March 15, 2007
AIPAC evolved from the American Zionist Council, which was established by I.L. Kenen in 1951. It was registered as a foreign agent for Israel. However, three years later (1954) the Council started operating as a domestic group and was given a new name, American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs. The newly named Jewish organization concentrated its lobbying effort on members of the United States Congress. The American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs carried out an intensive polling effort of all 750 candidates for the House and Senate in 1954. The only question the candidates were asked was about their views on Israel and the Middle East conflict. This was the first priority of the organization, which endeavored to promote Israeli interests in Congress. Then Kenen decided (1959) to give his organization a new name, AIPAC. His previous years of field experiences had taught Kenen that the most effective way to influence members of Congress was through their own constituents. AIPAC went after the political activists that contribute money and time to members’ election campaign.
AIPAC became the most influential and best organized pro-Israel lobby in the United States. This is reflected in Congress approval of extraordinary levels of financial aid and special benefits, all of them granted with barely a serious discussion. AIPAC moved its headquarters to Washington, established offices in 8 cities by the mid-1990s and had an annual budget of $15 million. Candidates for the U.S. Congress became cognizant that AIPAC’s endorsement resulted in contributions from pro-Israel political action committees (PACs) around the country. This is why every presumed or running presidential candidate must visit Israel to secure American Jewish community blessing.
The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz issue of March 17, 2006 published extracts of a study made by two researchers from Harvard University and the University of Chicago regarding pro-Israel lobbys’ influence on United States Middle East policy. The researchers, John Mearsheimer at Chicago, and Stephen Walt at Harvard, are well-known scholars in the fields of political science and government. They stressed, "No lobby has managed to divert U.S. foreign policy as far from what the American national interest would otherwise suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that U.S. and Israeli interests are essentially identical…..The combination of unwavering support for Israel and the related effort to spread 'democracy' throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardized not only U.S. security but that of much of the rest of the world. This situation has no equal in American political history. Why has the U.S. been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance the interests of another state?"
They also remarked, ""Thanks to the lobby, the United States has become the de facto enabler of Israeli expansion in the Occupied Territories, making it complicit in the crimes perpetrated against the Palestinians," and conclude that "Israel itself would probably be better off if the Lobby were less powerful and U.S. policy more even-handed."
The study also documented accusations that pro-Israel groups, especially AIPAC, had pressured the United States into war with Iraq. It listed senior Bush administration officials who supported the war and were well known to be very strong supporters of the Jewish State, such as Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith and David Wurmser. The researchers indicated that these people had encouraged Israeli belligerence and prevented it from reaching a compromise with the Palestinians and neighbouring Arab states.
They pointed out that one reason for America being exposed to terrorism attacks was its total support of Israeli policies, which they believed, was not in America’s best interest. They noted, "Israel is in fact a liability in the war on terror and the broader effort to deal with rogue states," and that "The United States has a terrorism problem in good part because it is so closely allied with Israel, not the other way around." The paper also remarked that American administrations would not be worried about Iran, Iraq and Syria, if not for close ties with Israel.
"The inability of Congress to conduct a genuine debate on these important issues paralyses the entire process of democratic deliberation. Israel's backers should be free to make their case and to challenge those who disagree with them, but efforts to stifle debate by intimidation must be roundly condemned," they add, in the article published in The London Review of Books.
Israel's supporters in the United States were truly upset with the academic paper because it indicated that the Jewish State is not a worthy ally for America since it is not a true democracy. The paper stressed Israel use of various torture methods that are against American values.
The paper reminded Americans that the thrust of American policy in the region was mainly due to domestic politics, especially the activities of the Israel Lobby, which has succeeded in securing Israel massive financial aid since the 1973 October War, and which has dwarfed that provided to any other state. They wondered why Israel, with a per capita income almost equal to that of Spain or South Korea, has received more than $140 billion (in 2004 dollars) since 1976. Moreover, unlike other recipients that got their American aid in quarterly installments, Israel has received the entire United States aid package at the start of each fiscal year, earning full interest on it, and as such was at liberty to use the American taxpayer dollars as it wished, including massive subsidies for its own defense industry. The academic paper criticized United States for turning a blind eye to Israel’s acquisition of nuclear weapons and for resorting to its veto to protect the Jewish State. Since 1982, the US has vetoed 32 Security Council resolutions critical of Israel, more than the total number of vetoes cast by all the other Security Council members.
The researchers quoted one American participant at Camp David in 2000 who lamented, "Far too often, we functioned . . . as Israel’s lawyer."
AIPAC held its annual conference
this week. It was attended by hundreds of pro-Israel
supporters, including Administration officials and Congress
people.
Source: Special to this website
See also: The Israel Lobby A collection of writings
