Study On American Israel Lobby’s Choice Of Lobbying Strategy

The Middle East has become an important part in the diplomacy of the United States since World War II. Besides of the factors such as strategic status and the attraction of rich oil resources, the promotion of the Israel lobby should not be ignored.To the Israel lobby, more attention has been paid on questions such as the constitution of the group, the role of Jews and in what degree has Israel lobby affects American Middle East policy. The way Israel lobby works and factors influencing success and failure of lobbying activity, questions such as those are paid scant attention.This study seeks to identify factors that determine lobbyists’ choice of tools and assess their influence under different circumstances. There are two reasons for the choosing of the cases:first, those three lobbying activities are continuous and lobbying strategies are rich in this period; second, literature that can be got in this period is abundant. This paper uses historical process tracing methods to examine the battle between American president and Israel lobbyists over the peace of the Middle East. Firstly, this paper analyses the definition and development of the lobby group, then it cards three lobbying choosing models; secondly, this paper cards the history and president situation of the Israel lobby, then it analyses resources of Israel group and its targets on the Middle East; thirdly, this paper uses three lobbying choosing model to analyze three cases.After analyzing three lobbying cases from 1969 to 1975, it finds that:(1)The self-perception of lobbyists determine the degree of their flexibility in the choice of tools; (2)the distribution of formal powers, the personalities involved and the type of policy question determine the intensity of the lobbying battle;(3)an lobbyist’ influence will be limited by the extent to which the leader is willing and able to independently form an opinion on the policy question;(4)lobbying cannot change America’ perception of interests in the Middle East, it can only adjust this perception in some degree.