The "Jewish Lobby" and the National Interest

...The appearance of unity is a source of power for all pressure groups or lobbies...

...Thegun lobby, in the form of the National Rifle Association (NRA), is able to have its way on the question of firearms regulation despite the fact that national opinion polls and surveys of legislators' personal preferences indicate that a large majority of the public and most members of Congress favor gun control...

...Other affected parties, say, consumers, have less influence on what happens, again because they are weakly-organized and the specific issues are less important to them...

...A pro-Allied victory might have been predicted from the fact that those of British descent were more numerous and powerful than their opponents, but the struggles were long and intense...

...Although on the whole conservative in political outlook, their economic concerns led them to press for trade with the Soviet Union...

...Catholic Irish Americans (who were anti-British) and Jewish Americans, (who were against Tsarist Russia) opposed intervention...

...In this conflict, effectiveness demands that the competing groups bein a position to say they speak for almost all of their constituency...

...The criticisms of Jewish activity on behalf of Israel apply standards of behavior to American Jews and to Israel that are not demanded in analogous situations...

...The role of Greek Americans in weakening our relations with Turkey is well known...

...If they present a divided face, they will be ignored by the politicians they seek to persuade...

...Thinking Aloud THE JEWISH LOBBY' AND THE NATIONAL INTEREST BY SEYMOUR MARTIN UPSET Now that the awacs struggle is over, it is important to evaluate the criticisms of the "Jewish lobby" that surfaced during the debate...

...Hence, quite independently of the merits of the Israeli case, Congress usually went along with the pro-Israel lobby, in much the same way as it has accepted the arguments of the farm bloc on other issues...

...Instead, individuals and pressure groups tend to use their power resources solely on issues of direct concern to them-pollution, regulation, auto imports, voting rights, state medicine, alternative energy...

...From his populist standpoint, the general welfare is harmed by the pursuit of private values...

...The arguments over intervention and war before the two World Wars were contests that saw strong groups work hard to defeat each other...

...It has been effective because many Jews (and non-Jews) are passionately concerned about assuring the security of Israel and devote considerable energy to furthering their goal...

...In contrast, American backing for Greek and Israeli causes could be anticipated from the fact that the debates about them were pretty much dominated by a single player...

...1 was informed by someone present at a meeting in 1978 between the Republican Senate leadership and top corporate executives, at which the earlier Saudi plane deal was discussed, that the Republican leadership was initially inclined to oppose Carter's proposal...

...The situation is similar with respect to much that occurs in the economic arena...

...The evidence, as 1 read public opinion, is that the majority of Americans respect and admire them for doing so, even when they disagree with them on particulars...

...To give the impression of consensus, they often buy off potential opponents within their ranks with various kinds of patronage...

...Where many political activists are involved, or the struggle is between two strong pressure groups, the result is unclear...

...The orientations of other groups toward the Wars am be linked to their respective economic interests...

...Middle East policy...

...This situation is changing now that Americans doing business with the Arabs have become increasingly active in behalf of the Arab cause...

...Studies of the American Legion show that its leaders work very hard to prevent the development of any opposition to their policies among veterans...

...Recently, farmers acted as a foreign policy bloc with respect to the Soviet grain embargo...

...Owners of firearms deluge Congress with letters whenever the item is on the agenda...

...Political scientist Norton Long, in his book The Polity, puts forward an approach to power analysis that shows why some groups and causes prevail even when they represent small constituencies or unpopular causes...

...The issue is dominated by the NRA: It can demonstrate to most Senators and Representatives that it has thousands of members in every district who arc supposedly pledged to vote against anyone supporting gun control...

...Many others took part on both sides...

...Power, suggests Long, is not a possession comparable to wealth or status...

...Samuel Lubell and others have noted that Americans of British descent, not normally thought of as an ethnic group, were the backbone of interventionist pro-Allied activity before World Wars 1 and 11...

...This is true for businesses, unions, farm organizations, religions, racial and ethnic groups, as well as such segments of the society as the aged and war veterans...

...The Jewish lobby was defeated in the awacs struggle, as it was in the Saudi plane deal of 1978...

...Furthermore, the number and strength of the interested individuals or pressure groups on each side of an issue may vary greatly...

...Jewish commitment is also manifested in the continued outpouring of contributions to the United Jewish Appeal...

...Their basic strength, to be sure, derives from their ability to command the politically relevant: large memberships, money, sympathetic support from the mass media, and the like...

...As for the Jewish lobby in support of Israel, it is necessary to recognize that Jewish behavior is simply part of the general American pattern...

