"At the same time, Israel has a powerful American lobby with bipartisan
strength that could be uniquely positioned to help the White House shore
up support in Congress.
Yet there were no outward signs on Sunday that Israel would attempt to
influence the outcome, and numerous experts on the Israel-American
relationship said it would be deeply dangerous to try...Both Mr. Obama and his secretary of state, John Kerry, have mentioned
Israel’s needs as one justification for an attack on Syria. But some in
Washington have already raised the specter of retaliatory missiles
raining on Tel Aviv, as they did during the Persian Gulf war, as a
reason not to strike...A spokesman for the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, the main
pro-Israel lobby, said Sunday that the group “won’t have comment for
now.” Another advocate for Israel in Washington said people were waiting
to see the White House strategy for the vote and how the debate
unfolded before deciding what to do. Part of the hesitation comes from
Jerusalem’s ambivalence about what outcome it prefers in the Syrian
civil war."
