Lobby Grip

"America is about to enter a presidential election year. Although the outcome is of course impossible to predict at this stage, certain features of the campaign are easy to foresee. The candidates will inevitably differ on various domestic issues...and spirited debates are certain to erupt on a host of foreign policy questions as well...Yet on one subject, we can be equally confident that the candidates will speak with one voice. In 2008, as in previous election years, serious candidates for the highest office in the land will go to considerable lengths to express their deep commitment to one foreign country - Israel - as well as their determination to maintain unyielding US support for the Jewish state. Each candidate will emphasize that he or she fully appreciates the multitude of threats facing Israel and make it clear that, if elected, the United States will remain firmly committed to defending Israel's interests under any and all circumstances. None of the candidates is likely to criticize Israel in any significant way or suggest that the United States ought to pursue a more evenhanded policy in the region. Any who do will probably fall by the wayside."

So run the opening sentences to The Israel Lobby & US Foreign Policy by John J Mearsheimer and Stephen M Walt, 2007. Their prediction has, of course, come to pass:-

"US Democratic senators and presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are scheduled to join...Republican presidential hopeful John McCain as vice-chairmen of the National Committee for Israel's 60th anniversary, according to a statement released by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Friday...The committee will also be co-chaired by former American presidents George H W Bush and Bill Clinton, and every living former US secretary of state, including Henry Kissinger, have signed on to serve on the committee as well." Obama, Clinton, McCain to co-chair Israel 60th anniversary panel, Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz, 5/4/08

You couldn't invent this stuff.