FlotillaHyves2
  • Front Page
  • Home
  • Siege-Crossings
    • Siege-Crossings 2019 >
      • Siege-Crossings 2018
      • Siege-Crossings 2017
      • Siege-Crossings 2016
      • Siege-Crossings 2015
      • Siege-Crossings 2014
      • Siege-Crossings 2013
      • Siege-Crossings 2012
  • Jerusalem & Mosques
    • Jerusalem & Mosques 2019 >
      • Jerusalem & Mosques 2018
      • Jerusalem & Mosques 2017
      • Jerusalem & Mosques 2016
      • Jerusalem & Mosques 2015
      • Jerusalem & Mosques 2014
      • Jerusalem & Mosques 2013
      • Jerusalem & Mosques 2012
  • Israeli War Criminals
    • War Criminals 2019 >
      • War Criminals 2018
      • War Criminals Pictures
      • War Criminals 2017
      • War Criminals 2016
      • War Criminals 2015
      • War Criminals 2014
      • War Criminals 2013
      • War Criminals 2012
      • War Criminals 2011
      • War Criminals 2010
      • War Criminals 2009
      • War Criminals 2008
      • War Criminals 2007
      • War Criminals 2006
      • War Criminals 2005
      • War Criminals 2004
      • War Criminals 2003
      • War Criminals 2002
      • War Criminals 2001
  • Occupied Children
    • Occupied Children 2019 >
      • Occupied Children 2018
      • Occupied Children 2017
      • Occupied Children 2016
      • Occupied Children 2015
      • Occupied Children 2014
      • Occupied Children 2013
      • Occupied Children 2012
  • Children of the gravel
    • Children of the gravel 2011
    • Children of the gravel 2010
  • Tunnels
    • Tunnels 2019 >
      • Tunnels 2018
      • Tunnels 2017
      • Tunnels 2016
      • Tunnels 2015
      • Tunnels 2014
      • Tunnels 2013
      • Tunnels 2012
  • Sewage - Waste
    • Sewage - Waste 2019 >
      • Sewage - Waste 2018
      • Sewage - Waste 2017
      • Sewage - Waste 2016
      • Sewage - Waste 2014
      • Sewage - Waste 2013
      • Sewage - Waste 2012
      • Sewage - Waste 2015
  • Non-Violent Protest
    • Non-Violent Protest 2015 >
      • Non-Violent Protest 2014
      • Non-Violent Protest 2013
  • Yasser Arafat
    • Yasser Arafat 2013 >
      • Yasser Arafat 2012
      • Yasser Arafat 2008
      • Yasser Arafat 2007
      • Yasser Arafat 2004
      • Yasser Arafat 2003
      • Yasser Arafat 2001
  • Rachel Corrie
    • Rachel Corrie 2014 >
      • Rachel Corrie 2013
      • Rachel Corrie 2012
      • Rachel Corrie 2010
      • Judgment in the case of Rachel Corrie 2012
      • Rachel Corrie 2006
      • Rachel Corrie 2005
      • Rachel Corrie 2003
  • Vittorio Arrigoni
  • Juliano Mer-Khamis 2012
    • Juliano Mer-Khamis 2011
  • Israeli Media-AIPEC
    • Israeli Media-AIPEC 2019 >
      • AIPEC 2018
      • AIPEC 2017
      • AIPEC 2016
      • AIPEC 2015
      • AIPEC 2014
      • AIPEC 2013
      • AIPEC 2012
      • AIPEC 2011
      • AIPEC 2010
      • AIPEC 1994
      • AIPEC 1993
  • Mossad
    • Mossad 2019 >
      • Mossad 2018
      • Mossad 2017
      • Mossad 2016
      • Mossad 2015
      • Mossad 2014
      • Mossad 2013
  • Omar Nayef
  • Fadi al-Batsh
  • Mohamed al-Zouari
  • Sociopatic Mentality
    • Sociopatic Mentality 2014
    • Sociopatic Mentality 2013
    • Sociopatic Mentality 2012
    • Sociopatic Mentality 2010
    • Sociopatic Mentality 2009
    • Sociopatic Mentality 2008
    • Sociopatic Mentality 2007
    • Sociopatic Mentality 2006
    • Sociopatic Mentality 2005
  • Ben Gurion Airport
    • Ben Gurion Airport 2019 >
      • Ben Gurion Airport 2018
      • Ben Gurion Airport 2017
      • Ben Gurion Airport 2016
      • Ben Gurion Airport 2015
      • Ben Gurion Airport 2014
      • Ben Gurion Airport 2013
      • Ben Gurion Airport 2012
  • Israeli Blood Diamonds
    • Israeli Blood Diamonds 2012
  • Israeli Medical Industry
    • Israeli Medical Industry 2019 >
      • Israeli Medical Industry 2018
      • Israeli Medical Industry 2016
      • Israeli Medical Industry 2015
      • Israeli Medical Industry 2014
      • Israeli Medical Industry 2013
      • Israeli Medical Industry 2012
      • Israeli Medical Industry 2011
      • Israeli Medical Industry 2010
      • Israeli Medical Industry 2009
  • Israeli Nuclear
    • Israeli Nuclear 2019 >
      • Israeli Nuclear 2018
      • Israeli Nuclear 2017
      • Israeli Nuclear 2016
      • Israeli Nuclear 2015
      • Israeli Nuclear 2014
      • Israeli Nuclear 2013
  • Palestinian Nukes
30 nov 2019
The pro-Israel lobby is on the decline; let’s help it on its way
Picture
A small group holding Israeli flags were holding a counter protest as hundreds of protesters gather in front of the Israeli Embassy in central London in solidarity with Palestinian people in London, United Kingdom on 30 March 2019

