Freedom, Geopolitics, Health, and more
By: Graham Gambier
Date: 9 August 2014
Israeli influence in the US.
The Israel Lobby
The Israel lobby is widely recognized as the most important and powerful lobby
The Israel lobby only represents a minority of Jewish Americans. Unfortunately, that minority is comprised of super-wealthy donors who support hardline Israeli policies such as continued settlements on Palestinian land and apartheid. As such, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threw his full support behind Mitt Romney along with close ally Sheldon Adelson, who contributed tens of millions of dollars for what he said was only one reason: Israel.
The nature of the pro-Israel lobby’s influence on the American political system has been raised again this year by senatorial confirmation hearings, policy conferences, sequestration, and White House initiatives. This influence is typically attributed to campaign contributions, but this view is unsophisticated. The power of the pro-Israel lobby is, in fact, defined by the dominance of various pro-Israel narratives in American culture.
When you consider the fact that 12 United States Senators and 22 Congressional Representatives, many of whom chair some of the most strategically important Congressional committees, are Jewish, that the various pro-Israel largely Jewish lobbying organizations (AIPAC, American Jewish Congress, American Jewish Committee, etc.) essentially dominate American politics and elections, and that 3 of the 9 United States Supreme Court Justices are Jewish, is it really a stretch to say that the United States federal government is largely controlled by a tiny, yet quite powerful, minority?
The 110th Congress includes more Jewish lawmakers than any other in history, and all but four are Democrats. About 2 percent of Americans identify themselves as Jewish. But in Congress, the proportion of Jewish members is now four times that. Six new Jewish House members were sworn in last week, bringing the total to 30. In the Senate, the 13 Jewish members include freshmen Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) and Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), according to the National Jewish Democratic Council.
It has become a tradition amongst American presidents to begin their period of office by visiting Israel, especially over the past three decades during which time the Israel Lobby has clearly taken control of American politics. Democratic or Republican, it would be exceptional to see any American president ever depart from this rule. So is Barack Obama exceptional? He has waited until the start of his second term before making the political pilgrimage to Israel but little is expected of him. Hence, to say that a US President is less prone to Israel Lobby pressures during his second term would not be entirely accurate. The Lobby can pursue him in different ways and stir up a lot of trouble for his party, something that no incumbent would wish on his successor. As such, we can say that Obama is visiting Israel to ask for approval for the Lobby's paymasters in Tel Aviv, not to dictate terms and conditions on a country in receipt of more foreign aid from America than any other in history, despite the obvious leverage that such largesse gives him. Clearly, Obama understands that Benjamin Netanyahu has more supporters in the US Congress than the US President has, and there is no need to create problems for himself.
The standard line that pro-Israel sentiment is defined by dollar signs is easily refuted. The two largest pro-Israel contributors—the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and J-Street—together approximated $3.25 million in lobbying in 2012. While this sounds substantial, it’s a meager .09 percent of the total $3.28 billion spent on overall political lobbying that year.
Israel doesn’t spend comparable amounts to other foreign governments–or even a fraction of that–to lobby the American government? As the Washington Post notes the Jewish state doesn’t need to bankroll an advocacy effort from abroad because it has domestic supporters who do the job. As polls have shown for decades, Israel remains wildly popular among the American population, Jew and non-Jew alike. By contrast, countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia don’t inspire such support, and need to fund their own outreach to maintain their alliances. Likewise, while Americans view Canada and Germany quite favorably, it seems they are not willing to lobby on their behalf, perhaps because neither possesses the unique mix of religious and ideological affinities that Israel does.
America’s most tangible contribution to Israel is the annual $3 billion dollars in military aid that Israel subsequently spends, largely in the American defense sector. The biggest vested interests in these expenditures are well-known, and their lobbying contributions many times over exceed that of pro-Israel organizations. Boeing and Lockheed Martin spent $15 million each on lobbying in 2012.
Israel receives more aid per capita than any other country, but this cannot be accounted for by the relatively small amount of money its advocates inject into the American political system. The power of the various pro-Israel narratives in the American political discourse is a far more compelling explanation.
