Another International Jewish Conspiracy?

The notion that an international Jewish conspiracy controls the US government is, by definition, antisemitic. Yet that is exactly the message of the new book, Israel’s Lobby: America in the Grip of a Foreign Power, by Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick. According to Israel’s Lobby, Israel “directs” a “shadowy,” “loose coalition” of “ultra-wealthy,” “far-right” Jewish Americans and organizations – an “Israel Lobby” – to “shape” America’s foreign policy and thereby “subordinate” US interests to Israel’s “far-right” agenda.

Wild conspiracy theories about Jews have persisted for centuries and spooked communities worldwide. In variations of the false alarms, Jews subvert not only the US but countries such as Great Britain, France, Germany, Bulgaria, South Africa, Egypt, The United Arab Emirates, and Morocco. The libels incite widespread hatred towards a minority that comprises only 0.2% of the world’s population.

There is no “Israel Lobby.” In fact, the assortment of Jewish individuals and organizations described in the book were never organized, funded or managed in such a network. The parties who support Israel represent diverse political orientations and agendas, sometimes at odds with each other.

Israel’s lobbyists in the US are the 21 “registrants” listed on Israel’s behalf in the Foreign Agents Registration Act directory, not the rich Jews named in Israel’s Lobby. Hiring unregistered foreign agents would expose states like Israel to criminal penalties.

US election regulations prohibit foreign nationals from donating to American political campaigns or otherwise participating in American elections. Any foreign government figures who engage in electoral meddling as insinuated by Clifton and Lustick could face civil or criminal sanctions.

The authors also exaggerate Israel’s lobbying clout. According to a report by the election-tracking organization OpenSecrets, the country that spent the most on registered foreign agents in the US from 2016 to 2025 was China. Three of the top-ten spenders were Muslim-majority regimes, and Israel ranked last on the top-ten list.

Another measure of foreign lobbying power appeared in a 2024 report by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, an entity co-founded by Mr. Clifton. In the institute’s top-20 chart of most “politically active” countries, the leader was Saudi Arabia. Ten of the countries were Muslim-majority states, and Israel was not on the list.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is an American grassroots lobbying organization controlled and funded by Americans. It is not a foreign agent of Israel, as rumored in Israel’s Lobby. Contrary to the book’s anti-AIPAC aspersions, the group promotes policies that benefit both the US and Israel, not one at the other’s expense. And there is nothing suspicious about AIPAC’s finances. They are disclosed in the Lobbying Disclosure Act records.

Although the authors derisively call AIPAC a “Republican … vehicle,” it is a bipartisan group composed of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. The membership includes mostly Jews but also Christians, Blacks and Latinos.

AIPAC did not even start donating to American political campaigns until the 2022 election. The Federal Election Commission report on the most recent full election cycle (2023-2024) stated that 9,233 political action committees (PACs) gave candidates $15.5 billion. Of that amount, the “total contributions” of AIPAC’s PAC was $55.2 million. The funds went to candidates of various political stripes.

America’s uniquely bipartisan support for Israel is not based on bribery, as Clifton and Lustick cynically imply. It is evidence of what the allies call their “special relationship.” America’s Founding Fathers believed the American Revolution paralleled the biblical story of Exodus. The US and Israel are both pluralistic, liberal democracies with no monarchical tradition, established religion, or class-based institutions. Both countries celebrate technical innovation and high-risk, rags-to-riches entrepreneurship. Hundreds of American high-tech companies have R&D centers in Israel. Both states operate foreign human development programs and send rescue workers to foreign scenes of natural disasters. Both resist the anti-West politicization of international law. In response to the Islamic terrorist mission of “Death to America, death to Israel,” they mobilize in mutual defense. Social and cultural exchanges are continuous.

The authors’ overarching point is their silliest one. They suggest that in the US-Israel partnership, tiny Israel calls the shots. If anything, the opposite is true.

In 2015, Israel bitterly opposed the Iran Nuclear Agreement, a deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear weapons program. But President Obama signed it anyway.

From 2025 to 2026, as Israel struggled to defend against a multi-front terrorist war and hungered for American aid, the needed help was erratic at best. The US intermittently joined Israel on the Iranian front. But President Trump never even consulted Israel before making five major decisions that affected all the battlefronts. He declared a ceasefire with Iran, normalized relations with the terrorist leader of Syria, called a truce with the Houthi terrorists, devised a peace plan for terror-gripped Gaza, and then reached a memorandum of understanding with Iran. Israel reluctantly accepted these nerve-racking curveballs to avoid antagonizing Trump, even though the underlying enemy threats remained unresolved.

These days, radicals worldwide ignite flames of antisemitic hostility. Israel’s Lobby throws gasoline on the fire.