Attacking the pro-Israel lobby has become the acceptable way to attack Jews - opinion

For those who don’t want to be accused of outright hatred of Jews, the more clever and subtle way to attack them is by going after those who lobby on their behalf.

That is why a coordinated effort is being made by haters of the Jewish state. The massive campaign is designed to destroy only one specific lobby – the one advocating for Israel.

By their reckoning, successfully putting an end to it will kill several birds with one stone. It will close the financial spigot, prevent further military defense assistance, put the brakes on legislation that helps Israel, and freely allow for an unending stream of anti-Jewish criticism, especially coming from the UN.

Although having been in existence throughout the tenure of decades of US presidents, these Israel lobbying groups have never been more reviled and scrutinized than in the last three years, as blatant antisemitism began to make a comeback with a deep fervor.

Consequently, Israel’s detractors figured out that the best way to injure the Jewish state is to bludgeon these supportive organizations, accounting for their latest crusade, aimed at annihilating any groups who do the bidding for the only democracy in the Middle East.

Predictably, their first course of action has been the highly effective “name smear.” By slapping the “Zionist” label on these lobbying groups, they can make the causal link between a term now synonymous with bigotry, strengthening the bogus and defamatory claim that Israel is an oppressor state.

Libel is always the best starting point, since it serves to advance an unsavory view of the people they are attempting to hang in the town square. And that is exactly what is happening. Make no mistake about it! Israel supporters, in the political arena (aka the Israel lobby), are being readied for their public execution.

In this case, the charge is that the influence of the Israel lobby is disproportionate to that of all others. The belief that Trump has been the puppet of a sustained campaign by Israel, and other prominent Jews in the media or other high places, has been constantly touted.

Humiliating caricatures and insulting memes of prominent Jews pulling the strings attached to Trump are legion, depicting the well-known antisemitic trope that Jews control politics, banks, media, and just about everything else of consequence.

“Driven by the fear of domestic political defeats, presidents have regularly rejected or abandoned foreign policies that both they and their most senior advisers believed were in the best interests of the US and at the expense of making meaningful progress in bringing a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Rather than subscribe to the conviction that a safe and flourishing Israel bodes well for the US superpower, the viewpoint is inverted to espouse that these Israel lobbyists “explicitly favor the interests of Israel,” as their requests are “encouraged and guided – by Israeli governments, resulting in the exploitation of most voters.”

That is why Lustick invokes what he refers to as a warning given by the first American president, George Washington, who, in his Farewell Address, said that “The American system of government could all too easily be exploited by a group with a ‘passionate attachment’ to a foreign country.”

There are only a few problems with the application of those words as they relate to this issue. Modern-day Israel did not exist during the time of Washington, and Israel is not just any foreign country.

Connected to the biblically guided principles, America shares the roots of the Judeo-Christian faith, which bestows a blessing upon all those who love Israel and extend their friendship to them. By supporting the land, which God bequeathed to the Jewish people, a nation ensures its own well-being and divine approval. Regrettably, the opposite is also true for those who don’t.

But none of this seems to be factored into Lustick’s thinking, who, on the one hand, believes that each person “has the right to express their opinions and work to shape public policy,” except for Trump, whom he characterizes as “incompetent and gullible, yielding to Israeli pressure and dragging the US into the latest war.”

That’s what it comes down to – the assertion that were it not for Israel, the US would be unencumbered by the Jewish state that has foisted its burdens upon America.

Sadly, it is that twisted, myopic thinking that has been used as a convenient pretext for America’s need to extricate itself from the millstone around its neck.

While Israel is on the front lines, fighting an existential war that threatens all of humanity, the world, an ocean away, is lulled into believing that they won’t be affected by a radical religious ideology that seeks to dominate and place every living being into subservience.