The “pro-Israel lobby” isn’t a monolith; various groups have very different views and interact with widely divergent constituencies.
Beginning with the extreme right wing of the Jewish political spectrum, the president of the right-wing Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), Morton Klein, categorically opposes a two-state solution and maintains that Israel is not occupying any territory. Klein implicitly questions the existence of Palestinians by insisting on reducing their identity to Arabs only, and suggesting they relocate to “Arab States.” Because of their extreme views, the ZOA’s influence is very limited with respect to the White House and the Senate; however they do have friends in the House of Representatives.
Another narrative propelling right-wing American support for Israel is promoted by some evangelical Christian groups. Commonly referred to as “Christian Zionism,” this perspective emphasizes a prophetic role attributed to Israel. This might seem friendly on the surface, but it derives from evangelical eschatology best demonstrated by the wildly popular Left Behind novels. As the Anti-Defamation League notes, this narrative entails “the annihilation of Jews…who refuse to convert at Armageddon.” Evangelicals use Israel to promote their yearning for Armageddon rather than for a safe and prosperous Jewish state. Many Israelis and Jewish-American groups prefer to overlook these problematic beliefs as these Evangelicals have huge constituencies in the American electorate.
Mainstream Jewish proponents of Israel such as AIPAC tend to stress alliance and solidarity with the United States. First, these groups argue that Israel is the only democracy in an autocratic Middle East, despite Israel’s decades-long military occupation and the regional developments of the Arab Spring. Second, they argue Israel has shared values with the United States in terms of women’s rights, gay rights, and minority rights, without acknowledging discrimination against Palestinians. While they admit Israel must make concessions to achieve peace, they argue that Israel has already made many concessions and Palestinian intransigence is the main obstacle to peace. Moreover these groups are typically uncritical of Israeli policies, and generally support Israel’s leadership.
Further to the left are the self-defined “pro-Israel, pro-peace” groups like Americans for Peace Now and J-Street. These groups argue on Israel’s behalf, but assert that given the history and current state of the conflict, being pro-Israel also inherently means being pro-Palestinian and supporting the creation of a Palestinian state. While these groups have certainly experienced growth in recent years, their efforts to transform American conceptions of the conflict remain a work in progress.
Most importantly, there are deeply ingrained aspects of mainstream American culture into which pro-Israel narratives can, and do, tap. Consider AIPAC's presentation of Israel’s "Quest for Statehood": A religious minority facing European persecution believing “that they would only escape discrimination… in a state of their own” resolves to take up an arduous journey to a faraway, allegedly “sparsely populated” land. For many Americans this account of Israel’s national mythology is deeply reminiscent of their own. There is an unmistakable kinship between the Israeli and American national narratives that combine pioneer spirit with spiritual redemption of sanctified land.
US Foreign Aid to Israel
It’s hard to calculate the exact amount of foreign aid America gives Israel every year because the Israeli lobby in America secretly campaigns to give the tiny desert nation as much under-the-table aid as they can secure. In 1992, AIPAC President David Steiner was caught on tape bragging about his organization’s incredible power in America. Steiner first admitted to manipulating the US Secretary of State into giving Israel more foreign aid. Steiner said he, ”met with [Secretary of State] Jim Baker and I cut a deal with him. I got, besides the $3 billion, you know they’re looking for the Jewish votes, and I’ll tell him whatever he wants to hear … Besides the $10 billion in loan guarantees which was a fabulous thing, $3 billion in foreign, in military aid, and I got almost a billion dollars in other goodies that people don’t even know about.”US aid to Israel costs 275,000 American jobs per year due to unfair trade imbalances and sanctions on Israel’s enemies. In one example of under the table aid, Stauffer pointed out that the US actually gave Russia and Romania billions of dollars in undeclared aid to facilitate Jews moving to Israel. The US has also spent hundreds of billions in the region to secure friendly relationships with Israel. John McCain admitted in an interview that US aid to Egypt is really just a bribe so the Egyptians will maintain friendly relations with Israel. The US has also given Turkey and Greece billions for the same purpose. The cost of America’s relationship to Israel today adjusted for inflation and including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is likely to be in excess of $5 trillion, or $16k per American.
