Judge Nap: Jewish Lobby Or Israel Lobby?

The other day Judge Nap did a segment with Max Blumenthal. The title, The Occupation Comes Home, is a clear suggestion that America is an occupied land, much as Palestine is occupied. The Israel Occupation Forces haven’t landed, but our government has been “occupied” by the Israel Lobby—purchased, fair and square. In the course of the discussion the Judge used the term “The Jewish Lobby”. Max corrected the Judge, pointing out that, according to polling data, a third of Jews under 40 largely share the views of Blumenthal and the Judge themselves—that Israel is committing genocide. Therefore, it’s not correct to suggest that American “Jews” as a group are supporting that genocide, even if it’s true that the majority still do.

That’s the background to Judge Nap’s segment yesterday afternoon with Prof. John Mearsheimer. Since Mearsheimer literally wrote the book (with Steve Walt) on The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, the Judge started things off by putting the question to Mearsheimer: Jewish Lobby or Israel Lobby? Mearsheimer agreed with Blumenthal.

With that the two continued on to a fascinating discussion, which I recommend in its entirety. However, I’ve included excerpts of particularly interesting passages. I’ve also added value, I believe, with extra material and a critique—or perhaps an expansion—of some of Mearsheimer’s views:

Prof. John Mearsheimer : Donor Class vs. the First Amendment

The title explains where Judge Nap—obviously no dummy—is coming from. He’s clearly suggesting that, while it’s all fine and good to draw distinctions like those advanced by Blumenthal and Mearsheimer, when the rubber hits the road—i.e., when the campaign donation checks are written and put in the mail—the Israel Lobby owns the US government due to its preponderant funding of the political establishment, and the people who control the Israel Lobby are wealthy Jews who do, in fact, represent the majority of American Jewish opinion. You can see that view expressed in this first exchange:

The Judge: How can the donor class or the Israeli Lobby--AIPAC and that group-- justify what they are doing to suppress free speech? You and I sent some articles to each other from The New York Times last week which revealed--I don't know how the Times got this--emails from very wealthy Jewish businessmen to presidents of colleges and universities saying, 'You better shut down those demonstrators right now, whether they're engaged in acts of violence or not--it's speech that we can't tolerate!'

The Prof: Well, the fact is that supporters of Israel cannot tolerate an open discourse about Israel and what it's doing to the Palestinians. They just can't tolerate that because Israel loses if there is an open debate. So what The Lobby is doing is going to enormous lengths to shut down the discourse, to do everything they can to end the protest. And if you read this amazing article in the Washington Post today …

Business titans privately urged NYC mayor to use police on Columbia protesters, chats show

A WhatsApp chat started by some wealthy Americans after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack reveals their focus on Mayor Eric Adams and their work to shape U.S. opinion of the Gaza war.

… about the efforts of rich Jewish donors to shut down the protest you see this behavior clearly laid out in great detail. In fact, it's thoroughly documented. Again, what they're doing is just trying to to shut down the discourse. Which is another way of saying, suppress free speech.

So, not to put too fine a point on the matter, what the NYT and the WaPo have documented is the fact that Jewish “Business titans” or “rich Jewish donors”—i.e., the “donor class” that runs The Lobby—issued orders to colleges and universities to invite state and local LE to shut down the First Amendment on their campuses. I assume that the Jewish “Business titans” or “rich Jewish donors” told the “educators” and “law enforcement” officials that they had squared the federal government with this suppression of the Constitution, so there would be no question of the “educators” and “law enforcement” officials getting in trouble over the suppression of the First Amendment. America—what a country!

Now, the “amazing” WaPo article is behind a subscription wall. However, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) has a pretty full summary. The JTA focuses on what they hint is the “anti-semitism” of the WaPo in publishing what its Jewish reporters found out about this matter

NYC deputy mayor charges Washington Post with antisemitism after story on Jewish business leaders’ pro-Israel pressure campaign

However, uncomfortable facts come out.

The Washington Post article published on Thursday centers on a group chat on the WhatsApp messaging platform. In the chat, Jewish billionaires and prominent business figures discussed advocacy for Israel, including by facilitating showings of an Israeli government compilation of footage of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

…

“Overall, the messages offer a window into how some prominent individuals have wielded their money and power in an effort to shape American views of the Gaza war, as well as the actions of academic, business and political leaders — including New York’s mayor,” the article says. 

In other words, “Jewish billionaires and prominent [Jewish] business figures” discussed lobbying on behalf of a foreign power using materials provided by that foreign power. Substitute “Russian” or “Chinese” for the relevant words and you’ll get the idea. These “prominent individuals … wielded their money and power in an effort to shape American views” on behalf of a foreign government using materials provided by that same foreign government. Can you say, Foreign Agent Registration Act?

The JTA does quote a NYC official, Fabien Levy (who the JTA coyly notes “is Jewish”, in case any goyishe kops hadn’t figured that out): “saying Jews ‘wielded their money & power in an effort to shape American views’ is offensive on so many levels.”

But Levy doesn’t cite even one of those “so many” levels. To which I would add: You first, Fabien. You name one level on which the idea of Jews ‘wield[ing] their money & power in an effort to shape American views’ is offensive and I’ll go ahead and name another. Seems fair. And in fairness, the JTA totally lets the cat out of the bag in its concluding paragraphs:

Thursday’s article describes a “group of billionaires and business titans working to shape U.S. public opinion of the war in Gaza.” Their WhatsApp chat, called “Israel Current Events,” was set up shortly after Oct. 7, had around 100 members and shut down earlier this month. 

