Israel Lobby Portal

Welcome to the Israel Lobby Portal on Spinprofiles
Welcome to the Israel Lobby Portal on Spinprofiles—your guide to networks of power, lobbying and deceptive PR. Spinprofiles has a policy of strict referencing and is overseen by an Managing editor and a Sysop and several Associate Portal editors. The Editor of the Israel Lobby Portal is Idrees Ahmad idrees.ahmad AT spinprofiles.org.

What is the Israel Lobby? Priority pages on the Israel Lobby Israeli government and intelligence connections Reuven Erlich, former spook, what is he doing now? US Lobby Saban Center for Middle East Policy what is its role? American Israel Public Affairs Committee American Enterprise Institute UK groups BICOM | Northern Ireland Friends of Israel European lobby European Friends of Israel Israeli Think tanks Shalem Center - a controversial think tank, can you help to describe it? | Media Pressure Groups HonestReporting Comittee for Accuracy in the Middle East Reporting in America Give Israel Your Support Middle East Media Research Institute Palestinian Media Watch Issues Zionism | Anti-Semitism | See more... An A-Z list of all pages in the Israel Lobby is here.

What is the Israel Lobby? In their authoritative study of the Israel lobby in the United States, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt describe it as 'a loose coalition of individuals and organizations that actively works to move U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction...it is not a single unified movement with a central leadership'. It is 'a powerful interest group, made up of both Jews and gentiles, whose acknowledged purpose is to press Israel's case within the United States and influence American foreign policy in ways that its members believe will benefit the Jewish state. The various groups that make up the lobby do not agree on every issue, although they share the desire to promote a special relationship between the United States and Israel' (Mearsheimer & Walt, 2007: 5). Mearsheimer & Walt make a clear distinction between the Israel Lobby and anti-Israel conspiracy theories, arguing: 'The Israel lobby is the antithesis of a cabal or conspiracy; it operates out in the open and proudly advertises its own clout. In its basic operations, the Israel lobby is no different from interest groups like the farm lobby, steel and textile workers, and a host of ethnic lobbies, although the groups and individuals who comprise the Israel lobby are in an unusually favourable position to influence U.S. foreign policy. What sets it apart, in short, is its extraordinary effectiveness' (Mearsheimer & Walt, 2007:150). The Israel Lobby & The Media Philo & Berry's study into the news coverage of the conflict between Israel and Palestine found that “The news framework and presentational structure, which was most frequently used in reporting events, tended to favour the Israeli perspective” (Philo & Berry 2004:160). They explain the effect the Israel Lobby have on the news coverage of the conflict: “The pressures of organised public relations, lobbying and systematic criticism together with the privileging of Israeli perspectives by political and public figures, can affect the climate within which journalists operate. There is no total control and there are areas of the media where the debate is relatively open. But these factors go some way to explaining why journalists sometimes have difficulty in giving a clear account of the Palestinian perspective, while they can apparently more easily facilitate that of the Israelis” (Philo & Berry 2004:256). Herman and Chomsky's propaganda model describe this phenomenon of organised negative responses to media coverage as "flak"; they argue that powerful governments and corporations can use their influence to pressurise the media into being uncritical of their activities (Herman & Chomsky 1994:28). UK Journalist Nick Davies describes this type of flak as an electric fence which journalists are unable to cross; he says "the most potent electric fence in the world is the one erected on behalf of the Israeli government"(Davies 2008:124).

Categories There are a list of categories associated with this page: Israel (Recent Changes to pages on Israel) Israel Lobby (Recent Changes to pages on Israel Lobby) Recent changes to Israel Lobby on Spinprofiles Recent Changes to pages on Israel Lobby References and Resources Books Mearsheimer & Walt (2007), The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, Penguin: London Philo, G & Berry, M (2004), Bad News from Israel, Pluto Press: London Herman, E & Chomsky, N (1994), Manufacturing Consent: The political economy of the mass media, Vintage: London Davies, N (2008), Flat Earth News, Chatto & Windus: London Articles Craig Unger, From the Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Iraq, Vanity Fair, March 2007 James Bamford, Iran: The Next War, Rolling Stone, August 10, 2006 Videos The Fifth Estate: The Lies That Led To War, CBC, 7 March 2007 Resources Empire Builders: Neoconservatives and their blueprint for US Power, Christian Science Monitor.

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