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Why AIPAC Is Good for the Jews - and For Everyone Else
(American Interest) Walter Russell Mead - The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is powerful less because of the money and energy that its (mostly Jewish) members bring to the table than because of the widespread sense in Washington that being pro-Israel is the popular position in the U.S. If you think U.S. Middle Eastern policy should be less pro-Israel, attacking and bemoaning AIPAC won't get you anywhere. It's the 98% of Americans who aren't Jewish that you need to persuade; if the broad American majority ever decides that backing Israel as much as we do is a bad thing, then policy will gradually change - no matter what AIPAC does. There's another question about AIPAC: Is the presence of high profile and influential lobby groups based on Jewish money and Jewish community organizing a danger to the American Jewish community? The answer is a clear no. Lobbying for Zion turns out to be good for the Jews. In fact, the (mistaken) view that Jews are more hawkish than most Americans on the subject of Israel probably works to reduce anti-Semitism in the U.S. In America, lobbying for Israel makes Jews look more patriotic, more American, even in a certain way more pro-Christian.