Description
"The power and influence of pro-Israel special interest groups is analyzed on every level in this unique piece of congressional commentary by an expert on the history and modern complexities of the Arab-Israeli conflict. From campaign funding and other influencers on congressional elections, to the bi-partisan alliances within the Senate and the House, the many internal and external pressures faced by congresspersons and staffers, and the complex process of allocating foreign aid, all sides of the US Congress's role in the Middle East is examined in straightforward, journalistic prose"--
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How does one explain US Middle East policy? When Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer wrote their bestselling book The Israel Lobby, they attributed our pro-Israel policy to the power of the lobby itself. Others have criticized this approach as overly simplistic. Longtime Middle East watcher Professor Kirk Beattie provides a profound assessment of Congress’s role by examining the vetting of congressional candidates, campaign financing, congressional staffing, bipartisan alliances within the Senate and the House, and the agenda-driven allocation of foreign aid and policymaking. He addresses the many internal and external pressures that impact such processes. His findings, based on roughly two hundred interviews with congressional staffers, lobbyists, members of Congress, and foreign embassy officials across years of research, untangle the issue to show us how Congress really works.
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