Do the American Jews have a big say on what actually goes on in US politics?

1. 61

   itsameanoldsceneposted 14 years ago

   Do the American Jews have a big say on what actually goes on in US politics?
   
   I blog & read a lot on Middle Eastern Media outlets & many people there are convinced that the so called Zionists run the US, can someone in the US give me their slant on this subject.

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2. 0

   wongomowaleposted 14 years ago

   I would say they have a big influence on politics. I mean I can’t think of any logical reasons as to why America sends billions of dollars to Israel.

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3. 0

   Old Empresarioposted 14 years ago

   The United States has two de-facto capitals that control all foreign and economic policy in our government. These two cities are Washington and New York. Washington is a city where the powerful are concerned with politics, demagoguery, militarism, and democratic power. Yet the militaristic-imperialist side is always at odds with the more democratic (and corrupt) political side. New York is a city where the powerful are obsessed with money, yet contemptuous of democracy. New York is the financial capital of the US, while DC is the national security capital. In many ways, New York controls the military industry and all corporations as well as the political campaign process. Some theories hold that because New York has one of the world's largest Jewish populations in the world, Jewish political financing must be behind American support for Israel. In truth, Israel is a virtual client state of the US government. Its location is of vast strategic importance to supporting American hegemony. Radical Christians, of whom there are many in the US, are as supportive of Israel as anyone else may be. So, for all of these reasons, it makes sense that the US government would have a policy geared toward arming and financing Israel. On September 11, the Arab world attacked two symbolic targets in the US: the military headquarters in Washington and the financial headquarters in New York. Nobody picked up on that though, and preferred to make it sound like these were random attacks against large groups of people. If the terrorists wanted to do that, they would have attacked a football stadium during a packed game or something of that nature.

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4. 69

   leroy64posted 14 years ago

   This is just my opinion.  The jewish community has a lobby that gets some press during every presidential election; but,  I doubt they have any special influence.  The politicians language about Israel has more of the feel of the evangelical christian movements in the midwest and south.  That is a much larger voter base than the Jewish communities on the East Coast.  In the US, that cannot be ignored by anyone that wants to get elected to a national office.  More than one candidate has found this out the hard way.

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   Rock_njposted 14 years ago

   Our foreign policy is undeniably skewed towards helping Israel, which makes for a very tricky foreign policy since we are also very interested in keeping the oil flowing from the arab countries that surround Israel to keep our economy well oiled.
   
   As far as Jewish influence on U.S. politics, researching the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a good place to start to understand this influence, as this organization is the confluence of this influence.

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