Chapter One HOW THE U.S. “SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP” WITH ISRAEL CAME ABOUT by Alison Weir

 Chapter One
HOW THE U.S. “SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP” WITH ISRAEL
CAME ABOUT
While many people are led to believe that U.S. support for Israel is driven by the American
establishment and U.S. national interests, the facts don’t support this theory. The reality is that for
decades U.S. foreign policy and defense experts opposed supporting the creation of Israel. They then
similarly opposed the massive American funding and diplomatic support that sustained the forcibly
established state and that provided a blank check for its aggressive expansion. They were simply
outmaneuvered and eventually replaced.
Like many American policies, U.S. Middle East policies are driven by a special interest lobby.
However, the Israel Lobby, as it is called today in the U.S.[1], consists of vastly more than what most
people envision in the word “lobby.”
As this book will demonstrate, the Israel Lobby is considerably more powerful and pervasive than
other lobbies. Components of it, both individuals and groups, have worked underground, secretly and
even illegally throughout its history, as documented by scholars and participants.
And even though the movement for Israel has been operating in the U.S. for over a hundred years,
most Americans are completely unaware of this movement and its attendant ideology – a measure of
its unique influence over public knowledge.

The success of this movement to achieve its goals, partly due to the hidden nature of much of its
activity, has been staggering. It has also come at an almost unimaginable cost.
It has led to massive tragedy in the Middle East: a hundred-year war of violence and loss; sacred
land soaked in sorrow.
In addition, this movement has been profoundly damaging to the United States itself.
As we will see in this two-part examination of the pro-Israel movement, it has targeted virtually
every significant sector of American society; worked to involve Americans in tragic, unnecessary,
and profoundly costly wars; dominated Congress for decades; increasingly determined which
candidates could become serious contenders for the U.S. presidency; and promoted bigotry toward an
entire population, religion and culture.
It has promoted policies that have exposed Americans to growing danger, and then exaggerated
this danger (while disguising its cause), fueling actions that dismember some of our nation’s most
fundamental freedoms and cherished principles.[2]
All this for a population that is considerably smaller than New Jersey’s.[3]
Chapter T