The following is an extract from ‘The Friends of Israel’ and it is particularly important that anyone reading the book understands the semantics used, so as to be clear about the future use of descriptions such as ‘Israel lobby’. Those who are supporters of this lobby go back to Lord Balfour who ensured the formation of Israel, to the present day Michael Gove, who were and are not Jewish, neither is Joe Biden who announced he was a Zionist.

Words are powerful, and language matters. This book uses the phrases ‘Israel lobby’ and ‘Zionist movement / lobby’, as well as ‘pro-Israel movement / lobby’ and, occasionally, ‘Israel-advocacy movement’. In using the words ‘Israel’ and ‘Zionist’ as interchangeable prefixes before the terms ‘lobby’ and ‘movement’, I take as a given journalist and political commentator Peter Beinart’s words that ‘Zionism is what Israel does’.3

Nonetheless, the term ‘Zionism’ is relevant and useful because it pinpoints the ideology underpinning the state of Israel’s apartheid practices. It also invites us to bear in mind the spectrum of political persuasions, from liberal Zionism to revisionist Zionism, contained therein. ‘Israel lobby’ should not be interpreted as ‘code’ for ‘Jewish lobby’, a phrase this book never uses. It is vital to distinguish between Judaism, an ethno-religious and cultural identity, and Zionism – understood here as an ethno-nationalist political ideology and movement defined by a commitment to an inherently exclusionary Jewish state.

The fact that in some quarters, Judaism and Zionism are deliberately equated is not a reason to accept the blurring of this critically important conceptual distinction.

Using the terminology of a ‘Jewish lobby’ to speak about pro-Israel activism is empirically inaccurate, as well as politically irresponsible and harmful. The Israel lobby is very far from incorporating all Jewish people and is, moreover, far from exclusively Jewish.

The contemporary power of Christian Zionism deserves special mention in this regard,4 and indeed, some of the most important supporters of Israel discussed in this book – including Arthur Balfour, Orde Wingate, Terence Prittie, Luke Akehurst, Nigel Goodrich, Sajid Javid, Michael Gove, Priti Patel and Joan Ryan – are non-Jewish Zionists. More importantly, the idea that a ‘Jewish lobby’ is behind support for Israel is an anti-Semitic trope which erroneously ‘reduces political activity to ethnicity’ and reinforces the idea that there is only one ‘Jewish political position’5 when in reality, in the words of scholar and activist Joel Kovel, ‘there is no one way of being Jewish’.6

This, then, is definitively not a book about a ‘Jewish lobby’. Rather, it is a book about the Israel lobby: a group of organisations and individuals defined not by their ethno-religious identity but by their political activities in support of a specific nation-state (Israel), and the nationalist ideology (Zionism) underpinning that state’s apartheid practices towards Palestinians. Since Israel defines itself as a ‘Jewish state’ and is the embodiment of a Jewish nationalist movement, many of the people who feature in this book are indeed Jewish, but their activities are never represented as a function of their ethno-religious identity. Instead, what brings them into the purview of this study is their ideological commitment to, and organised political activity in support of, Israeli apartheid and some brand of political Zionism.

Likewise, it should be made crystal clear that all organisations scrutinised in this book – even those which are Jewish communal organisations rather than explicitly Zionist bodies – are included because of strong empirical evidence of pro-Israel activism. As chapter 3 explains, the leadership of several Jewish communal organisations (such as the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council) choose to present Zionist advocacy as an inherent part of their work and state explicitly that they ‘lobby for Israel’ – but this work should not be presumed to represent the will of wider British Jewish communities.

While ‘lobby’ is an appropriate word to describe forms of influence which involve the cultivation of direct, persuasive relationships with policymakers,7 Israel’s various friends actually engage in a much-broader array of activities. They also fundraise, educate, donate, produce knowledge from within academia and think-tanks, work to change legislation, run PR campaigns, campaign digitally, launch legal cases and (to an extent) organise at the grassroots. Employing the term ‘movement’ therefore enables a more holistic appreciation of the diverse tactics which supporters of Israel use. Moreover, the transnational Zionist movement has itself, since its inception, used the phrase ‘Zionist movement’ self-referentially.8 Exclusive use of the term ‘lobby’ – with its connotations of domestic interest groups – would also risk obscuring this transnational context, which remains critical to understanding the Zionist movement in any given country.

And see the current link, with an extract below:

https://history.howstuffworks.com/world-history/zionism.htm

What Is Zionism and Is It Fueling the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict?

By: Dave Roos  |  Updated: Apr 9, 2025

An Israeli settler cleans outside her house in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied east Jerusalem on May 5, 2021. Israeli Jews backed by courts have taken over houses in Sheikh Jarrah in east Jerusalem on the grounds that Jewish families lived there before fleeing in Israel’s 1948 war for independence. The claimants want to evict more Palestinians, and Israel’s Supreme Court is set to announce a decision soon. EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Zionism is a nationalist movement that established an independent state for Jewish people in 1948, supporting Judaism’s claim to Israel.
• The conflict arises as Palestinian Arabs also claim the land, viewing Zionism as a colonial and racist movement.
• Rooted in the 19th century, Zionism emerged as a response to the “Jewish Question” and gained momentum after the Holocaust, leading to the founding of the State of Israel in 1948.