Head-on | Why America backs Israel every time: Lessons for India and NRIs from the Iran war

They comprise just 2.4 per cent of the United States population. But America’s 7.5 million Jews exercise an extraordinarily powerful influence over Washington, Silicon Valley and Hollywood.

The American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was founded in 1954. It has since become one of America’s wealthiest — and most feared — lobbying groups.

The iron-clad US support for Israel in the Iran war demonstrates AIPAC’s vice-like grip over US lawmakers in the Senate and House of Representatives. It is estimated that more than half of America’s federal lawmakers have received significant campaign funding from AIPAC.

The writ of AIPAC runs wide and deep across American politics, business, technology, film and media. The lobbying group has often been linked to Mossad, Israel’s external intelligence agency. In 2005 the Lawrence Franklin case exposed how ties between AIPAC and the Israeli government were allegedly used to gather sensitive intelligence in the US.

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A report in the International Journal of Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence, published by Routledge in 2006, revealed the nexus: “On 4 August 2005, U.S. Department of Defense official Lawrence Franklin and former American-Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) staffers Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman were indicted on one or several of the following counts: conspiracy to communicate national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it; and conspiracy to communicate classified information to agents of a foreign government, publicly identified as Israel. Franklin pleaded guilty and cooperated with the authorities, and was subsequently sentenced to a 12-year prison term.”

The report added: “Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer Arthur S. Hulnick writes that Israel has been a thorn in the heel of the United States. One of the US’s closest allies and friends, it has been particularly active at industrial espionage targeted at US firms.”

The charges were fiercely denied by AIPAC and Israel. It came as no surprise that the Franklin case was eventually dropped. As Politico, the respected and widely-read US online site, reported in 2009: “A federal judge has virtually wiped out the prison sentence of more than 12 years he first imposed on a Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin who pled guilty to leaking classified information to two pro-Israel lobbyists. Judge T.S. Ellis reduced the sentence for the former defence official to probation plus 10 months in community confinement, likely a halfway house. Prosecutors had asked the judge to drop the sentence to eight years in light of Franklin’s cooperation, while a defense lawyer for Franklin, Plato Cacheris, asked for no sentence at all. Franklin pled guilty to three felony counts involving illegal distribution and possession of classified information. He had been free pending the trial for the two ex-AIPAC officials.”

What does this have to do with the US-Israel war in Iran? The bipartisan political support for the war suggests that many US lawmakers could be influenced by AIPAC funding. “If you want to win the next election to the Senate or the House of Representatives,” as one commentator said, “you have to support Israel on every policy decision that affects it.”

The Iran war is the latest manifestation of the rule Washington lives by. Donald Trump is instinctively pro-Israel. His son-in-law Jared Kushner is an observant Jew. Trump’s daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism in 2009 before her marriage to Kushner. Their children are being raised as Jews.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said publicly that Trump is the most pro-Israel president in US history. The ruling American establishment, ranging from business to entertainment, comprises prominent, successful Jewish-Americans: Sam Altman (OpenAI), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Steven Spielberg (film) and David Solomon (Goldman Sachs).

Jewish-Americans are governors of several states (Pennsylvania, Illinois, Colorado and North Carolina). They are well represented in the Senate (Adan Schiff, Bernie Sanders, Jacky Rosen and Ron Wyden). Their support for Israel is non-negotiable, including prosecution of the Iran war on Netanyahu’s timeline rather than Trump’s.

Contrast this with Indian-Americans. They number over five million, are the most highly educated ethnic group in the US and the wealthiest with a median household income of $1,55,000 — double the average White household income of $76,000 and 50 per cent higher than the average household income of Jewish-Americans ($1,00,000).

So why is the influence of Indian-Americans negligible compared to the sway Jewish-Americans have over the US establishment? First, there is no Indian version of AIPAC. Second, Indian-Americans are insular and not deeply integrated into US society like Jewish-Americans of European descent who have been domiciled in the US longer than Indian-Americans. Third, Indian-Americans are disunited and faction-ridden. Jewish-Americans focus single-mindedly on Jewish and Israeli interests.

Indian-Americans focus on their own interests, often at odds with India’s legitimate interests. This was glaringly showcased during Trump’s punitive tariffs on India. Israel was never levied tariffs at all.

India has had to walk a fine line in the Middle East war to simultaneously defend its interests in the US, Israel, the Gulf and Iran. With the US there is a valuable strategic partnership. With Israel the India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC) that passes through Haifa port in Israel forms critical future infrastructure. With the Gulf powers India has to secure the interests of 9.5 million workers and energy supplies. And with Iran there is the Chabahar port that opens the gateway for Indian trade to Eurasia.

As I posted on X: “To address Israel’s Knesset, stay friends with Iran, buy oil from Russia, buy weapons from America and reset relations with China. Can’t think of a single other nation on earth that can do all of the above.”

(The writer is an editor, author and publisher. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.)