The Israel lobby in the United States comprises individuals and groups who seek to promote policies favorable to the State of Israel and oppose those they see as hostile to Israel's interests or Zionism. The largest American pro-Israel lobbying group is Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which has over seven million members. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is an influential organization within the lobby.
History 19th century
A Christian belief in Restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land has roots in the United States, which pre-date both the establishment of the Zionist movement and the establishment of Israel. Lobbying by these groups, to influence the U.S. government in ways similar to Zionist ideology, dates back to at least the 19th century.
In 1844 George Bush, a Christian Zionist and Professor of Hebrew at New York University who was related to the Bush political family, published a book titled The Valley of Vision; or, The Dry Bones of Israel Revived.Medved, Michael. "What the Evangelicals Give the Jews". Commentary. May 2012. October 2, 2012. In it he denounced "the thralldom and oppression which has so long ground them (the Jews) to the dust", and called for "elevating" the Jews "to a rank of honorable repute among the nations of the earth" by restoring the Jews to the land of Israel where the bulk would be converted to Christianity.Valley of vision: or, The dry bones of Israel revived : an attempted proof, from Ezekiel, chap. xxxvii, 1–14, of the restoration and conversion of the Jews, George Bush, 1844 "When the Most High accordingly declares that he will bring the house of Israel into their own land, it does not follow that this will be effected by any miraculous interposition which will be recognized as such. ... The great work of Christians, in the mean time, is to labor for their conversion. In this they are undoubtedly authorized to look for a considerable measure of success, though it may be admitted that the bulk of the nation is not to be converted till after their restoration; for it is only upon the coming together of bone to his bone that the Spirit of life comes into them, and they stand up an exceeding great army." This, according to Bush, would benefit not only the Jews, but all of mankind, forming a "link of communication" between humanity and God. "It will blaze in notoriety ...." "It will flash a splendid demonstration upon all kindreds and tongues of the truth." The book sold about a million copies in the antebellum period.Dr. Michael Oren, address before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Policy Conference 2007, delivered March 11, 2007; quoted in Foxman, The Deadliest Lies, pp. 17–18. The Blackstone Memorial of 1891 was also a significant Christian Restorationist petition effort, led by William Eugene Blackstone, to persuade Benjamin Harrison, then the president of the United States, to pressure the Ottoman Sultan for the delivery of Palestine to the Jews.Blackstone MemorialPaul Charles Merkley, The Politics of Christian Zionism, 1891–1948, 1998, p. 68 ff.
20th century Beginning in 1914, the involvement of Louis Brandeis and his brand of American Zionism made Jewish Zionism a force on the American scene for the first time; under his leadership it had increased ten-fold to about 200,000.Donald Neff, Fallen Pillars U.S. Policy towards Palestine and Israel since 1945 Chapter One: Zionism: Jewish Americans and the State Department, 1897-1945 As chair of the American Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs, Brandeis raised millions of dollars to relieve Jewish suffering in war-torn Europe, and from that time "became the financial center for the world Zionist movement".
The British Balfour Declaration additionally advanced the Zionist movement and gave it official legitimacy. The U.S. Congress passed the first joint resolution stating its support for a homeland in Palestine for the Jewish people on September 21, 1922. The same day, the Mandate for Palestine was approved by the Council of the League of Nations.
Zionist lobbying in the United States aided the creation of the State of Israel in 1947–48. The preparation of and voting for the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine which preceded the Israeli Declaration of Independence, was met with an outpouring of Jewish American support and advocacy in Washington, D.C.Collins, Larry and Dominique Lapierre. O Jerusalem! New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988. p. 27. U.S. President Harry S. Truman later noted, "The facts were that not only were there pressure movements around the United Nations unlike anything that had been seen there before, but that the White House, too, was subjected to a constant barrage. I do not think I ever had as much pressure and propaganda aimed at the White House as I had in this instance. The persistence of a few of the extreme Zionist leaders—actuated by political motives and engaging in political threats—disturbed and annoyed me."George Lenczowski, American Presidents and the Middle East, (1990) p. 28, cite, Harry S. Truman, Memoirs 2, p. 158.
In the 1950s, the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs was created by Isaiah L. Kenen. During the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Israel's concerns were not at the forefront. Other problems in the Middle East and the Soviet Union were paramount, and Israel's American supporters were not as active as they had been. AZCPA formed a pro-Israel lobbying committee to counter rumors that the Eisenhower administration was going to investigate the American Zionist Council. AZCPA's executive committee decided to change their name from American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs to American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
The relationship between Israel and the U.S. government began with strong popular support for Israel and governmental reservations about the wisdom of creating a Jewish state; formal inter-government relations remained chilly until 1967.Abraham Ben-Zvi, Decade of Transition: Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the Origins of the American-Israel Alliance, Columbia University Press, 1998.
