For skeptical readers, these “experts” come mostly from the following organizations:
www.washingtoninstitute.org
www.aei.org
www.jinsa.org
www.defenddemocracy.org
www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org
www.hudson.org
www.meiforum.org

The "think tanks " mentioned above all share and actively pursue very strong pro-Israeli positions. More often than not, they also share the same people - members, scholars, advisory boards or staff in other capacities. They endorse Israeli political parties’ agendas ranging from Labour (at best) to Kadima to Likud, if not more extremist Israeli movements.

Thus the Israeli Lobby in America is not simply AIPAC, but mostly the think tanks that act as insider lobbyists and, at times, as direct players. The case of the neoconservatives and their hard line pro-Israeli agenda is another testament to the lack of a clear line differentiating Israeli from American interests - even if some policies prove costly to America, such as the war in Iraq.

The fact that key neoconservatives are Jewish Americans, in my view, is not the main issue here. There many American Jews who vehemently oppose the neoconservative agenda. But the confluence of the neoconservative agenda with Israeli goals is a fact that should be scrutinized and analyzed. The problem is that such scrutiny invites threats of anti-Semitism --a favorite tool for blackmailing and silencing critics.

I urge readers to visit AIPAC's website and read the speeches of American officials at the annual conferences. Most officials, especially Secretaries of State, chose AIPAC conferences to declare anti-Arab and anti-Iranian policies. You can barely differentiate between the Israeli agenda and American official’s speeches at these conferences.

But a confluence of interests of some American elites with those of the Israeli leaders does not mean that American strategic interests are properly served. This confluence has only served to increase the perception that America is the direct enemy of the people of the region.

I disagree with the argument that America is simply fighting Israeli wars. It is wrong to exonerate American foreign policy from its imperial goals. But the Lobby has always played and continues to play a crucial role, in the media (through journalists’ lazy reliance on pro-Israeli analysis from the think tanks listed earlier) and the pro-Israeli roster of experts summoned to the Congress floor to “inform” American decision-makers.

There is another factor that is linked to partnerships in arms deals, which are most visible in the work of the Jewish International Security Agency (JINSA.) Many retired American generals are recruited by JINSA and get involved in military industries in Israel. That’s food for thought for skeptical readers.

There is no conspiracy in the arguments about the role of the pro-Israeli Lobby. Neither the formal Lobby nor the informal lobby of pro-Israeli “think tanks” is secretive about their work and their views. That proves that the American system is fertile for such expansionist and colonialist policies.