John--you are WAY too polite and very naive. It isn't just the Israeli Lobby, which includes a lot of dual nationals who are committing treason in privileging Israel over the U.S. Also AIPAC does not list its membership or who is giving what. Adelson's wife has told Trump she would give him something like $100 million ON THE CONDITION THAT he agree to Israel ANNEXING the West Bank. In other word, IF he agrees to Israel illegally stealing most of what is left of Palestinian lands. She is paying the settlers (from Brooklyn) to go over there and attack Palestinians, kill them, beat them up, and steal their land. And she is an Israeli dual national. So maybe she needs to give up one or other of her citizenships. Furthermore, it isn't just AIPAC money. There are Zionists who care more about Israel than the U.S. embedded in our national media (why I no longer follow any legacy media, including NPR, because it's all bullshit), in appointed positions in the government throughout the government, states have invested in Israeli bonds (which is nuts since their bonds have been downgraded to JUNK, quite literally), NGOs, universities are obviously seriously captured, all manner of charities, and on and on and on. You did not mention the sayanim, which is a system by which outright illegal activity is made possible by American Jews--and that's been going on for decades and decades and is how they illegally buy and transport weaponry via private boats to Israel from American villages, towns, and cities--not to mention all the American congress people who have been assassinated by the Israelis on American soil, and also those who have "retired" because of the death threats they have received from the Lobby. This is NOT just a matter of a roomful of billionaires legally giving money for something they care about. I cannot vote for the people I support because they are knocked off the ballot during the primary. And the money used to knock them off the primary is not coming from my state. In fact, the government has been talking about foreign money affecting our elections for quite a few years. You may be well-intentioned enough that you think they are talking about Russia, but I know they are not. They are talking about Israel. But they are afraid to name the country they're talking about because of the threats they have received. This is why I say our country is being run by a Jewish and/or Zionist mafia. This is what the mafia does. Congress must vote for money for Israel as payment for protection or else the lobby will take individual representatives out.
And all this is strictly against our constitution. I hope Cori Bush starts an NGO to take out the lobby because I know a lot of people who actually care about this country and the welfare of people in many other countries will join.
I love listening to you, Mr. Mearsheimer, but you are unbelievably politically naive. You are an historian and you probably have more time than I do to read up on this subject. Why you do not is beyond me. You have the visibility to be able to effect real change so please reconsider this namby-pamby approach you are using right and speak more definitively and more forcefully.
Israel is on its way out. They cannot cover their bills. Are we to cover them for them? We cannot afford to. Look what happened on the stock market on Monday. And it's only the beginning. Iran is prepared to fight from underground, just like Hamas. Those American fighter jets won't do anything but increase global warming. And eventually American kids are going to get wise and refuse to serve after a bunch of them die. Unless they shut down the Internet, alternative voices are always going to run rough-shod over the legacy media. No one who really wants to know what's actually going on follows TV or legacy media coverage. That's why the youth are taking the stand they are. They might not know the details, but it isn't rocket science to understand what is actually going on. If we want to control Middle Eastern oil, those days are long gone. Iran is trading with Russia and China rather than the US because of our stupid foreign policy. And the Saudis did not renew their agreement with the US to use their profits to buy American debt. The U.S. is not nearly as powerful as it likes to think it is. And Israel is too expensive an anchor to try to carry on our backs.
We need to overturn Citizens United. We need to pass a law restricting political contributions to actual residents of the state of the person running for non-national offices. And their names need to be published. Legal instruments need to be put in place so that foreign money cannot be laundered to subvert our democratic process. Israel is not a democracy. It's an apartheid state and it's shameful we are giving them a penny. We shouldn't even have diplomatic relations with them.
Great podcast on a very important subject. I dread the thought of Israel, dragging us into a big war which could include Iran, Israel, the United States, Lebanon, Russia, and who knows who else. It’s a horrible thought and it’s a horrible thought to think that our congressmen are so greedy for money and power that they are now yellow bellied cowards all refusing to stand up for Americans who they are supposed to represent. If they all got together and refused to take the Israel lobbies money then they could do the right things like refusing aid to Israel as a result of their deliberate genocide of the Palestinian people. But of course, that won’t happen because money is king. We can say that we do not have a monarchy, but we do as we bow down to King Money and his acolytes, the Israel lobby, and our own Congress! Next will be sending our own American boys and girls to die for Israel. This is just another reason why there should be no lobbies and no lobbyists at all. it is bribery plain and simple and has done and will do more and more damage to this country in every way possible.
