The so-called Israel lobby has been widely denounced and demonized in the global media, but as Mitchell Bard reveals, its power pales in comparison to the decades-long corruption of American interests by Arab governments. Indeed, for more than seventy years, U.S. policy in the Middle East has been shaped not by the power of a nefarious “Israel lobby” but by a misguided emphasis on pleasing and placating the Arab states. This outlook has ensured that the United States pays disproportionate attention to their demands, assisting Arab countries—all of them dictatorial regimes with abysmal human rights records—that do not share our values and often work to subvert our interests. In this authoritative history, Bard provides a timely and valuable corrective to the unbalanced view of Middle East affairs that is so widely promoted today. Bard shows that the Arab Lobby’s goals include feeding America’s oil addiction, obtaining more sophisticated weaponry, and weakening our alliance with a democratic Israel. It also seeks to influence public opinion through a well-funded publicity campaign and by injecting distorted views of the Middle East into high school and college textbooks. Bard’s valuable book brings a much-needed balance to a debate fraught with ignorance and propaganda.

The first book to thoroughly chronicle this pivotal event by presenting a wide array of eyewitness testimony, much of it previously unpublished, and to set the event firmly in historical context.

Examines the political aspects of the rescue of Ethiopian Jewry in the 1980s-90s, focusing on the factors at work in the U.S. and in Israel. In the 1970s, Israel was reluctant to accept Ethiopian refugees, but changed its policy due to a large extent to a group of Jewish activists in the U.S. who prodded Israel to take action. The American Association for Ethiopian Jews (AAEJ) was founded in 1974 and became the principal American organization advocating on behalf of the Beta Israel. Relates the suffering of Ethiopian Jews, which is attributed to a combination of discrimination, hostility on the part of local Christians, and the Jews being caught in a crossfire between the government and the rebels. Jews were persecuted for attempting to flee the country in order to reach Israel. Ch. 10 (177-188), "The Holocaust Analogy", discusses how the AAEJ compared the situation of Jews in Ethiopia with that of Jews facing the Holocaust in order to stir Israel and America to action.