We all know the dog wags the tail but it isn't a binary and this simplistic "The US does what it wants through the apartheid state. End of story" isn't a sensible approach.

That the apartheid state is a proxy doesn't mean that we shouldn't be concerned with their lobby. If you ego prevents you from wanting to know more about it then don't read it. As something else that's already been said, but probably not read, you do do.