Title: Ethnic Lobbying and Diaspora Politics in the U.S. The Case of the Pro-Palestinian Movement Author: Michelle M. Dekker, 3001245 Billitonkade 74, 3531 TK, Utrecht The Netherlands Email: [email protected] Course Information: Universiteit Utrecht MA Internationale Betrekkingen in historisch perspectief (International Relations in an historical perspective) 200400645 Ges-Thesis Hand-in date : May 25, 2010 Ethnic Lobbying and Diaspora Politics in the U.S. The Case of the Pro-Palestinian Movement M.M. Dekker - 3001245 Table of Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 3 Chapter One .................................................................................................................................................... 10 Ethnic Lobbying in the US ..................................................................................................................... 12 Influential Ethnic Lobbies in the US .................................................................................................. 15 Ethnic Lobbying Strategies ................................................................................................................... 20 Electoral Power .................................................................................................................................... 20 Financial Resources ............................................................................................................................ 24 Organizational Strength .................................................................................................................... 26 The Debate: Positive and Negative Views of Ethnic Politicking ............................................ 30 Chapter Two ................................................................................................................................................... 34 Dimensions and History of Arab American Organizations in the US ................................... 34 Chapter Three ................................................................................................................................................ 49 The Workings of the Arab American Lobby: Strategies ............................................................ 49 Electoral Power .................................................................................................................................... 49 Financial Resources ............................................................................................................................ 51 Organizational Strength .................................................................................................................... 54 The Workings of the Lobby: Causes of Ineffectiveness ............................................................. 57 Anti-Arab Prejudice in the United States .................................................................................... 57 Limited Access to Policymakers ..................................................................................................... 61 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................... 66 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................... 73 Books............................................................................................................................................................. 73 Electronic Sources ................................................................................................................................... 74 Journal Articles.......................................................................................................................................... 76 Other ............................................................................................................................................................. 82 2 Ethnic Lobbying and Diaspora Politics in the U.S. The Case of the Pro-Palestinian Movement M.M. Dekker - 3001245 Introduction “The US has the leverage to get Israel to make tough decisions. It just needs to use it”. Dan Ephron and Joanna Chen in Newsweek (2010, 8) “The United States has enormous potential leverage at its disposal for dealing with Israel and the Palestinians”. Walt and Mearsheimer (2007, 226) As these statements suggest, the key to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies perhaps not in Palestine, but in the United States of America. The US is the only superpower in the world that has enough leverage at its disposal to pressure Israel into accepting a two-state solution. Being able to influence what stance the US will take towards the conflict would therefore put one in a powerful position. This means that the more influence you have in the US, the more you can bend the developments in the conflict in the direction of one’s wishes. The American Jewish population has understood this thoroughly and has acquired a stronghold position in the making of US foreign policy towards the region. This lobby has effectively prevented the US government from using the leverage it has over Israel. However, contrary to what one might expect, we hear very little about those in the US who lobby on behalf of the Palestinians and who advocate a more critical attitude towards Israel. If the political ‘battlefield’ has indeed shifted to the US, if the final fate of the Palestinians is in the hands of America, then why does one not see them ‘fighting their fight’ on Capitol Hill, trying to convince the US government to make use of the leverage they have? There is a very clear duality in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East. A duality one would also expect to find in the American arena, where the course of the conflict and possibly its solution can, for a large part, be determined. This paper sets out to learn more about the unknown ‘other’ in this dual battle: to study what pro-Palestinian efforts are being undertaken in the US and how this movement fits in the larger trend of ethnic lobbying and diaspora politics in the US. Are domestic ethnic groups, and Arab Americans specifically, able to affect US foreign policy? Thus, the main question that will be examined is; why is the Arab American movement not (considered to be) successful in influencing US foreign policy, in the 3 Ethnic Lobbying and Diaspora Politics in the U.S. The Case of the Pro-Palestinian Movement M.M. Dekker - 3001245 context of the current US trend in diaspora politics and ethnic lobbying. What strategies do these ethnic groups employ and what makes some effective and others not? In order to find out whether these ethnic groups are able to influence US foreign policy, and especially foreign policy towards the Middle East, different International Relations theories have to be examined. One of the main questions that these International Relations’ theorists have tried to answer over the years is how US foreign policy can be explained. What are the motivations and processes behind the policies? Vaughn P. Shannon (2003) has devised a very useful system of analysis. With this system, one looks at US foreign policy through three different ‘lenses’: the ‘geo-strategic’, ‘domestic political’, and ‘individual beliefs’ lens. Each of these ‘lenses’ offers a different perspective on what the possible sources of certain foreign policies might be. In this paper, US foreign policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is looked at through all three lenses. Though the first ‘lens’, the geo-strategic lens, does not take into account the ethnic lobbies that are the topic of this paper, it is still important to explain what this ‘lens’ is about. This because it helps to show that there is a general trend in US foreign policy decision-making of ethnic lobbies being powerful enough to influence US foreign policy in a direction that is going in against, what can reasonably be determined to be, the ‘US (geo-strategic) interest’ (Smith 2000, 94). What Shannon (2003) terms as the geo-strategic lens, can be linked to the theory of Realism. This IR (International Relations) theory holds that states will compete with other states for security and power, since this is essential to their survival (Dunne & Schmidt 2006, 165). Within the theory of Realism, the state is the main actor in international politics (statism) and the most important goal of the state is survival, for which it will do anything. Lastly, the realists argue for self help, which means that every state will look after its own interests, because they cannot depend on others to do it for them (Dunne & Schmidt 2006, 176). Two elements of the Realist perspective are especially useful for theorizing US foreign policy towards the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians: 1) the structure of the international system being anarchical and the subsequent issue of power distribution, and 2) the element of geo-politics, which refers to the importance of material resources for state power. Looking at the structure of the world system, the notion of polarity is important, since this is something that “affects policy by placing different constraints 4 Ethnic Lobbying and Diaspora Politics in the U.S. The Case of the Pro-Palestinian Movement M.M. Dekker - 3001245 and opportunities