To say that those in the Lobby feel what is good for Israel is equally good for the US implying there is an equal sense of loyalty to both is disingenuous. I would perceive their loyalty and concern is for Israel first, and if they think otherwise they are lying to themselves to justify their position, and it also reflects their extreme arrogance. I certainly do not believe that one Mr. Mearsheimer.
As an outsider, the Israeli lobby sounds like a big money laundering scheme. The US gives millions to Israel, then Israel funnels it back via AIPAC who then bribes US politicians who agree to vote in favour of funding Israel.
There is however a website where every politician has to declare where their campaign donations are coming from so, if Americans want to break the cycle, they might want to start there.
This lobby, and maybe the Cuba lobby down in Florida, are a little bit different to me than say the farm lobby or the sugar lobby or the NRA or the banking lobby and so on which we have. Those lobbies lobby for domestic interests. The Israel lobby seems to lobby for a foreign interest. Even the zionist evangelicals are seeming to lobby for a non-terrestrial interest if they are hoping for some religious event. That's a difference for me between our various lobbies.
Go back and read Paul Finley's book "They Dared To Speak Out" again. Shit! Bernie Sanders was knocked out of the primary in 2016 and then again in 2020 by the leadership of the DNC because of this very issue. That is WHY Biden was President. He did NOT get there on his own. He only had 8% of the vote until the (corrupt) powers that be decided to push the ridiculous story that "the Black vote" pushed Biden over the top to win the primary. Bullshit. 12% of the population, less than half of which vote, pushed him over the top? I think not. Paul Wellstone died in a mysterious plane crash (after receiving multiple death threats), as did John Towers. I've lost count of how many the Zionist mafia has taken out one way or the other. Multiple candidates were knocked out of their races because of their opposition to Israel and/or because they pushed for campaign finance reform. Our history is full of this political collateral damage. When I read about what these brave representatives, senators and presidential candidates did in their time, it is shocking to compare them to more recent holders of those seats. Shocking and shameful.
the lobby is a legalized, private corporate MAFIA, whos 50 member board comprised of dual nationals are not declared publicly or on any website or government record, it doesn't even pay taxes
Edit: +++ its the only lobby with direct access to an infamous terrorist spy agency +++
Everything you say about the Israel Lobby is true - these are American Jews who put the interests of Israel before the interests of the US. But you have not talked much about non-Jewish Americans who also put Israel's interests before the interests of the US. These are also very powerful people - people like Nancy Pelosi, Larry Summers, Adam Schiff, almost all Republican politicians - too many to name. One could argue that these non-Jews are so pro-Israel because of the Israel Lobby, but I don't think that alone explains their willingness to excuse genocide or apartheid policies. Also, he UK does not have an Israel Lobby, but it behaves exactly the same way towards Israel's atrocities as the US. Only France seems to deviates from this pro-Israel stance, but that too only occasionally.
A country that’s government is controlled by an entity that doesn’t have that country’s best interest in mind is not a sovereign country but a compromised one.
Focusing solely on AIPAC’s influence is driven by Mearsheimer’s biased focus against Israel, the only Jewish state. In 2023, AIPAC spent just $837,889 on lobbying, ranking far from the top spenders, while Israel itself spent $3.1 million, placing it 22nd. This is modest compared to countries like Japan and South Korea, which spent $37.2 million and $34.3 million, respectively. I’d like to see Mearsheimer address Iran, a genuine threat to America’s interests, rather than fixating his criticism on Israel, which stands as a democracy amid hostile regimes.
AIPAC is only a small part of the organized capture of our government. And lobbying ain't the half of it. They just spent $8 (or was it $9) milliion fighting Cori Bush's campaign alone. They launder this money through their PACs.
That's because you are not paying attention. John has just laid out 6 ways in which Israel is pursuing interests that are diametrically opposed to the US's interests here: https://mearsheimer.substack.com/p/question-of-the-day. And yet here you are professing to being "baffled why he focuses so much on the lobby". Perhaps you will cease being "baffled" when the body bags of young men start returning state-side from another war in the Middle East that America's greatest ally has involved it in.
So you are saying that the Biden administration is capable of accurately defining what is in US interests? They can define a policy goal but whether it will prove to ultimately be in US interests can literally take decades to find out (and possibly never). I've been on the edge of litigation of issues (at least one of which involved significant lobbying) that took decades to work out; one never knows how it will work out. When someone expresses certainty, it shows me the person has not been involved in such situations and does not recognize the inherent variability in life or alternatively is an advocate in which case, yea, you are 100% certain the world will fall apart if you don't get what you ask. Problem is, I've advocated for positions at times that I knew were not supported by facts or law because that was my job but someone still had to fight to settle the issue on as favorable terms as possible.
