"The Vast Power of the Saudi Lobby" by John R. MacArthur (Harper's Magazine)

It s all the rage today to hear from leftist, mostly self-hating "Jewish" and other leftist academics about the all-powerful Jewish lobby and its harmful and distorting affect on US foreign policy. The fact is however, that US public opinion consistently strongly supports Israel vs it's Arab enemies in every public opinion poll taken, typically at mid-60's-mid 70's approval levels. Therefore US foreign policy towards Israel reflects more the will of the American people than of any insidious lobby, no matter how much this inconvenient truth bothers the seething leftists. This support results from a variety of factors -- shared Democratic values, the perception that Israel is a like minded, civilized nation in a sea of radical Islamist enemies, Christian religious affinity with the role of a Jewish Israel, recognition that Jews deserve their own homeland, given their history of worldwide persecution, etc....

Now let's put the shoe on the other foot and read about the corrosive effect of the Saudi Lobby in the US, in the short attached piece in Harper's. "The Vast Power of the Saudi Lobby" by John R. MacArthur (Harper's Magazine) No country has done more during the last 20 years to nourish the spread of Wahabiist Islamist extremism than Saudi Arabia -- yet they are "our moderate Arab friend" and are given a free ride by politicians and journalists from both sides of the aisle on their hateful and extremist official and unofficial policies, which includes prohibiting the observance of other religions in their land, prohibiting citizenships for non-Muslims, sentencing converts from Islam to death, etc... Of course, its all about oil. All the more reason to drastically reduce our dependency on that vile substance like our lives depended upon it -- because they do.