October, 2002

The Israeli Lobby and U.S. Strategy in the Middle East

Dr. Ahmed Selim Al-Borsan

US-Arab relations have come under serious strain in recent months. Tensions with Iraq, Egypt and Saudi Arabia in particular have been influenced by a pro-Israeli vision of a new Middle East in which Israel would hold the dominant strategic position, while key Arab states would be marginalised and undermined.

Pro-Israeli influences find their way to US policy through several channels. Many prominent and staunch supporters of Israel are given key posts in the US administration. Under President Bill Clinton, for example, such individuals held leading posts in the departments of defence and state, as well as on the National Security Council and in the CIA. There was also a strong pro-Israeli presence in both houses of Congress. Pro-Israeli lobbying organisations in the United States are particularly effective and powerful. Most famous among them are the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee -AIPAC-, B’nai B’rith and the Anti-Defamation League -ADL-. These organisations have strong links to some prominent US research centres like the Washington Institute for Near East Policy -WINEP- and the Texas-based Freeman Centre for Strategic Studies.

These centres try to influence US policy in the area by promoting the reorganisation of the Middle East along the lines of ethnic, religious, political and tribal divisions. This would create small, weak entities, and undermine the strength and ability of Arab states to defend themselves. This vision is translated in pro-Israeli lobbyists’ support for certain US policies in the area.

Regarding Iraq, Israel is acutely aware of the importance of that country’s position as a key to controlling the Fertile Crescent and the Arabian Peninsula. It is actively in favour of a US war on Iraq to remove its strongly anti-Israeli regime. A weakened, divided Iraq would significantly strengthen the relative strategic importance of Israel and hence its dominance.

Pro-Israeli lobbyists also encourage a critical attitude in the US administration towards Egypt. Israel hoped to successfully neutralise Egypt’s role in the Arab-Israeli conflict through a peace treaty, at least militarily. It finds Egypt’s continual support for ‘pro-Arab’ positions a source of anxiety and is loudly critical, through its lobby in America, of these positions.

The pro-Israeli lobby seeks to increase strains in US-Egyptian relations by emphasising Egypt’s opposition to the war against Iraq and its support for Palestinian rights.

Finally, the pro-Israeli lobby in the United States found in the events of 11 September a golden opportunity to deal a severe blow to US-Saudi relations. It promoted an image of Saudi Arabia as a breeding ground for Islamic fundamentalist terrorists, and presented Saudi assistance to charitable Palestinian organisations as funding for terrorism. This presents Saudi Arabia as an unreliable strategic and economic partner for the United States, again enhancing the role Israel plays as America’s ‘loyal’ ally in the area.

The unfortunate end result of US tension with these Arab states, is to bring it more into open confrontation with the Islamic world in general, and with Arab public opinion in particular. This can only result in increasing the instability of the whole region.