...Jews have as much right as Greeks, farmers, oil executives, or Arab Americans to support their conception of the national interest...

...interest, and they vigorously press their case...

...Each element making up the country pursues its own interest and opposes those advanced by the others that appear to adversely affect it...

...Businesses subject to regulation devote considerable resources to achieving their legislative objectives...

...But the representatives of big business told the GOP Senators in no uncertain terms that they could not do so because the economy would suffer...

...The oil companies and other business groups have operated as a lobby to support the Arabs...

...His books include Political Man, which has recently in an expanded edition, and (with William Schneider) the forthcoming The Confidence Gap...

...In effect, American Jews are only doing what British, German, Irish, Greek, and other ethnic groups have done in foreign policy confrontations relevant to their respective mother countries...

...He and the pro-Israel lobby were, of course, not the only interested parties...

...Given their ties to Israel, American Jews are predisposed to seeing aid to the Jewish State as in the U.S...

...Seymour Martin Lipset, a past contributor to these pages, is Catherine S. G. Munro Professor of Political Science and Sociology, and Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University...

...President Ronald Reagan himself, Richard Nixon and a host of other supporters of the recently approved arms sale to Saudi Arabia, including Senator Charles Mathias (R.-Md...

...Prior to World War II, the German Americans and the Catholic Irish Americans once more were isolationists...

...If there is only a single outfit lobbying for something, or a powerful group competing against a weak one, the outcome is obvious...

...Those who think them wrong have an obligation to oppose them...

...Each may be wrong in their judgment of that interest, but few, if any among them, see the position they take as being in conflict with the national interest...

...The pro-Israel lobby is not a great power, yet until recently it was the strongest one, often the only important one active when Middle East policy was deliberated...

...The AMA tries to do the same thing in representing physicians...

...Conversely, before World War 1 German Americans, Scandinavian Americans (connected to the Germans through the Lutheran Church and in any case derivative from neutral, largely pro-German nations...

...And the leaders of the Jewish community have always sought to give the impression that their divided constituency is unified on Middle East issues...

...and Congressman Paul McCloskey (R.-Calif...

...It hardly needs stating here that the heart of the nation's political process is a constitutionally mandated structure of checks and balances, which has evolved into a system of countervailing power among nongovernmental units...

...But they should never do so by implying that their opponents are guilty of a form of treason, of consciously choosing the side of a foreign nation when conflict is perceived between its interest and that of the United States...

...Most people are inclined to identify what they think is right, given their background, with the interests of the United States...

...Chinese Americans and those interested in China trade supported Nationalist China both before and after World War II...

...The fact that a person's conception of national defense priorities is consonant with his or her religion or ethnic loyalties is not a ground for charging disloyalty...

...The majority of the public who favor gun control have little influence on the matter because it is not sufficiently salient to most of them and they are not organized...

...But the impact a group has on the body politic is not merely the sum of its power resources or the result of its sophisticated and dedicated use of them...

...He notes that groups controlling power resources-e.g., General Motors, civil rights organizations, the AMA, the pro-Israel lobby, the oil companies, the Business Roundtable-are not interested in dominating society or influencing the outcome of most political decisions...

...The strength and weakness of the advocates of different national security policies should also be interpreted in relative terms...

...The farm lobbies have great power over decisions that affect them, although only 3 per cent of all Americans are farmers...

...To single out the Jews or the Israel lobby for criticism when they behave as other groups do in comparable situations is anti-Semitism, as are attacks on Jewish bankers or landlords for behavior that is characteristic of all bankers or landlords...

...The President simply has greater resources at his command than his opponents...

...Since they did so in terms suggesting that the efforts of American Jews to defeat the sale were illegitimate, the implication was clear: Jews placed Israel's interests above those of the United States...

...But pluralist democratic theory assumes that the public good emerges from the conflict of private interests...

...But the final decisions in 1978 and 1981 clearly demonstrate that the Jewish lobby is not uniquely able to control the reaction of Congress to Middle East questions...

...There is, of course, no question that a strong pro-Israel lobby exists in Washington...

...In both instances the lobby lost because a political actor more influential than it, the President of the United States, took an active part in the contest...

...If we look at the area of foreign policy, it is clear that various ethnic and special interest groups have worked repeatedly to promote their concerns...

...Former President Jimmy Carter frequently complained that private interest organizations place their individual concerns ahead of the public interest...

...contended that the strength of the opposition reflected the vigor of pro-Israel pressure...

...Long's approach helps to explain the dynamics of lobbying...

...To assess activity of this kind it is necessary to understand the nature of the American polity...