Lobbying for an enhanced U.S. defense relationship with Israel keeps getting tougher.

Conservatives and national security advocates understand the need for a reliable and democratic ally in the Middle East. But the Israel of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, which has been promoting a unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank, is becoming more difficult to promote in the Bush administration and Congress because of the weakness of and divisions within the Jewish state.

"You have leading Israelis tied to the Olmert government actually sabotaging efforts to promote a strong Israel in Washington," a pro-Israel Christian activist said. "It's clear that Olmert has a different agenda than previous Israeli leaders."

Indeed, Olmert has been more comfortable with the anti-Israeli Jewish lobby than with the traditional groups such as the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.

Akiva Eldar, a confidante of the Olmert government and political commentator for Israel's Haaretz daily, was invited by the anti-Israel Americans for Peace Now to attack the Bush administration policy in the Middle East. In an address last week, Eldar sounded like the most vicious of anti-Semites who peddle the canard that Jews own America.

Eldar????

Haaretz Editor Says "The Settlers" Control Israel Lobby

by Ezra HaLevi

(IsraelNN.com) For the second time in the course of four weeks, a senior editor of ultra-leftist Haaretz has openly given voice to his radical agenda.

This time it was Akiva Eldar, the paper's senior political editor, who endorsed the recently published book "The Israel Lobby," which alleges that a powerful network of lobby groups and Jewish organizations induce the US to pursue policies that are against its best interests.