Since the 1970s, the Anti-Defamation League, known for its pro-Israel advocacy,Theodore Sasson, The New American Zionism, New York University Press 2015 p. 45. has promoted the concept of a new antisemitism, describing criticism of Israel or opposition to Zionism as antisemitic. After the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, the ADL, with the support of AIPAC founder Isaiah L. Kenen, "sought to portray certain 'anti-Israel' actions as anti-Semitic", especially with regard to international calls for Israel to end its occupation of the West Bank, according to historian Ilan Pappé.
Prior to 1967, the federal government of the United States provided some aid but was generally neutral towards Israel.George Friedman, The Israel Lobby in U.S. Strategy, September 4, 2007 The Israel Lobby in U.S. Strategy | STRATFOR. However, in each year between 1976 and 2004, Israel received the most direct foreign assistance from the U.S. of any nation, approximately 0.1% of the $3 trillion U.S. annual budget.Benhorin, Yitzhak. "Israel still top recipient of US foreign aid". Ynetnews. August 2, 2007. December 13, 2012.
21st century During the 2026 elections, the Kentucky's 4th congressional district primary became the most expensive U.S. House primary in American history in May 11, 2026, with over $25.6 million in ad spending beating the prior record of $25.2 million from the Democratic Primary for New York's 16th congressional district in 2024. By May 17, ad spending exceeded $32 million, with pro-Israel interest groups accounting for over $9 million of the spending against Thomas Massie. Massie described the primary election as a "referendum on whether Israel gets to buy seats in Congress".
Structure The pro-Israel lobby is composed of formal and informal components.
Informal lobby
Support for Israel is strong among American Christians of many denominations. Informal Christian support for Israel includes a broad range varieties support for Israel ranging from the programming and news coverage on the Christian Broadcasting Network and the Christian Television Network to the more informal support of the annual Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem.The Restoration of Israel: Christian Zionism in Religion, Literature, and Politics, Gerhard Falk, 2006.
Informal lobbying also includes the activities of Jewish groups. Some scholars view Jewish lobbying on behalf of Israel as one of many examples of a US ethnic group lobbying on behalf of an ethnic homeland,Ambrosio, Thomas, Ethnic identity groups and U.S. foreign policy, Praeger Publishers, 2002. which has met with a degree of success largely because Israel is strongly supported by a far larger and more influential Christian movement that shares its goals.Gertrude Himmelfarb, American Jewry, Pre- and Post-9/11, p. 118, in Religion as a public good: Jews and other Americans on religion in the public square, ed. Alan Mittleman, Rowman & Littlefield, 2003 In a 2006 article in the London Review of Books, Professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt wrote:
In its basic operations, the Israel Lobby is no different from the farm lobby, steel or textile workers' unions, or other ethnic lobbies. There is nothing improper about American Jews and their Christian allies attempting to sway US policy: the Lobby's activities are not a conspiracy of the sort depicted in tracts like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. For the most part, the individuals and groups that comprise it are only doing what other special interest groups do, but doing it very much better. By contrast, pro-Arab interest groups, in so far as they exist at all, are weak, which makes the Israel Lobby's task even easier.The Israel Lobby By John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt
Mitchell Bard defines the Jewish "informal lobby" as the indirect means through which "Jewish voting behavior and American public opinion" influence "U.S. Middle East policy". Bard described the motivation underlying the informal lobby as follows:
Formal lobby The formal component of the Israel lobby consists of organized lobby groups, political action committees (PACs), think tanks, and media watchdog groups. OpenSecrets, which tracks all lobbies and PACs, describes the 'background' of those 'Pro-Israel' as, "A nationwide network of local political action committees, generally named after the region their donors come from, supplies much of the pro-Israel money in US politics. Additional funds also come from individuals who bundle contributions to candidates favored by the PACs. The donors' unified goal is to build stronger Israel–United States relations and to support Israel in its negotiations and armed conflicts with its Arab neighbors."
According to Mitchell Bard, there are three key formal lobbying groups: Christians United for Israel, the US's "largest" pro-Israel lobby."Onward, Christian Zionists", by Jennifer Rubin, August 2, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 43, Weekly Standard. Evangelicals and Israel: The Story of American Christian Zionism, Stephen Spector, Oxford University Press US, 2008, p. 168 The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) which directly lobbies the United States Congress The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations which "is the main contact between the Jewish community and the executive branch" of the US government.
Christians United for Israel give "every pro-Israel Christian and Christian church the opportunity to stand up and speak up for Israel". According to the group's founder and head, Pastor John Hagee, the members "ask the leadership of our government to stop putting pressure on Israel to divide Jerusalem and the land of Israel".