On the Other Hand...

Daniel Levy has written an excellent analysis of the aforementioned "Israel Lobby" piece that gets at its strengths, its weaknesses, and (this is critical) the division not merely between the "Lobby" and the views of many (if not most) American Jews, but between the Lobby and Israel itself.

Visible signs of Israel and the Lobby not being on the same page are mounting. For Israel, the Gaza withdrawal and future West Bank evacuations are acts of strategic national importance, for the Lobby an occasion for confusion and shuffling of feet. For Israel, the Hamas PLC election victory throws up complex and difficult challenges; for the Lobby it's a public relations homerun and occasion for simplistic legislative muscle-flexing.

Not much else to say, really, and it raises a core unexamined problem with the Lobby: that it is lobbying for policy that the lobbyists believe will benefit the cause of Israel, but those who actually live and work in Israel don't necessarily agree.