Israel lobby losing power in US as BDS gains traction

Keith Preston, director of Attackthesystem.com, argued that the frustration amid American with Washington’s unconditional support for Tel Aviv was growing among American people and politicians.

“Well, it’s certainly true that Israel has a very very powerful grip over the American government,” Preston said, adding that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) maintained the most influence the policy-making process in the US.

The analyst said the influence of the pro-Israel lobby was best seen when Donald Trump and other 2016 US presidential election hopefuls attended events by AIPAC to reassure the powerful interest group of their commitment to protect Israeli interests.

However, the political landscape in the US has seen some changes with regards to Israel and although politicians remained strong allies of the regime more people were turning against it.

“While Americans have generally been very very pro-Israel; that is starting to decline somewhat,” Preston argued. “I think more and more people for example in the United States are getting tired of American constantly being at war in the Middle East in large part because of the influence of the Israeli lobby over American foreign policy.”

Another notable change, he said, was the growing population of ethnic and religious minorities in the US, who “correctly see Palestinians as an oppressed people.”

Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who became the first Muslim members of the House of Representatives in January, have been outspoken about their criticism of Israel’s crimes against the people of Palestine.

Omar has accused the Tel Aviv regime of discrimination against Palestinians similar to apartheid.

Tlaib, on the other hand, has argued that the BDS movement can draw attention to “issues like the racism and the international human rights violations by Israel right now.”

Pro-BDS stances by people like Omar and Tlaib, according to Preston, is eating away at the Israel’s influence in the US.

“The pro-Israel forces in the United States are terrified of the BDS movement and that’s why they are trying to pass laws that would essentially criminalize it,” he explained. “And that’s essentially what these two representatives, Tlaib and Omar, are speaking out against.”

“Congress is essentially trying to pass an unconstitutional law on behalf of Israel in order to undermine the BDS movement,” he said.

“But I think we’ll see more voices of this type in the future coming along… I think more and more elected officials and certainly the general public will become more and more aware this relationship between the US and Israel and the negative influence really that Israel has on American society in terms of foreign policy and a number of other issues,” the analyst concluded.