The Lobby: Jewish Political Power and American Foreign Policy [Paperback]

Edward Tivnan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Tivnan, a New York journalist, presents a credible view of the pro-Israel lobby in the U.S. Much of the book focuses on the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the only registered U.S. lobby for Israel, which rose from obscurity to become a force in the 1981 Capitol Hill battle over the sale of AWACS to the Saudis. Against his recap of several decades of earlier lobbying by U.S. Jews (toward the creation and support of Israel), Tivnan develops the argument that AIPAC, with national ties to local political-action committees and campus groups, has waged and virtually won a "War for Washington," becoming the dominant voice of American Jews on issues that relate to Israel. In the process, Tivnan charges, AIPAC has presented U.S. Jews as neoconservatives when, in fact, many are dissenting "doves" on Israeli policies toward the Arabs. The author's frank discussion of Jewish political clout, and of animosities within this "lobby," is bound to provoke controversy.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone Books (October 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671668285
• ISBN-13: 978-0671668280
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #786,210 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The More Things Don't Change, The More They Stay The Same, August 27, 2009

By 

Steven Sica "tired typist" (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Lobby: Jewish Political Power and American Foreign Policy (Paperback)

This is one of the most important books published in the 1980s dealing with the question of US foreign policy and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Never heard of it, you say? Small wonder.

It's sad to comtemplate how this book reads like the parent to the much better known and more recently published "The Israel Lobby And U. S. Foreign Policy" by professors John Mearshirmer and Stephen Walt. Tivnan, a journalist, has done a masterful job in laying out the problems presented to the US in it's policies toward the Palestinians and the Israelis by the remoreseless, relentless, take-no-prisoners, bare-knuckled political approach of AIPAC and the other various groups which make up what is called "The Israel Lobby." [The only substantial difference between then and now is the growth of the tragically self-deluded "Christian Fundamantalists" who, in pursuit of their bizarre theology, advocate unquestioned support of every very questionable word and deed of Israel.] Indeed, so prescient is Tivnan in his analysis that it's barely an exaggerastion to write that the great work of Mearshirmer and Walt is but an extended footnote to the ground so competently and so cogently surveyed by Tivan two decades earlier.

By all means, read this book. And then read the work of Mearshirmer and Walt. And than get angry, get very angry, and ask yourself to what extent does US support of Israel help or hinder the security and welfare of the US and it's citizenry.