I am saying that, in the link I provided to you, Mearsheimer has laid out 6 instances where Israel is giving the US the middle finger and pursuing goals - like trying to start a war with Iran - that the US has made clear to Israel that the US does not want. What is so difficult for you to understand in that?
The lobby runs policy blessed by Citizens United and disguised by the propaganda of the lobby’s media like the NYTimes which paints their candidates as progressives. Biden Harris aren’t flip flopping over a two state solution- they are actively shipping sniper rifles tanks drones bombs helicopters jets and troops to make sure it doesn’t happen and that Iran is provoked into a confrontation. The so called stability in the Middle East is meant to soothe Democratic voters into thinking the country isn’t genocidal and bent on controlling the oil. Cory Bush, Jamal Bowman, and others need to run for senate or governor in their states. Every office needs to challenged.
All the hyperventilating about the so-called “two state solution.” Since 1948, Islamist Arabs and, since the Iranian revolution, the Islamist Persians, have been interested in a one state solution. The destruction of isreal and the imposition of yet another Islamic state. Even today, Hamas and Hezbollah explicitly call for the destruction of Israel and imposition of a single state of “Islamist Palestine.” Until they explicitly recognize Israel and concede its legitimacy, it folly to do anything but support the only democratic/republican government in the ME. Israel. No peace is possible until that happens. Don’t hold your breath. I think the PA governor was correct in his college paper.
It is unbelievable that the United States is so passively complicit in everything Israel does. Israel is obviously trying to drag the United States into war with Iran, as Professor Mearsheimer makes clear. Now the poke from Sumy across the Russian border towards Kursk, is that Budanov taking a leaf from the Israelis' book?
John--you are WAY too polite and very naive. It isn't just the Israeli Lobby, which includes a lot of dual nationals who are committing treason in privileging Israel over the U.S. Also AIPAC does not list its membership or who is giving what. Adelson's wife has told Trump she would give him something like $100 million ON THE CONDITION THAT he agree to Israel ANNEXING the West Bank. In other word, IF he agrees to Israel illegally stealing most of what is left of Palestinian lands. She is paying the settlers (from Brooklyn) to go over there and attack Palestinians, kill them, beat them up, and steal their land. And she is an Israeli dual national. So maybe she needs to give up one or other of her citizenships. Furthermore, it isn't just AIPAC money. There are Zionists who care more about Israel than the U.S. embedded in our national media (why I no longer follow any legacy media, including NPR, because it's all bullshit), in appointed positions in the government throughout the government, states have invested in Israeli bonds (which is nuts since their bonds have been downgraded to JUNK, quite literally), NGOs, universities are obviously seriously captured, all manner of charities, and on and on and on. You did not mention the sayanim, which is a system by which outright illegal activity is made possible by American Jews--and that's been going on for decades and decades and is how they illegally buy and transport weaponry via private boats to Israel from American villages, towns, and cities--not to mention all the American congress people who have been assassinated by the Israelis on American soil, and also those who have "retired" because of the death threats they have received from the Lobby. This is NOT just a matter of a roomful of billionaires legally giving money for something they care about. I cannot vote for the people I support because they are knocked off the ballot during the primary. And the money used to knock them off the primary is not coming from my state. In fact, the government has been talking about foreign money affecting our elections for quite a few years. You may be well-intentioned enough that you think they are talking about Russia, but I know they are not. They are talking about Israel. But they are afraid to name the country they're talking about because of the threats they have received. This is why I say our country is being run by a Jewish and/or Zionist mafia. This is what the mafia does. Congress must vote for money for Israel as payment for protection or else the lobby will take individual representatives out.
And all this is strictly against our constitution. I hope Cori Bush starts an NGO to take out the lobby because I know a lot of people who actually care about this country and the welfare of people in many other countries will join.
I love listening to you, Mr. Mearsheimer, but you are unbelievably politically naive. You are an historian and you probably have more time than I do to read up on this subject. Why you do not is beyond me. You have the visibility to be able to effect real change so please reconsider this namby-pamby approach you are using right and speak more definitively and more forcefully.
Israel is on its way out. They cannot cover their bills. Are we to cover them for them? We cannot afford to. Look what happened on the stock market on Monday. And it's only the beginning. Iran is prepared to fight from underground, just like Hamas. Those American fighter jets won't do anything but increase global warming. And eventually American kids are going to get wise and refuse to serve after a bunch of them die. Unless they shut down the Internet, alternative voices are always going to run rough-shod over the legacy media. No one who really wants to know what's actually going on follows TV or legacy media coverage. That's why the youth are taking the stand they are. They might not know the details, but it isn't rocket science to understand what is actually going on. If we want to control Middle Eastern oil, those days are long gone. Iran is trading with Russia and China rather than the US because of our stupid foreign policy. And the Saudis did not renew their agreement with the US to use their profits to buy American debt. The U.S. is not nearly as powerful as it likes to think it is. And Israel is too expensive an anchor to try to carry on our backs.
