ABSTRACT
We come next to a different kind of power that some attribute to American Jewry. It is embodied in the neoconservatives, the name given to a varied group of public intellectuals who supposedly have exerted a strong infl uence on American governing elites. Determining the Jewish identity of the neoconservatives is problematic since their aims were couched in national interest terms and the policies advocated did not refl ect a consensus within the Jewish community. Neither the neoconservatives nor the New Left, to be discussed in the following chapter, were particularly attached to the Jewish polity or its major organizations. They might best be identifi ed by the great fear they have aroused by would-be defenders of the republic. Those who imagine a Jewish conspiracy to control policy assume that the predominance of Jewish intellectuals, journalists, and sundry pundits in the early stages of the development of the group is suffi cient evidence of its Jewishness. They are Jews by accusation.
