“Israel’s enemies have consistently claimed that a powerful Israeli lobby in the United States acts contrary to American interests. In truth, the Israeli lobby reflects the views of the American people while the little known Arab lobby works largely unseen to undermine American’s interests, values and security, " says Dr. Mitchell G. Bard..
“This lobby’s components are heterogeneous.
"One element is the diplomats from the 21 Arab countries and those of a number of non-Arab Islamic nations.
"Others are U.S. defense contractors, former American government officials employed by Arab states, corporations with business interests in the Middle East, a number of human rights NGOs and the United Nations.
"To this one should add numerous academics – mainly from Middle East studies departments – members of the media and cultural elite, several non-evangelical Christian groups, as well as American Arabs and Muslims.
"By far the most potent Arab lobbyists, however, are the Saudis," he asserts.
Dr. Bard is Executive Director of the Non-profit American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE). He is also Director of the Jewish Virtual Library, the world's most comprehensive online encyclopedia of Jewish history and culture. Bard has published more than twenty books, the latest one being The Arab Lobby.
He remarks “Arab lobbies have no significant grassroots support. They therefore operate in a different way from AIPAC, the main American organization defending Israel’s interests. The Saudi lobby mainly takes a “top-down approach.” Its principal concern is to ensure that the heads of the royal family stay on their shoulders, so, while it pays lip service to the Palestinian issue, it is the survival of the House of Saud that matters most.
“The Saudis have almost unlimited financial resources, which they use to reward former officials in hopes of influencing those still in office. As Prince Bandar, a former Saudi Ambassador to the United States, once said, if the Saudis get a reputation for taking care of their friends when they leave office, “you’d be surprised how much better friends you have who are just coming into office.”
The former government officials can guide the Saudis on how to manipulate U.S. policy makers. They can use the contacts they have developed during their government career to gain Saudi access to decision makers. As the media often call on them to comment on Middle East affairs as “non-partisan experts,” they also act as Saudi propagandists.
“Many American policymakers think that the U.S. depends on the Saudis because they regulate the world oil market. Thus a Faustian relationship has developed between the two countries. The Saudis sell oil to the U.S. in return for America protecting the Saud regime. The Saudis also act like drug pushers manipulating the U.S. addiction to oil. The price is kept high enough to make huge profits, but low enough to discourage significant investments in alternative sources of energy.
“Clark Clifford, who was Truman’s political advisor, realized the United States did not need to give in to Saudi blackmail. He said in 1948 ‘The Arab states must have oil royalties or go broke. Their need of the U.S. is greater than our need of them.’
Throughout the history of the U.S.-Saudi relationship, presidents were in a position to demand support for American policies in exchange for the security umbrella keeping the Saud family in power, but, they did not. Even after U.S. forces saved the kingdom during the first Iraq War in 1991, President Bush was unwilling to seek Saudi support in promoting peace between the Palestinians and Israel.
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The Saudis are the leading supporters of terror. As Stuart Levey, the under secretary of the Treasury in charge of tracking terror financing said, “If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia.”
n addition to undermining the U.S. interest in peace, the Saudis undermine American values by maintaining one of the world’s most repressive societies that has historically discriminated against women, Jews, Christians and even its Shiite Muslim minority.
“The Saudis have also not been helpful to President Barack Obama in promoting his peace plans. They were not willing to make a single concession to Israel when he asked them to do so in recent years. Yet Obama agreed to a major supply of arms to Saudi Arabia.
"There are similar examples from the past. President Jimmy Carter asked the Saudis in vain to support the Camp David agreements in 1978. After he was rebuffed, he still sold arms to the kingdom.
“The Saudis are also terror supporters in many ways. Long before 9-11, Saudi Arabia was a major funder of the PLO’s international terror campaign. The United States, however, looked the other way. The American public never understood the Saudi role in terrorism until 9-11. Then it became known that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis. As we learned from Wikileaks and other sources, the Saudis are the leading supporters of terror.
"As Stuart Levey, the under secretary of the Treasury in charge of tracking terror financing said, 'If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia.'
“The Saudi lobby thus works in many ways against U.S. interests. The more this is exposed, the better it will be for both the United States and democracy at large.”