The pro-Israel lobby is certainly "one of the factors" that influences U.S. mid east policy but that is not the argument. I think arguably the anti-Castro gusano lobby is a larger factor in U.S. Cuban policy. But still it is the overall goals of the U.S. in Latin America that fuels U.S. policy to Cuba, and those were consistently pursued before there was an anti-Castro lobby, in much the same way that it is pursued now. The argument is similar with U.S. policy toward the Middle East in general. It is actually the 1967 turn in U.S. policy toward Israel that created a strong Israeli lobby. Read Chomsky's original response to the Mearsheimer-Walt article and I think you will find a very balanced view in this regard.
I think you are correct that accusations of anti-Semitism in this regard are mostly off point, for a number of reasons. 1) Some of the loudest of the lobbyists for Israel are far right anti-Semitic Christians. Mearsheimer-Walt and Chomsky, rightly include these anti-Semites as part of the pro-Israel lobby. 2) It seems by my own impression that "anti-Zionist" Jews are the loudest oppositionists to the pro-Israeli lobby, and are of all the oppositionists the ones most likely to overemphasize its power. Given all of that I think most of what Gilles d'Aymery says in the above message quoted by Carrol Cox is dead on.
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