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By John Perazzo
FrontPageMagazine.com | January 17, 2007As Western civilization faces the threat of a radical Islamic foe that seeks to annihilate it, the collective self-assurance of the Western psyche continues to wither under the relentless, low-grade assault of the political Left. This assault presents itself in the form of constant criticism aimed at America’s allegedly vast array of societal defects — with the intent of expunging every last shred of self-respect from the Western mind and heart, and of thereby convincing Western man that his irredeemably sinful culture is unworthy of his defense. The key operatives in this assault are leftwing organizations describing themselves as defenders of such righteous-sounding ideals as “civil liberties,” “human rights,” “peace,” and “social justice.” Allied with them is a growing cabal of pro-Arab, anti-Israel groups that, both jointly and independently, characterize the U.S. and Israel in particular as nations that routinely inflict immense suffering on Arab populations all over the world. By portraying Arabs as victims of American and Israeli transgressions, these groups aim — through their press releases, official statements, publications, and direct actions — to shape public opinion regarding such issues as the war on terror and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
While focusing on Arab concerns, by no means is this lobby composed exclusively of Arabs. The lobby is defined by its ideology, not the ethnicity of its active constituents. And that ideology tends to be, as noted above, pro-Arab on the one hand, anti-Israel on the other.
To be sure, the Arab lobby does not speak for all Arab Americans. According to the Arab American Institute, there are approximately 3.5 million people of Arab heritage in the U.S. today, about half of them concentrated in five states — California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York. Nearly 40 percent of these Arab Americans are Lebanese, mostly Christians, who are largely unsympathetic to the Arab lobby’s anti-Israel perspectives. By contrast, only about 70,000 Palestinian Americans reside in the United States — a small percentage of the Arab American population. But because of their high level of political activism, their views and concerns have received hugely disproportionate attention from political leaders and the media alike. Indeed, the Palestinian cause heads the Arab lobby’s list of concerns.
In an effort to expose the agendas and tactics of the Arab lobby, DiscoverTheNetworks.org has added a new “Arab Lobby” section to its ever-expanding database. This section profiles not only those pro-Arab organizatio ns and individuals (both in the U.S. and abroad) that lobby to affect specific legislation, but also those that engage in what might be defined, more precisely, as advocacy on behalf of Arab interests anywhere in the world. (There is technically a distinction between advocacy and lobbying. Advocacy is a broader term, connoting efforts to influence some aspect of society, be it individual behavior, public opinion, public policy, or legislation passed by elected government officials. Lobbying can be described as a subset of advocacy, referring specifically to efforts to convince legislators to vote in a certain way.)
The roots of the Arab lobby in America can be traced back to 1951, when King Saud of Saudi Arabia asked U.S. diplomats to finance a pro-Arab lobby to serve as a counterweight to the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs (later renamed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC).
While the pace of the Arab lobby’s growth was initially slow, there were nonetheless signs of increased assertiveness. After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, for example, the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO) set up a fund to present the Arab perspective on the conflict. In May 1970, ARAMCO representatives warned Assistant Secretary of State Joseph Sisco that American military sales to Israel would harm U.S.-Arab relations and jeopardize American oil supplies. Go read the rest Front Page Magazine
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