jews use zio-Christians(?) as cover, deflecting attention from themselves

[yankeedoodle]

Are Christian Zionists the 'Largest Pro-Israel Lobby'?
No, and little would change without them
https://mailchi.mp/502ac827f1af/are-christian-zionists-the-largest-pro-israel-lobby-1372238?e=25e68a2f6e

The claim that US Christian Zionists are "the largest Israel lobby" is a canard now so commonplace that it appears within the first paragraph of Wikipedia's page on the "Israel lobby in the United States." But are Christian Zionists really the largest Israel lobby? That all depends on your definition of "large," "lobby" and beliefs about how policy is actually made. A look at a key set of lobbying numbers indicates Christian Zionists are not major lobby players. They could disappear tomorrow and the US Israel lobbying engine would not even sputter.

The claim that Christian Zionists are the "largest pro-Israel lobby" is based on unsubstantiated headcount claims that Christians United for Israel CUFI has over nine million members. It is a fact that Christians make up 65 or so percent of the U.S. population and that evangelical Protestants constitute 25.4 percent. It is also undeniable that evangelicals tend to believe the US should be doing more for Israel than other Christian groups and at the voting booth would tend to vote for pro-Israel candidates. They are important.

But how does all that translate into effective lobbying for concrete "facts on the ground" like moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem or White House support for Israel formally annexing a large percentage of the West Bank? Are Christian Zionists the reason for the US annually giving Israel $3.8 billion in free weapons over the coming decade, or more aid since 1948 than the Marshall Plan? If you believe in Majoritarian Electoral Democracy and overlook the uncomfortable fact that evangelical Christian religious organizations were initially indifferent to or even suspicious of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) initiatives, the answer could be "yes." But for those who know the history of the Israel lobby , and who do not believe that a pull of the voting booth lever automatically translates into US policy, Christian Zionists are not a significant lobby.

A now infamous quantitative study by Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, Testing Theories of American Politics, Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens, determined that ordinary citizens have little or no independent influence on policy. In other words, millions of Christian Zionists pulling voting booth levers do not really matter much, except for, perhaps, as cover. Overall, argue Gilens and Page, it is the far smaller number of economic elites who exert a "substantial, highly significant, independent impact on policy."

Organized interest groups are the other major policy influencer and have a quantifiably "large, positive, highly significant impact on public policy." That impact was measured by Martin Gilens and his team by examining 1,779 cases and calculating which among the three groups could "obtain a policy change" within four years. It usually took the relevant parties only two years. What follows assumes the Gilens and Page conclusions, not Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, are correct.

Looking through the window of the Office of the Clerk of the US House of Representatives reveals where the rubber truly meets the road as policy becomes law or doctrine adopted by the executive branch and key agencies. The lobbying reports reveal expenditures and initiatives of organized interest groups, many of which, like AIPAC, are primarily funded by economic elites. They lobby the House of Representatives, the Senate and various executive agencies and the White House to advance Israel.

A review of the disclosure forms of every religious oriented group lobbying on Israel (both for and against unconditional support) between the third quarter of 2019 and most recent available reports filed for the second quarter of 2020 reveals the utter insignificance of Christian Zionists within the actual lobbying arena.

  Data Source: Office of the Clerk, US House of Representatives, Lobbying Report income or expenses, adjusted to include only estimated lobbying on legislation or policies supporting Israel. 

Christian lobbying resources devoted to advancing Israel through specific legislation or policy represented only 6 percent of the total $3.6 million expended over the past 365 days. Christians United for Israel, through its CUFI Action Fund, accounted for 99 percent of that small sliver of Christian Zionist lobbying.

Large, Jewish establishment organizations that have been around for decades – by far – lobby the most for unconditional support of Israel. Their main concerns are maintaining Israel as the largest recipient of US foreign aid, through such legislation as the United States-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act of 2020. But they also want to sharply curtail their fellow Americans' free speech rights to boycott over Israel's human rights record through the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement and pass legislation broadening the definition of anti-Semitism to include criticism of Israel. Their legislative agenda reveals a constant effort to maintain and deploy ever more US military personnel and assets against Israel's regional rivals. AIPAC is by far the largest religious association lobbying for unconditional support of Israel, followed by the Republican Jewish Coalition, the Zionist Organization of America, the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee....

Read the rest of this 2,400 word special report and charts at https://original.antiwar.com/smith-grant/2020/09/15/are-christian-zionists-the-largest-pro-israel-lobby/