The group was set up by a staffer for the Jewish real estate investor Barry Sternlicht, who participated through the staffer but did not join the group directly. Sternlicht’s staffer said the goal of the group was to “win the war” of U.S. public opinion, the report said.

Members of the group who were on the call with Adams included the hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb; billionaire Len Blavatnik; and real estate tycoon Joseph Sitt. All are Jewish, although their Jewish heritage is not specified in the article. Some members of the WhatsApp group discussed making donations to Adams, and Blavatnik donated the maximum $2,100 to the mayor, the report said.

The group also included the hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who has been an outspoken critic of universities’ Israel stances since Oct. 7. Other members were American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch; Howard Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks; the founder and CEO of Dell, Michael Dell; and Joshua Kushner, an investor and brother of Jared Kushner. 

The group also held briefings with Israeli leaders, including former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett; war cabinet member Benny Gantz, the former defense minister; and Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Herzog, the report said.

Again: Can you say Foreign Agent Registration Act? Also, who really thinks these guys only spoke with Israeli leaders and had no contacts—possibly through trusted intermediaries—with US leaders? C’mon! And Levy, in his letter to the WaPo, does confirm the MO, which was: Have the “educators” invite the Swat Teams onto the campuses with “specific written requests”, while the billionaires of the “donor class” stay out of sight. Nothing says ‘Trust me and trust in the righteousness of Zionism!’ like that.

Judge Nap wasn’t finished with penetrating questions, and the next one is one that we’ve raised numerous times. In my opinion Mearsheimer fumbles this one, which is puzzling, since the answer seems so obvious:

The Judge: Back to the Israeli Lobby. Is it concerned with any other foreign policy ventures of United States and imperialism like Ukraine or does it just concern itself with the United States and Israel?

The Prof: This is a very interesting question. The fact is that The Lobby is deeply interested in seeing the United States involved militarily all over the planet. The reason is that, if the United States is intervening all over the planet, that means it will have a commitment to intervening in Israel. You don't want a situation where the United States pulls back its forces, implements a foreign policy of restraint and is very reluctant to interfere in other places around the world, because if that's the case it means that Israel may get into a conflict and the United States might not be willing to intervene on its behalf. So The Lobby over time has had a deep-seated interest in seeing the United States pursue a very aggressive foreign policy all across the globe.

Now, Mearsheimer does have a point. But there’s a simpler explanation, and one that I think is more compelling. If The Lobby controls US foreign policy—and it does—it has a vested interest in the US becoming and remaining the Global Hegemon for a whole host of reasons. The most obvious reason is that, if The Lobby exercises outsized influence over US foreign policy, then ipso facto so, too, does the Israeli government. That, of course, translates into unquestioning support for the Zionist agenda—which Doug Macgregor has characterized as a Jewish Supremacist ideology—throughout the Middle East. Getting the US to attack any country or grouping of countries anywhere on the planet that could challenge total US hegemony—and thereby curtail Israeli maximalist goals. Yes, that goes well beyond Iraq and Syria and Iran. It includes Russia and China, because if the US can’t exclude Russia and China from the Middle East then Israel will, sooner rather than later, have to conform to civilized norms. Which is exactly why Israel has been so active in the war on Russia—ISRAEL’S NOT SO LITTLE WAR AGAINST RUSSIA.

You can clearly see this dynamic in the active role—in cooperation with the Anglosphere—of Israeli intelligence operatives around the world. “The United States of America, the most powerful country in the history of the world,” becomes, in effect, a proxy of Israel, whether or not Israel’s agenda makes sense for America. If you don’t get this dynamic of the relationship—which should now be more apparent than ever—then you haven’t been paying attention. And this dynamic also provides a powerful reason for suppressing free speech in America if that free speech involves criticism of Israel or Zionism. It also explains the mendacious conflation of Zionism and anti-Semitism. It all comes down to The Lobby.

Mearsheimer concludes by thoroughly taking apart Jake “the Fake” Sullivan’s—a puppet of The Lobby—ridiculousness assertion that Israel isn’t engaged in genocide:

Nobody in the administration, nobody in the mainstream media, is going to come out and say that Israel is engaged in a genocide, because The Lobby doesn't tolerate that. And The Lobby basically dictates what Jake Sullivan says on these matters. My question to Jake would be, 'Okay, you don't want to call it genocide. What do you call it? Mass murder?' If it's not genocide is it mass murder? And you notice that he doesn't have any words to describe what the Israelis are doing. All he wants to do is drive home the point that it's not genocide. I think it is genocide, but I fully understand you could argue it's not genocide. But if you make that argument then you have to ante up as to what you think it is. And I think if it's not genocide you have to admit that it's mass murder. It's just horrendous behavior. It's hard to believe that we are tolerating the Israelis doing this to the Palestinians. Oh--we're not just tolerating it. They could not engage in this genocide without us providing them with the weaponry and the diplomatic cover. It's just hard to believe, but he of course doesn't want to say that Israel is engaged in genocide, because then he, Jake Sullivan, would be complicit in a genocide and he could potentially be a defendant in the dock at some point in the future.