Arab lobby in the United States

The Arab lobby in the United States is a collection of formal and informal groups and professional lobbyists paid directly by Arab governments that lobby the public and government of the United States on behalf of Arab interests and/or on behalf of Arab American rights in the United States.

According to Mitchell Bard in an article for the Jewish Virtual Library, Isaiah L. Kenen, the founder of American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs or "AZCPA" (which became American Israel Public Affairs Committee or "AIPAC"), wrote of the Arab lobby's roots in the 1950s "petro-diplomatic complex" that comprised the "oil industry, missionaries, and diplomats." Bard states that in 1951 King Saud of Saudi Arabia asked U.S. diplomats to finance a pro-Arab lobby to counter AZCPA. Bard in his book The Arab Lobby: The Invisible Alliance That Undermines America's Interests in the Middle East, states that the approach has not changed since the days of King Saud; the basic message, according to Bard, is that the Saudis and other Arab States of the Persian Gulf have the oil and will supply it to America and its allies on the condition that America keeps the Arab ruling families in power. Bard further states that the subsidiary clause is that the Arab oil states will also purchase arms ($100 billion worth over the last 50 years) to keep themselves in power and able to produce oil.

Bard also alleges "blackmail" . He claims that from time to time the United States criticized the oil states for denying human rights to their own citizens, sponsoring militants who attack Israel, spreading extremist forms of Islam around the world, and supporting terrorism in many countries, but this criticism in rapidly reigned in by threatening to cut off the oil supply.

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