New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman writes:
Never have I seen Israel and America's core Arab allies working more in concert to stymie a major foreign policy initiative of a sitting U.S. president, and never have I seen more lawmakers — Democrats and Republicans — more willing to take Israel's side against their own president's. I'm certain this comes less from any careful consideration of the facts and more from a growing tendency by many American lawmakers to do whatever the Israel lobby asks them to do in order to garner Jewish votes and campaign donations.
This is really a loathsome passage. It ignores the possibility that it might also be in America's interest to avoid some sham deal with Iran that would leave the Iranian dictators in power with the ability to continue supporting terrorism, abusing the human rights of the Iranian people, and opposing the Arab-Israeli peace process, and secretly continuing to pursue nuclear weapons. If Jewish votes (a small fraction of the electorate) and campaign donations are as important as Mr. Friedman claims, how is it that Mr. Obama dares to cross this all-powerful Jewish lobby? If Mr. Friedman has evidence of a particular congressman swayed by "campaign donations," he should report it. But he manages to be "certain" about this without the burden of providing any facts that might make readers share the certainty. Mr. Friedman also doesn't give any indication that this supposed tendency by lawmakers is "growing." Mr. Friedman's claim about the growing influence of "the Israel lobby" is itself hard to square with the endless New York Times hype about J Street, the Pew survey, Peter Beinart, and other claims that American Jewish support for Israel or its policies is declining or no longer as uniform as it once was.