Palestine and Israel in the US Elections

A media battle continues to rage between Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and current U.S. president Barack Obama; as usual, both candidates are in a race to drum up support from Israel and its allies. This is in light of the rising emergence of right-wing extremism among Republican politicians and the Democratic Party’s fear of losing the votes of American Jews and their supporters.

The Zionist lobby has penetrated both parties, exploiting the extremist Republican politicians into wresting a stronger position of support for Israel than it has seen under the Obama administration. Yet, despite Obama’s favorable stance toward Israeli policies, he faces opposition from some members in the American Zionist movement who do not “forgive him” for his demands that Israel suspend construction of Jewish settlements as a condition to facilitate successful negotiations between Israel and Palestine.

Obama made a swift retreat after the dissonance of his opponents and supporters in the American Zionist party, who referred to his demands as a “huge mistake.” This led Obama to appoint Dennis Ross, a key player in his 2008 presidential campaign, to a leadership position in what appeared to be an attempt to “rehabilitate Obama” through engineering and promoting change in his positions by completely abandoning some White House policies.

The Republican Party, however, is trying to milk the so-called feeble position of Obama as Israel’s ally by pointing out the administration’s “reluctance” to wage war on Iran. The Republicans do this despite their knowledge that Obama is completely biased toward Israel and that it is impossible for Washington to start a military assault on Iran during an election year. Apart from these reasons, as was explained in a report I referred to in a previous article, the U.S. military is in a difficult position logistically to become involved. It is overextended in other operations, non-existent in Afghanistan and expected to respond to the potential closing of the Strait of Hormuz to Iran, which is a very complex issue.

Inevitably the U.S. implemented several means of cracking down on Iran. However, Israel has begun to fervently push a new campaign calling for a military strike against Tehran, which has only increased since the collapse of the Israeli government’s short-lived Kadima Party. Projections from some American and Israeli analyses see an opportunity for a military strike on Iran due to the expected fall of the Syrian regime.

The Israeli campaign has continued to gain new momentum since the visit of right-wing Republican candidate Mitt Romney to Israel. There he made a preemptive strike on the “negligence” and “poor handling” of such a key ally as Israel by the current administration and offered his sincere readiness and seriousness when addressing the confrontation of the “Iranian nuclear threat.” Romney even went as far as implicitly accusing the Obama administration of leaking details on the attack of critical Iranian websites with the intent of disabling them, attributing this leak to the administration’s unwillingness to announce a comprehensive military campaign against Iran.

Romney’s remarks were not merely campaigning for Jewish votes, but rather were to reflect the interests in part of another lobby aligned with him, which may be even more important than the Zionist lobby. This lobby, however, is a grouping of military industries, which is important for Israeli relations and joint ventures around the world.

However, the Republican Party has a notable lack of faith in Romney’s ability to draw Jewish votes or even votes of larger communities of Israeli supporters away from Obama, especially because a large number of American Jews oppose remarks made by Benjamin Netanyahu, who they see as harmful to the interests of Israel.

The split among American Jews over Netanyahu is echoed in the writing of some Jewish authors and has affected the position of American Jews, non-Jewish Israeli allies and their electoral choices. Support of Netanyahu has become a burden to many of his supporters and U.S. politicians alike who support Israel.

Considering this malaise, some have sought to restore and increase support for Netanyahu in America. A strong Netanyahu ally — the Jewish-American and billionaire Ronald Lauder, owner of cosmetic empire Estee Lauder — placed a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal calling for the Palestinian Authority to begin direct negotiations with Netanyahu's government. The ad addressed the situation of the Palestinians without conferring any conditions or limitations while sending a veiled threat of military repercussions.

Whatever Lauder paid, just add it to the number of lavish donations regularly bestowed on the Israeli army that are intended to intimidate and corner the Palestinians. Both Romney’s speech and other politicians from the American right have attempted to reduce the unrest surrounding Netanyahu among American Jews and prevent the U.S. election from being a catalyst of divisions within the Zionist lobby, which may result in a loss of power during an election year.

These are mere initial observations, which are only a miniscule crevice when analyzing America’s sphere of influence which spans the elections and connections between these speeches.