A lot has been written about the pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian lobby over the years. Many take the view that the US and Britain have their foreign policy dictated to them by Israel and its influential lobby groups in the West.

I don’t intend to revisit the whole debate over the lobby in this column, but I’ve written before about how I consider this to be an inaccurate view, born of an essentially conservative worldview. It is a view that starts with the assumption that American and British foreign policies are essentially benign, and that the pro-Israel lobby has somehow corrupted them.

On the other hand, there are those on the left who hold to the equally mistaken view that to even use the term “pro-Israel lobby” is a conspiracy theory or (even more outrageously) anti-Semitic. This is, quite plainly, nonsense.

Many countries have powerful, well-funded and impressively connected lobbies working to promote their interests in Western capitals. Israel is no different in that regard. The pro-Israel lobby obviously exists, is well-funded, and has a significant impact on British political life.

Historically, however, the influence of the pro-Israel lobby is on the wane. It is a slow process for sure, and the lobby is certainly not be written off yet. But for those like myself who follow the activities of the lobby for a living, the general trend is plain to see.

Witness, for example, 2017’s documentary The Lobby by Al Jazeera. In this superb undercover investigation, we saw plainly that the lobby is still a force to reckon with. Most infamously, Israeli Embassy agent Shai Masot told ex-Labour, and now ex-MP, Joan Ryan — she was the chairperson of Labour Friends of Israel at the time — that she could partake in the “more than £1 million” worth of funding for junkets to Israel. Ryan stated that her group had put names forward for the embassy to consider.

At the time the film was made, these names seemed most likely to have been MPs, since LFI is quite well known for taking lawmakers on propaganda trips to Israel. Earlier this year, though – more than two years after the film aired — LFI denied this, stating that the funding was for trips for “young people” to go to Israel; the lobby group was probably hoping to influence future MPs. Either way, the money represented blatant interference in the British political system by a state which is extremely hostile to the opposition Labour Party, which was at the time Ryan’s own party, remember.

However, the Al Jazeera film contained another key scene. Shai Masot, its main antagonist, admitted to Al Jazeera’s undercover reporter that the pro-Israel lobby is in stark decline in Britain. Unlike in previous years, when almost every Labour MP would join Labour Friends of Israel, they are no longer doing that, he lamented.

Conservative Friends of Israel has no such problem, apparently, but LFI seems to be in almost terminal decline. It no longer has stalls at the annual Labour Party conference, thanks mainly to the scrutiny that Al Jazeera’s film brought to bear and the growing awareness among normal Labour Party members of LFI’s insidious role.

And now some MPs are being to jump from the sinking LFI ship. Not enough, by any means, but it is a start.

There were also revealing comments about the declining role of the pro-Israel lobby in a second undercover Al Jazeera investigation focusing on America.

The Lobby – USA was completed and cleared fully through all legal vetting, but it was censored by Al Jazeera’s owner, the state of Qatar, after it came under immense pressure by the very same lobby that the film exposed.

However, The Electronic Intifada was able to obtain and publish the entire film, making it free for anybody to view online. It contains many revelations about how the pro-Israel lobby operates and what makes it tick. There were two comments in the film, though, which particular stuck with me.

The first came from Jonathan Schanzer, of the Foundation for Defence of Democracies: “Anti-Semitism as a smear is not what it used to be,” he was caught admitting. The lobby constantly defames Palestinians and their supporters as motivated by racism against Jews, so it’s actually refreshing to see one of the lobby admit – albeit in private – that they cynically abuse the issue as a “smear” campaign.

Secondly, and most ominously for the lobby, a former lobbyist for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, said that, “The foundation that AIPAC sat on is rotting.” This was a recognition by Eric Gallagher of the historical trends at play right now.

The influence of AIPAC and other pro-Israel lobby groups is on the wane because Israel itself is becoming more of a partisan party political issue, rather than the bi-partisan consensus issue that it far too often was for politicians in the past. In other words, you are far more likely to support Israel if you are a Trump voter or a Boris Johnson voter, than if you are a Bernie Sanders or a Jeremy Corbyn voter.

Our role, then, as people in support of justice for the Palestinian people, should be to accelerate these historical trends, expose the hypocrisy and never give up. If the pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian lobby is on the decline, let us all help it on its way.

Page:  2 - 1
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.