The damage done by pro-Israel forces

A combination of pro-Israel advocacy groups and political action committees, including right-wing Christian fundamentalists, neoconservative hawks and weak-kneed liberals, have not only enabled Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestinians, they have done so much more.

• They have silenced congressional debate on decades of Israel’s illegal policies towards Palestinians. Pro-Israel groups and political action committees cry foul whenever their role in this regard is noted. But the tens of millions they have spent to punish critics and create a climate of fear, and their own gloating over their successes, are too well-documented to ignore. The result has been that too many members of Congress have either been cowed into silence or motivated to pass excessively bizarre legislation singling out Israel for special treatment in budgetary matters or for political favours.

This same coalition of groups from the right and left of American politics has also pressed successive US administrations not only to turn a blind eye to Israeli actions that violate US laws, but also to take an aggressive posture towards other nations who are critical of Israel. These acts have contributed to dismantling the architecture of international diplomacy, laws and covenants developed in the aftermath of the two world wars and have done grave damage to the stature of the US in the world community.

US presidents from Ford to Obama have been pressured by pro-Israel group-inspired congressional letters calling on them to back away from positions critical of Israeli policies. Successive administrations have thus been cowed into silence in the face of Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied territories and other well-documented Israeli violations of international law and human rights. Worse still, in recent years this effort to shield Israel from criticism has led the US to seek to punish UN committees and other international bodies, leaving the US increasingly isolated.

• This same collection of groups and the pressures they have created to distort US policies have also done incalculable damage to Palestinians and Israelis and the prospects for Middle East peace.

The State Department Human Rights report on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories is ignored, even when it has been accurate in its reporting. As a result, Palestinian rights have been systematically violated in contravention of US laws.

• US acquiescence in the face of Israel’s behavior has also contributed to the decline of Israel’s peace movement. Once fairly vibrant, they used to make the case that settlement expansion or violations of rights would damage Israel’s relationship with the US. After decades of evidence that such repercussions would never occur, this movement has faded into irrelevance. Their absence has left the hard right as the dominant force in Israel, with the only serious divisions in Israeli politics being whether the next coalition government include the Ultra-Orthodox or have Netanyahu in command. Palestinians or matters of peace and justice are not on the agenda.

• Since October 7, the coalition of pro-Israel forces, led by right-wing Christian Ideologues and pro-Israel groups in the US, have accelerated their efforts on the home front using congressional pressure and Presidential Executive Orders to dismantle constitutionally protected free speech and academic freedom on college campuses. The expanded definition of antisemitism, which includes legitimate criticism of Israel, is now being enforced to threaten federal funds to universities who do not punish students and faculty for what are now deemed antisemitic activities. The Department of Justice has launched a task force to identify groups and individuals who participated in anti-Israel actions. And right-wing groups have undertaken to identify foreign students and faculty who have been involved in pro-Palestinian protests or against whom Jewish students have issued complaints for anti-Israel remarks. They are reporting them to authorities for deportation, as per another of President Trump’s Executive Orders.

What is deeply disturbing is that equating “anti-Israel” and “pro-Palestinian” with “antisemitism” has created a climate of fear on campuses, impeding free speech and academic freedoms on campuses and public discourse.

And so, while Palestinians are paying with their lives because pressure from pro-Israel groups has silenced criticism of Israeli policies, the damage done by this pressure grows. It has discredited the structures of the international order, humiliated and isolated the US in the eyes of the world, and is now eating away at many of our much-cherished freedoms.

The writer is president of the Washington-based Arab American Institute