They Dare to Speak Out

The book was written after Findley left Congress and was published by Lawrence Hill Books.[1][4] Available publication metadata diverges: the Internet Archive catalog dates a Chicago publication to 1989, while a bibliographic citation in a separate Internet Archive-hosted text identifies Lawrence Hill in Westport, Connecticut, and gives the year as 1985. The consulted records do not establish whether these entries represent separate editions.[4][2]

The 1989 catalog record notes that the volume includes bibliographical references on pages 361–378 and an index. It lists the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Jews, Zionists, and the Arab-Israeli conflict among the book's subject headings.[4]

FDD places the book in the context of Findley's involvement with the Palestine Liberation Organization. During a late-1970s trip to South Yemen, Findley met PLO representatives and later claimed that Yasir Arafat approved — but declined to sign — a proposed statement concerning peace and an independent Palestine in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — and Gaza.[1] Findley reportedly described himself as "Arafat's best friend in Congress." FDD argues that his outreach drew concern from pro-Israel professionals and strengthened his pro-PLO positions.[1]

FDD reports that Findley's book criticized Jewish money, Jewish groups operating in Washington and on college campuses, Jewish congressmen, and Jewish influence, and claimed that the pro-Israel community had a "stranglehold" on congressional politics and American foreign policy.[1] Findley also wrote about Christian supporters of Israel, expressing greater empathy for them on the grounds that their "religious convictions…made them susceptible to the appeals of the Israel lobby," and lamented that former president Jimmy Carter was "yielding to the lobby on relations with Israel."[1]

CAMERA UK reports that Findley maintained that many American Jews used tactics that he said "stifle dissent in their own communities and throughout America" to advance Israel's interests.[3] CAMERA UK places this argument within a broader history of dual-loyalty accusations, characterizing such accusations as having largely remained on the fringes of American society after World War II. That historical framing is CAMERA UK's interpretive assessment.[3]

CAMERA UK says the book became a best-seller, while FDD reports that it was updated and republished twice without identifying the dates of those reissues.[3][1] The 1986 volume 40 index of The Middle East Journal lists a review of Findley's book on pages 353–354, showing that it received academic notice shortly after its 1985 publication.[5]

Robert Satloff of the Washington Institute groups Findley among advocates who viewed Israel as an "albatross" rather than a strategic asset to the United States and names They Dare to Speak Out as one of the books reflecting that viewpoint.[6] Satloff asserts that such works gained little traction among policy, media, cultural, and university elites and that the broader American public rejected their reasoning. This is Satloff's assessment and is not accompanied by sales data or other reception metrics.[6]

Findley later voiced related arguments as an interviewee in the 2006 film Occupation 101: Voices of the Silenced Majority. According to ADL, he asserted that there was a "total lack of freedom of speech" in the United States and attributed it to the combined efforts of AIPAC, Christian Evangelists, and the media.[7]

The cited advocacy sources are critical of the book's central arguments. FDD characterizes its claims as false and as veering into antisemitism, CAMERA UK describes the book as an attack on the Israel lobby, and Satloff treats Findley's viewpoint as marginal in its influence on mainstream American opinion.[1][3][6]

Descriptions of the book's substantive claims in the cited record come mainly from organizations critical of Findley's positions. They should therefore be understood as attributed summaries rather than independently verified findings about the dynamics of U.S. foreign policy.[1][3] The publication discrepancy also remains unresolved: the cited records give both a 1985 Westport entry and a 1989 Chicago entry without clarifying whether they represent separate editions.[4][2]