Ammy Brimo (658225)
“Furthermore, US presidencies are heavily influenced by pressure groups such as the lobbies and the think tanks. For example, President George W. Bush, the politically powerfully figure who surpassed even the joint agencies process, created the map of the new Middle East due to the influence of members of his administration who supported the Jewish lobby in pressing the United States to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime by using military force (Ibid: 122) (Charountaki, 2011)
Following the university’s anti-racism and discrimination, this student’s above comment needs to be reviewed for anti-semitism. The comment follows traditional anti-Semitic remarks of a Jewish conspiracy that causes or maintains international wars
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This foreign policy paper contains little mention of politics outside of the United Kingdom. Thus when the claim of a “Jewish Lobby” influencing former US President George Bush’s decisions to invade Iraq is introduced, it is not well connected with the central argument or flow found within the paper. Rather, the comment reads as unnecessary and provocative. Additionally and perhaps more concerning is the casual usage of “Jewish Lobby”. Within the essay, there is no named lobby organisation but rather a general one based on the religious identity of a small proportion of Americans. The usage of ‘Jewish Lobby” in anti-semitic literature and actions is well established over the centuries. Thus, hopefully it should not be necessary to provide a literature review of the racism and persecution caused by this comment or anti-semitism in …show more content…
The student did not choose to name a specific lobbying institution or government. Rather, they used “Jewish” with a history and well known narrative of anti-semitism. If the student mentioned for example, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, we can assess and judge it as a political organisation rather than generalise a religion. However this should be seen purely as semantics as we cannot assume without bias that the student meant another organisation or institution. Rather, we have to judge based on what is in the