S. favoritism for Israel. Although Israel is the #1 cause, Arabs also resent U.S. support for their oppressive dictators - clients of the U.S. - and U.S. meddling in their internal affairs, along with American military basis in the region.
U.S. empire is a being on to its own and it is not benign for the Arabs. And the Israel lobby plays a role in worsening this situation, but American foreign policy would be far from innocent even if there were no Israel lobby theory. But such a theory only falsely presents its case as blaming the unfortunates of U,.S. foreign policy to AIPAC, ect.,ect... and by doing so attributes benign intentions to American policymakers while scapegoating pro-Israel lobbyists for the destructive policies pursued by the former and only lobbied for by the latter. This is a false picture and this is why the Israel lobby theory has a following amongst retired diplomats whom want to blame simply the Israel lobby.
The picture is a lot more complex than that. The lobby is very powerful, but it not more powerful than the U.S. bureaucracy and the responsibilities of foreign policy rest with the state.
Even though some CNN viewers may not get this:
CNN taps Rick Sanchez's Twitter responses for a "Talk to Rick" screen crawl showcasing viewer opinions. But apparently nobody edits it, because anti-semitic commentary made it on the air during an interview with Wolf Blitzer on Israel policy.
CNN may want to rethink its immediate posting of viewer comments.