We need to overturn Citizens United. We need to pass a law restricting political contributions to actual residents of the state of the person running for non-national offices. And their names need to be published. Legal instruments need to be put in place so that foreign money cannot be laundered to subvert our democratic process. Israel is not a democracy. It's an apartheid state and it's shameful we are giving them a penny. We shouldn't even have diplomatic relations with them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYhGEmxbaK0
BRAVO!!! my sentiments exactly but stated eloquentl.
What is your source for the offer by Adelson's wife to Trump? First I've seen this.
It's been all over the news. Easy to find.
Great podcast on a very important subject. I dread the thought of Israel, dragging us into a big war which could include Iran, Israel, the United States, Lebanon, Russia, and who knows who else. It’s a horrible thought and it’s a horrible thought to think that our congressmen are so greedy for money and power that they are now yellow bellied cowards all refusing to stand up for Americans who they are supposed to represent. If they all got together and refused to take the Israel lobbies money then they could do the right things like refusing aid to Israel as a result of their deliberate genocide of the Palestinian people. But of course, that won’t happen because money is king. We can say that we do not have a monarchy, but we do as we bow down to King Money and his acolytes, the Israel lobby, and our own Congress! Next will be sending our own American boys and girls to die for Israel. This is just another reason why there should be no lobbies and no lobbyists at all. it is bribery plain and simple and has done and will do more and more damage to this country in every way possible.
To say that those in the Lobby feel what is good for Israel is equally good for the US implying there is an equal sense of loyalty to both is disingenuous. I would perceive their loyalty and concern is for Israel first, and if they think otherwise they are lying to themselves to justify their position, and it also reflects their extreme arrogance. I certainly do not believe that one Mr. Mearsheimer.
As an outsider, the Israeli lobby sounds like a big money laundering scheme. The US gives millions to Israel, then Israel funnels it back via AIPAC who then bribes US politicians who agree to vote in favour of funding Israel.
There is however a website where every politician has to declare where their campaign donations are coming from so, if Americans want to break the cycle, they might want to start there.
This lobby, and maybe the Cuba lobby down in Florida, are a little bit different to me than say the farm lobby or the sugar lobby or the NRA or the banking lobby and so on which we have. Those lobbies lobby for domestic interests. The Israel lobby seems to lobby for a foreign interest. Even the zionist evangelicals are seeming to lobby for a non-terrestrial interest if they are hoping for some religious event. That's a difference for me between our various lobbies.
Thank you Mr. Mearsheimer.
Go back and read Paul Finley's book "They Dared To Speak Out" again. Shit! Bernie Sanders was knocked out of the primary in 2016 and then again in 2020 by the leadership of the DNC because of this very issue. That is WHY Biden was President. He did NOT get there on his own. He only had 8% of the vote until the (corrupt) powers that be decided to push the ridiculous story that "the Black vote" pushed Biden over the top to win the primary. Bullshit. 12% of the population, less than half of which vote, pushed him over the top? I think not. Paul Wellstone died in a mysterious plane crash (after receiving multiple death threats), as did John Towers. I've lost count of how many the Zionist mafia has taken out one way or the other. Multiple candidates were knocked out of their races because of their opposition to Israel and/or because they pushed for campaign finance reform. Our history is full of this political collateral damage. When I read about what these brave representatives, senators and presidential candidates did in their time, it is shocking to compare them to more recent holders of those seats. Shocking and shameful.
just like corruption is legalized in USA
the lobby is a legalized, private corporate MAFIA, whos 50 member board comprised of dual nationals are not declared publicly or on any website or government record, it doesn't even pay taxes
Edit: +++ its the only lobby with direct access to an infamous terrorist spy agency +++
Everything you say about the Israel Lobby is true - these are American Jews who put the interests of Israel before the interests of the US. But you have not talked much about non-Jewish Americans who also put Israel's interests before the interests of the US. These are also very powerful people - people like Nancy Pelosi, Larry Summers, Adam Schiff, almost all Republican politicians - too many to name. One could argue that these non-Jews are so pro-Israel because of the Israel Lobby, but I don't think that alone explains their willingness to excuse genocide or apartheid policies. Also, he UK does not have an Israel Lobby, but it behaves exactly the same way towards Israel's atrocities as the US. Only France seems to deviates from this pro-Israel stance, but that too only occasionally.
