Another aspect of close cooperation between the two countries is through the Jewish lobby. In particular, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), has been an influential movement to promote the partnership between Israel and the United States. According to this establishment, the mission of AIPAC is to “encourage and persuade the U.S. government to enact specific policies that create a strong, enduring and mutually beneficial relationship with our ally Israel” (AIPAC, 2020). Thus, the USA has developed an integrative and deliberate foreign affairs policy specifically aimed at supporting Israel as its strategic partner in the Middle East.
Moreover, it is important to note that the Jewish lobby is one of the most powerful lobbies in the USA. According to Kiely (2017), AIPAC uses the concept of American exceptionalism to create parallels between Israel and the USA. As a result, seeing Israel as a cultural sibling and protecting its interests becomes a moral obligation, consistent with such core concept of American identity as support of democracy. In that regard, aiding Israel becomes a form of struggle against “evil”, represented by Palestinian Arabs, or other threats to Israel’s national security (Kiely, 2017). An example of AIPAC’s influence on U.S. foreign politics can be found in Oslo Peace Process, an effort to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the 1990s. AIPAC and Likud party leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, joined forces with neo-conservative intellectuals and the Republicans to oppose Oslo Process and influence Clinton’s administration (Kiely, 2017). While AIPAC and Netanyahu could not thwart negotiations with Yasser Arafat, Israel received military aid from the USA and was eventually able to implement very few points of the Wye River Memorandum (Kiely, 2017). As such, the Jewish lobby managed to safeguard Israeli interests despite the Democrats being in power.
References
AIPAC. (2020). Our mission. Web.
Kiely, K. P. (2017). US foreign policy discourse and the Israel lobby. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.