Jewish Americans & Their Influence On U.S. Political Decision Making Process

In 1654, a group of Jews arrived in America and started the early history of Jewish Americans. Since then, Jews began to grow and develop in this new land. As Jews'social status improved, they began to form many Jewish groups in the United States. This became the early model of Jewish Lobbies, which have made a profound impact on American society and U.S. foreign policy. This thesis attempts to analyze the origin and development of American Jews, discuss their influences on the American society, political system and foreign policy as well.Despite the tremendous ways that Jews shaped the U.S. media, economy and education, Jewish influence on the political system, especially the decision making process, is the key focus of this thesis. Through Jewish lobbies like American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), The Christian United for Israel (CUFI) and The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (CoP), American Jews are able to become an important player in the U.S. politics. The author believes that Jewish impact on the decision making process can be illustrated from two aspects: Firstly, the lobbying activity from AIPAC greatly affected the U.S. Congress. Through different skills, Jewish lobbies are able to convince the congressmen to make the pro-Israel decisions for the best of their interests. Secondly, American Jews are able to affect the executive branch by participating in the U.S. presidential elections and lobbying the White House.The Arab-Israel Yom Kippur War in the 1970s greatly shaped the future development of U.S.- Israel relations. During this process, Jewish lobbies were using the"Carrot and Stick"strategy, successfully manipulating the Ford Administration into giving up the"reassessment"policy toward Israel. As we move into the 21st century, as long as the economic status of Jews in American society remains unchanged, the Jewish lobby will continue to influence the policy making process and U.S. foreign policies.