The UK most definitely has an Israel Lobby. Read Asa Winstanley's excellent "Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn": https://www.amazon.com.au/Weaponising-Anti-Semitism-Asa-Winstanley/dp/1682193810
A country that’s government is controlled by an entity that doesn’t have that country’s best interest in mind is not a sovereign country but a compromised one.
Focusing solely on AIPAC’s influence is driven by Mearsheimer’s biased focus against Israel, the only Jewish state. In 2023, AIPAC spent just $837,889 on lobbying, ranking far from the top spenders, while Israel itself spent $3.1 million, placing it 22nd. This is modest compared to countries like Japan and South Korea, which spent $37.2 million and $34.3 million, respectively. I’d like to see Mearsheimer address Iran, a genuine threat to America’s interests, rather than fixating his criticism on Israel, which stands as a democracy amid hostile regimes.
AIPAC is only a small part of the organized capture of our government. And lobbying ain't the half of it. They just spent $8 (or was it $9) milliion fighting Cori Bush's campaign alone. They launder this money through their PACs.
Read David Sheen's article here.
https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1654274?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Or just visit Asa Winstaley's substack here:
asawinstanley@substack.com
It baffles me why he focuses so much on the lobby. It detracts from legitimate arguments that US interests do not necesssarily align with Israel's.
That US's interests don't align with Israel's. That's not even up for debate.
Hard to take anyone saying such a thing seriously.
That's because you are not paying attention. John has just laid out 6 ways in which Israel is pursuing interests that are diametrically opposed to the US's interests here: https://mearsheimer.substack.com/p/question-of-the-day. And yet here you are professing to being "baffled why he focuses so much on the lobby". Perhaps you will cease being "baffled" when the body bags of young men start returning state-side from another war in the Middle East that America's greatest ally has involved it in.
So you are saying that the Biden administration is capable of accurately defining what is in US interests? They can define a policy goal but whether it will prove to ultimately be in US interests can literally take decades to find out (and possibly never). I've been on the edge of litigation of issues (at least one of which involved significant lobbying) that took decades to work out; one never knows how it will work out. When someone expresses certainty, it shows me the person has not been involved in such situations and does not recognize the inherent variability in life or alternatively is an advocate in which case, yea, you are 100% certain the world will fall apart if you don't get what you ask. Problem is, I've advocated for positions at times that I knew were not supported by facts or law because that was my job but someone still had to fight to settle the issue on as favorable terms as possible.
I am saying that, in the link I provided to you, Mearsheimer has laid out 6 instances where Israel is giving the US the middle finger and pursuing goals - like trying to start a war with Iran - that the US has made clear to Israel that the US does not want. What is so difficult for you to understand in that?
The lobby runs policy blessed by Citizens United and disguised by the propaganda of the lobby’s media like the NYTimes which paints their candidates as progressives. Biden Harris aren’t flip flopping over a two state solution- they are actively shipping sniper rifles tanks drones bombs helicopters jets and troops to make sure it doesn’t happen and that Iran is provoked into a confrontation. The so called stability in the Middle East is meant to soothe Democratic voters into thinking the country isn’t genocidal and bent on controlling the oil. Cory Bush, Jamal Bowman, and others need to run for senate or governor in their states. Every office needs to challenged.
All the hyperventilating about the so-called “two state solution.” Since 1948, Islamist Arabs and, since the Iranian revolution, the Islamist Persians, have been interested in a one state solution. The destruction of isreal and the imposition of yet another Islamic state. Even today, Hamas and Hezbollah explicitly call for the destruction of Israel and imposition of a single state of “Islamist Palestine.” Until they explicitly recognize Israel and concede its legitimacy, it folly to do anything but support the only democratic/republican government in the ME. Israel. No peace is possible until that happens. Don’t hold your breath. I think the PA governor was correct in his college paper.
It is unbelievable that the United States is so passively complicit in everything Israel does. Israel is obviously trying to drag the United States into war with Iran, as Professor Mearsheimer makes clear. Now the poke from Sumy across the Russian border towards Kursk, is that Budanov taking a leaf from the Israelis' book?
Super talk always…lots of info for our disinformation …👍❤️‼️‼️‼️
I appreciate calling out that. However, I have an issue with the title as it seems to “glorify” intimidation and ganging up that AIPAC does!
It seems to me more appropriate title would be “American politics and national security are hostages to AIPAC”
Or “ The helpless American Congress against the mighty AIPAC”
Or “American Congress is beholden fully to AIPAC….else…they are out “
The title need to show how they turned American Congress into a bunch of sycophants and prostitutes peddling the interest of a foreign country!!
Thank God I'm not a piece of Jewish Supremacist shit!