The assortment of groups that are consolidated under the title “the Jewish Lobby” or the “Israeli Lobby”, spend per election cycle approximately 6 times LESS than what is spent by the assortment of groups consolidated under the title “the Defense Industry Lobby”. Almost all of US aid to Israel is military aid, which usually takes the form of US subsidized contracts for goods and services provided to Israel by American companies. In other words, it is NOT aid to Israel, it is US taxpayer money gifted to the American defense industry. If you believe that Israel coerces, manipulates, or blackmails the US government into implementing a pro-Israel foreign policy, I immediately know that you have not done even the most basic research on the topic, and that you do not understand how or why policy is made the way it is. The “Jewish Lobby” could literally not exist at all, and policy would remain exactly the same.
Israel is a step above being a client state, insofar as it is of enormously more use to the United States than a traditional client; but never make the mistake of thinking that the US is not the dominant force in the relationship. The current generation of Israeli leadership may be losing their grasp of the real existing dynamics, but the Zionist state’s founding realists, like Ariel Sharon understood perfectly well what Israel’s role is for the US. They are a strategic colony, a military base, and a research and development plantation for America. The moment Israel ceases to fulfill these beneficial roles, or the moment geopolitical realities change and Israel becomes unnecessary or otherwise redundant, US policy will change appropriately.