When Ethnic Lobbies Collide: Jews, Arabs, and the 2008 Election

The Jewish-American lobby is going to get trounced by the Arab-American lobby, says David Forman in the Jerusalem Post. If it doesn't happen in the upcoming election, it'll happen eventually.

With the next presidential election already heating up, American Jewish influence will be further challenged. With heavy Arab-American communities in Michigan, Illinois and California – pivotal states in any national election – it will be interesting to see whether America's next president will continue to give preferential treatment to Jewish and Israel concerns.

As the American-Arab community grows in numbers and confidence, it will increasingly be American Muslims who will influence US foreign policy vis-a-vis the Middle East.

The article reads like a heroic non-sequitur, with Forman spending the first several paragraphs explaining that the idea of “The Lobby” is “antisemitic propaganda,” and the rest of the article lamenting that our Lobby is about to get pwned by their Lobby. He also gives us plenty of dubious Islam-is-irredeemable boilerplate (“Pluralism is not part of the Islamic tradition. There is no such thing as a Reform Muslim.”). And oh yeah, intermarriage: that’s a problem!

But hidden amidst all the noise is a plausible argument, which goes like this: In the past, pro-Israel activists have succeeded in drawing attention to Israeli interests. But that increased attention only helped when Israeli interests also served American interests. So now our problem now is twofold. One: pro-Israel activists are increasingly outgunned by pro-Arab activists, both in numbers and conviction. Two: Israel no longer effectively serves American interests, as evidenced by their failure to curb Iran's Mini-Me, Hizballah. So it’s a perfect storm. The America-Israel relationship may be headed for the shitter.