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Originally Posted by Crumb
According to Wikipedia the US is only 1.4% Jewish. Call me skeptical but I am not convinced that even if they all voted the same all the time that they could have such a profound effect on US foreign policy. My guess is that the pro-Israel involvement of the US has much more to do with a large number of Christians who may see the continued existence of Israel as fullfilling biblical prophecy. They have much larger numbers.
Isn't that more likely?
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Watch the numbers, though.
The number of Fortune 500 corporate CEOs is
considerably less than 1% of the population. I suspect that as a group, they have an effect on US foreign policy far in excess of their proportional representation.
And there are more ways to influence the US foreign policy than showing up for elections, especially given our current political system of electoral voting.
Edited to add:
Here's an example where a Jewish minority has influenced US foreign policy:
http://www.middleeastbooks.com/html/...neff-jeru.html
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Warriors for Jerusalem: The Six Days that Changed the Middle East in 1967
Donald Neff
Amana Publications, Paperback, 1988, 430 pgs.
An account of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, covering events preceding the conflict and the aftermath of Israel's victory.
A disturbing aspect is the revelation of how closely Israel and its supporters in the United States worked with the highest levels of the U.S. government as U.S. reactions and policies were being decided. Every Israeli request for political or material support was granted except for the aforementioned formal military commitment. A network of prominent American Jews both in and out of government was advising President Johnson at every stage, and was at the same time apparently keeping the Israeli embassy and the Israeli government fully informed of every move contemplated by the United States. The network included the Rostow brothers in the White House and State Department, Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas, Ambassador to the U.N. Arthur Goldberg, Finance Chairman of the Democratic Party Arthur Krim and his wife Mathilde, and Abraham Feinberg, a fundraiser for the Democratic Party. This one-sided barrage of advice made a mockery of any pretense of evenhandedness, as was amply demonstrated when State Department spokesman Bob McCloskey said on the morning of June 5 that "the U.S. position is neutral in word, thought and deed"-a statement which brought howls of outrage from Israel's supporters all across America. This was embarrassing for President Johnson, who was desparately seeking Jewish support to shore up his popularity- rapidly waning as a result of Vietnam.
Secret Assurances
Another revelation is that King Hussein was given secret assurances by President Johnson and Ambassador Goldberg that the U.S. was committed to Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories within six months of the passage of 242. Seventeen years later with Israel still in place it is no wonder Hussein's patience has finally snapped in recent days.
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So this is no accident. The text of 242 was deliberately changed, to let the Arabs interpret it as a full withdrawal, and let the Israelis verbally position it as such, but to allow wiggle room in the written version so that Israel could hide behind a single three-letter word.
To think otherwise (i.e, to claim that the Arabs understood that 242 only called for a *partial* withdrawal) is to believe that the Arabs knew that 242 wasn't going to give them what they wanted, yet they signed onto it anyhow - which is preposterous. The Arabs would have *never* signed on to 242 if it did not include a full and complete withdrawal,
especially over East Jerusalem.
This is why for years afterwards, Anwar al-Sadat always spoke bitterly about Resolution 242, saying that Israel had violated the 'spirit of the agreement'; i.e., that everyone who agreed to 242 knew what it meant and had agreed on its meaning. But then the Arabs had been sold a bait-and-switch, courtesy of some weasly changes in the text. And he was right. And as you might expect, this episode over 242 is used by the Arabs as an example of why Israel cannot be trusted in negotiations.