How Do the Jews Influence on the Decision-Making Process in the United States?

• 12.12.2017, 16:54
• Liana Hovhannisyan
•  America,  "Insight" Analytical Center ,  World,  Info

Jerusalem Post

Experts have tried to differently explain the decision of the US President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The most common explanation refers to the power of Jewish lobbies in the United States. In order to make this statement more substantial, we consider it necessary to refer to the representation of Jewish officials in various branches of the US government today.

Thus, two of the 15 Secretaries of the US Presidential Cabinet, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin are Jews. In addition, four of Trump's advisors are also Jews, including Trump's son-in-law, Ivanka Trump's husband Jared Kushner, who deals with  foreign policy issues on the Middle East, Israel, as well as with the internal issues on free trade and private sector.

Today, there are 30 Jews at the US Congress, 21 of which are members of the House of Representatives, and 9 are members of the US Senate.

In addition, a congressional group of Israeli allies, comprised of 20 members, is operating in the US House of Representatives. It has a bipartisan composition with 4 co-chairmen, two of which represent the Republican Party and the other two are Democratic. Among the founders of the group was also the current US Vice President Mike Pence, who as an ex-congressman, was  the co-chair of the group.

The fact that the number of pro-Jewish congressmen is not limited to the Jewish congressmen only or to the members of the above mention congressional group has once again been clearly demonstrated, for example, in the case of a draft law "Israel Anti-Boycott Act"  recently introduced to the US Congress under which  45 Senators and 237 members of the House of Representatives signed. The draft law envisages a fine of up to 250,000$ for those US citizens who will engage in foreign trade with organizations that boycott Israeli goods.

As for the legal branch of the government, it is enough to mention that today 3 of the 8 Supreme Court judges are Jews.

Jewish lobbying organizations operating in the United States also have their influence on different branches of the US government. For example, the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is targeting the US Congress, while the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is more targeting the executive branch. As an interesting method of lobbying for the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee, one can refer to the seminars regularly organized by the Committee for US Congressmen in Israel to help them to acknowledge the importance of American-Israeli relations. According to various estimates, one of every 8 US Congressmen participated in these seminars in Israel.

The above-mentioned facts once again prove that the Jews succeeded in achieving a solid representation in all the three branches of the US government as a result of their targeted and consistent work. In this regard, the claim that Trump's decision on the status of Jerusalem is primarily conditioned by the influence of Jewish lobbying is more than justified. At the same time, considering the potential of the same Jewish lobby in the United States, one can conclude that this decision of Trump will also mitigate the counteraction against him in different branches of the US government. This is a circumstance which, of course, could not have been ignored by the Trump's team.