The Zionist Lobby (AIPAC), which is a tiny segment of the U.S. population, has gained an outrageously disproportionate and dangerous influence over our political machinery and as a result our country is on a foreign policy path that is counter to its best interests.

The power of the Israeli lobby has brought about a situation in which it is impossible for elected officials to question support for Israel, much less redirect foreign policy in any way contrary to the perceived self-interest of Israel. This has led the U.S. to make critical mistakes in the past, such as invading and occupying Iraq. The war on Iraq has proven disastrous; the U.S. would not have attacked Iraq, were it not for the influence of the Israeli lobby.

Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. aid since WWII, amounting to some $174 billion (2009 dollars), and about $700/citizen today. Since 1982, the U.S. has vetoed 42 Security Council resolutions critical of Israel, more than the total number of vetoes cast by all the other Security Council members — and this does not even count those that did not come to a vote because of a U.S. veto threat.

This extraordinarily high degree of economic, military and diplomatic support given to Israel by the United States cannot be explained or justified by the notion that Israel functions as a strategic asset to the U.S., or that Israel as the “only democracy” amidst a sea of authoritarian neighbors is deserving of special favor for its “shared interests and values.”

In fact, Israel is more a liability than an asset. During the Cold War, the strategic-value argument had perhaps some plausibility but no longer. What has replaced the Soviet menace, as the enemy which the U.S. supposedly needed Israel’s help to combat, is Islamic terrorism. But the U.S. favor shown to Israel at the expense of the Palestinians only makes us more, not less, vulnerable to terrorism. Further Israel’s cruelty towards the Palestinians and its essential nature as a Jewish but not a truly democratic state in which all citizens of whatever ethnicity or religion would be given equal rights and respect, belie the “shared values” argument. Moreover, our military has not been able to use Israel as a base in either Gulf War, nor could we ask it to help for risk of triggering a calamity in the region.

As for a moral argument, Israel’s past and present conduct involving continual abuse of the Palestinians after stealing their land offers no moral basis for preferring it over the Palestinians. Therefore, the absurd arguments put forth by Christian Zionists such as Pat Robertson, Jerry Farwell, Gary Bauer and numerous politicians that Israel’s rebirth is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and their support of its expansionist agenda show not only how such beliefs are unbiblical but also how such beliefs are fundamentally anti-Christian at their core. They largely maintain a pro-Israel line and advocate for a hardcore interventionist foreign policy in the region.

They subscribe to an obscure biblical interpretation of the role of Israel in end-times prophecy and often advocate violent apocalypse in such regions. Americans must realize that the evangelical Protestants who give their support to Israel is not the Israel they read about in their bibles. Those prophecies have been fulfilled with the coming of Christ. What the American taxpayers and the evangelical Protestants are supporting is Zionism, a far cry from the biblical Israel of two to five thousand years ago.

The Zionist lobby is using faith (Christianity and Judaism), fear tactics, invocation of guilt, and history (Holocaust, mythology of Zionism, even the crusades and Stalin’s Russia) to manipulate politics and take what they want. They can do this because most people don’t know their history and operate on sound bites. The lobby is their tool, threats are their means and the people who pay for this are Americans, Jews, Palestinians, Lebanese, Iranians, Iraqis, Syrians and anyone else who won’t roll over and give them what they want on their terms and their terms alone.

Most people assume the Israeli lobby is powerful, but this is a misnomer. They are equating money with power, a common misconception in America. In effect, the Israeli lobby is buying the vote of the U.S. Congress by the very money which the U.S. gives and lends to Israel.

What enables the influence of lobbies like AIPAC is their perversion of “our own democratic tools” like free speech and the right to lobby, which are then used against the majority common good under the claim that it is “legal and everyone else does it too.” It’s a natural hazard and risk in a democratic society and makes the U.S. a ripe target for subversion by special interests.

The media has convinced the American public that U.S. and Israeli interests are identical and any opinion to the contrary is unacceptable, outrageous and intolerable. Criticism of the government of Israel has been tacitly but effectively prohibited in the U.S. However, the media in Israel has been more forthcoming. Israel is the number one nation with a spy network within U.S. borders. It is a well known fact that Israel has sold stolen U.S. military technology to China. Israel continues to spy on the U.S. today.

Only when Congress and political candidates fear the American voter more then they fear the loss of AIPAC and special interest money and niche voting groups will Americans have any representation or control over their government or their own lives or have any voice in questions of war and peace.

The writer is professor of interdisciplinary studies at the University of Toledo in Ohio.