A favorite meme among Israel haters and anti-Semites is that a powerful Jewish (or Israel or Neocon) lobby makes all the foreign policy decisions in the United States.
The Sunlight Foundations, Open Secrets, MISP, and POGO compiled a list detailing the total dollars spent by each country to lobby government officials. The chart below uses the latest data from that list (2013) for every country spending more than $1,000,000.
The United Arab Emirates is first with $14 million, followed by Germany ($12 million) and Canada ($11 million). Israel is not on the chart because it is next to last ($1,250).
Critics of the Jewish state will ask about the 800-pound gorilla in the room, namely the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. According to Open Secrets, AIPAC spent $2,977,744 in lobbying in 2013, which — when you add in the the $1,250 — brings Israel’s total to $2,978,994, catapulting it into eighth place between South Korea and the Republic of Srpska.
I have two responses: First, the data in the chart fail to account for dollars spent by other similar lobbying groups, such as the American Iranian Friendship Council, which shifts the balance further back in the opposite direction.
Second, and more importantly, even when AIPAC spending is included, Israel’s lobbying dollars work out to only 21% of what the UAE spends, about a quarter of Germany’s spending, 26.5% of Canada’s, 26.8% of the Saudis’, 48.6% of Mexico’s, and about three-quarters of both Morocco and South Korea’s lobbying spending.
The argument is similar to the one Harry Reid and his fellow Democratic goons use to bash the Koch brothers, who rank 57th on a list of major political donors, proving once again that there is no reasoning with bigots and fools.
Cross-posted at The Lid
