Here’s a thought experiment. Try it on some friends today, preferably your less intelligent ones. Inform them that of the 6.6 billion people in the world, there are 2.1 billion Christians, 1.3 billion Muslims, 900 million Hindus and 350 million Buddhists. Then ask them to guesstimate the number of Jews.

The answers I get (from Cornell students) usually range from 100 to 500 million, sometimes higher. The real number, of course, is orders of magnitude lower — somewhere in the neighborhood of 13 million, or .2 percent of the world’s population — though even I sometimes have trouble believing it.

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That people overshoot the mark on this one is understandable. Jews have always been disproportionately visible in the world (winning at least 1/5 of Nobel Prizes, for example), and thus many fall prey to the illusion that Jews are more numerous and powerful than in reality. In America, home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel, the illusion is particularly acute. Among American academics, who find themselves surrounded by Jewish colleagues, it’s unavoidable.

Consider the new book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, by Harvard’s Stephen Walt and UChicago’s John Mearsheimer (W&M), based on an article of the same name that the duo published last year in the London Review of Books. The book and the original article, which better resembles a college term paper, allege a loose cabal of Zionist organizations and individuals that has somehow managed to hijack American foreign policy to Israel’s exclusive benefit (and America’s sole detriment) for four decades without anybody noticing (except, of course, the perceptive authors).

W&M’s chain of reasoning goes something as follows: Surely nobody but the most ardent Zionist is convinced by the bogus moral and strategic arguments for America to support Israel; thus, most professed supporters of the Jewish state must be either willing or unwilling dupes of the Israel lobby — how else to explain American backing of this racist colonialist apartheid Nazi state? (If you, dear reader, aren’t Jewish and yet support Israel, W&M are talking about you. You fool.)

As always, there’s a grain of truth in every lie, and this one is no different. Jews are active and successful players in the realm of American politics (as they are in pretty much every realm but sports). And Jews in America tend to pay special attention to Israel — just as blacks do to racism, Latinos to immigration, women to abortion, senior citizens to social security and gays to same-sex marriage. (The only difference, according to polls, is that Jewish Americans seem to care less about “their” issue than the other groups do about theirs.)

Each of these demographics (or at least the majority thereof) leverages whatever resources it has, be that in money or votes, to steer American policy in its direction. For many women, it means lobbying their senators to vote against bills (and Supreme Court justices) that threaten a woman’s right to choose; for many Latinos, it means showing up at rallies calling for the legalization of undocumented workers from Latin America; for many blacks, it means voting for candidates who support affirmative action. And for many Jews, it means doing all of the above to preserve and strengthen America’s relationship with the Jewish state. Nothing remarkable about any of it — just democracy at work.

Nobody writes academic papers and hardcover books about the “black lobby” or the “gay lobby” and expects to be taken seriously. But W&M consider the Jewish lobby alone worthy of such scrutiny. Their prime target: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

AIPAC, for the uninitiated, is the primary pro-Israel organization in America. In terms of political muscle, it’s in the same league as the AARP, the NRA and the AFL-CIO. But it’s not somehow unique among those and other interest groups, as W&M insinuate. While its policy objectives are different from the AARP’s or the NRA’s, its tactics are not. Read the following paragraph from W&M’s paper and, for fun, mentally substitute “Planned Parenthood” for “AIPAC” and “choice” for “Israel.”

Cue ominous music:

“AIPAC’s success is due to its ability to reward legislators and congressional candidates who support its agenda and to punish those who challenge it. Money is critical to U.S. elections (as the recent scandal over lobbyist Jack Abramoff's various shady dealings reminds us), and AIPAC makes sure that its friends get financial support from the myriad pro-Israel political action committees. Those seen as hostile to Israel, on the other hand, can be sure that AIPAC will direct campaign contributions to their political opponents. AIPAC also organizes letter-writing campaigns and encourages newspaper editors to endorse pro-Israel candidates.”

Groundbreaking scholarship, indeed. What’s more noteworthy: the fact that AIPAC organizes letter-writing campaigns, encourages newspaper editors to endorse pro-Israel candidates and directs money to opponents of those hostile to Israel, or the fact that W&M actually find this noteworthy?

Alan Dershowitz said it best in The Case for Israel:

“A good working definition of anti-Semitism is taking a trait or an action that is widespread and blaming only the Jews for it. That is what Hitler and Stalin did, and that is what former Harvard University president A. Lawrence Lowell did in the 1920s when he tried to limit the number of Jews admitted to Harvard because ‘Jews cheat.’ When a distinguished alumnus objected on the grounds that non-Jews also cheat, Lowell replied, ‘You’re changing the subject. I’m talking about Jews.’”

W&M aren’t just talking about Jews, to be sure. The lobby, they note, includes many Christian evangelicals and other non-Jewish supporters of Israel. They also implicate a vast network of supposedly pro-Israel accomplices, such as the Brookings Institution and The New York Times (to the editorial board’s surprise, I’m sure).

And W&M are also correct that the overwhelming majority of elected officials across America (save Berkeley, Dearborn and Ithaca) would identify themselves at some level as pro-Israel. That is, they support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and to defend itself from terrorist organizations (i.e. Hamas, Hezbollah) and rogue nations (i.e. Iran, Syria). Some may disagree with this or that Israeli policy, but still believe at the end of the day that for America to ally itself with the only democracy in the Middle East is in line with both its interests and values.

One need not imagine the invisible hand of some nefarious lobby to account for that. Most congressman are pro-Israel because most Americans are pro-Israel. According to a recent Gallup poll, 63 percent of Americans view Israel favorably, making the country more popular than Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani or any other American politician. And that support cuts across party lines.

No conspiracy here. Just democracy.

And in this democracy, W&M are free to publish whatever they please, no matter how vile or unfounded. Such is their prerogative under the first amendment, as they’re apt to remind us. It takes real chutzpah to begrudge others for exercising the same rights.

Ben Birnbaum is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be contacted at bbirnbaum

@c­or­ne­llsun.­com. Infomaniacs Anonymous appears Tuesdays.