The Electronic Intifada reviews a new book by Grant F. Smith titled, “America’s Defense Line”, on the Zionist lobby:
Supporters of the Israel lobby have long maintained that the reason it does not have to register as an agent of a foreign government is that its funding and composition are indigenous to the US. Even critics such as Mearsheimer and Walt have declared its operations “as American as apple pie.” However, as Smith reveals, the lobby was only able to turn into the powerhouse it is today because of the start-up funding it received from Israel and its ability — through stonewalling, deception and subversion of the legal process — to stave off the State Department and the Department of Justice’s attempts to have it registered as a foreign agent. In fascinating detail supported by hundreds of declassified documents (reproduced in the Appendix) Smith reveals the various mechanisms it employed to avoid the purview of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The lobby’s greatest success — to propagate the myth that Israel and the US have identical interests and common enemies — would not have been possible had the Department of Justice succeeded in securing its compliance with FARA. This law requires entities registered under it to mark all their informational material with the disclaimer that their author is the agent of a foreign government.