Even though Israel takes a great deal of money from the US in direct aid and even charitable donations from Jews and Christians, according to Official Direct Assistance (ODA) Israel is one of the stingiest developed countries in the world. Israel is one of the richest countries on the planet, but gives nearly 10 times less than the world average and gives the 4th least of any developed nation per capita, only barely beating out much poorer countries like Poland, Hungary, and Turkey. So while Israel took in $3 billion from America in direct aid and $12-17 billion in the other aid measures mentioned above, they only gave $141 million in foreign aid to nations in need of assistance in 2010.
What Does Israel Bring to the Relationship?
Former CIA Chief Michael Scheuer points out in the video below that what Israel brings to the relationship amounts to absolutely nothing. Not only is Israel a terrible ally, attacking America in at least two separate false flag attacks (See the 'Lavon Affair' and the 'USS Liberty incident') and actively spying on America, but it it isn’t really the “only democracy in the Middle East” as the Israelis like to claim. Many Arabs in Israel can’t vote or even live with their spouses. Israel is a racist apartheid state that separates Arabs and Jews in separate and totally unequal schools and facilities, as the following article Jewish Israelis are the worst Anti-Semites On The Planet details: http://thebilzerianreport.com/?p=537. As such, America’s support of Israel causes great damage to America’s relations with oil producing states in the region.Video: Ex CIA Chief Michael Scheuer: Israel is Worth Nothing to the US
Most Americans view Israel as an ally on the front lines fighting terrorists so Americans don’t have to, but nothing could be further from the truth. The few Islamic terrorist attacks on America in the last 50 years were all a result of America’s support for the Israeli apartheid regime. After September 11, 2001, the media claimed the terrorists attacked because they: “hated our freedom.” The terrorists however stated on record that they attacked America because of its support for Israel. After all, if terrorists were going to attack a country because of its freedom they would have attacked the Netherlands or Switzerland.
According to the General Accounting Office (GAO), Israel operates the largest spying operation on America of any of our allies, and they use some of their intelligence gathering to steal American business secrets, which costs the US jobs and money. The two largest and most powerful Israeli lobbies in America, AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League, have both been caught red-handed spying for Israel (see the 2005 AIPAC Scandal and 1993 ADL Spying scandal). Shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the FBI rounded up more than a hundred Israeli spies who were caught infiltrating dozens of federal agencies. It was one of the largest spy rings in American history.
The only people arrested on 9-11 were Israeli Mossad agents who were seen filming the attacks and then celebrating afterwards. The Dancing Israelis, as they were late known, were arrested in a van that had contained explosives and a box cutter, which was identical to the ones used in the terrorist attacks. They all failed lie detector tests about their role in the attacks. Before the US government classified all information on Israel’s involvement in 9-11, the FBI officially concluded that Israel had to have known of the attack before 9-11-2001 and didn’t warn the US.
After the attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq.” He also said, “these events have swung American public opinion in our favor.” In 2001, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Shimon Peres: “Don’t worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it” (Kol Yisrael radio, Oct. 3). I am afraid that what has changed since 2001 is a stronger conviction by the Netanyahu government of the truth of Sharon’s statement.
Few lobbies dedicated to international issues are so active and well-fincanced as the Israel lobby. The question of Israel's future has the right mix to attract monied interests -- it's a highly fractious issue with high stakes and it plays a big role in domestic politics.
The Israel Lobbies role in US politics.
Top Lobbying Clients, 2014
| Client/Parent | Total |
|---|---|
| American Israel Public Affairs Cmte |  $1,523,395 |
| J Street | $200,000 |
| Zionist Organization of America | $102,500 |
| American Jewish Cmte | $80,000 |
| Republican Jewish Coalition | $40,000 |
Although lobbying and contributions from pro-Israel groups are a significant factor in Congress’s general agreement on Israel, there are other contributors to the opinions of House and Senate members. First, United States and Israel are historic allies. Israel receives an average of $3.1 billion dollars from the United States each year. Additionally, there are big players, such as Sheldon Adelson, that rally heavily in support of Israel. Adelson and his wife have already contributed $351,000 to parties, PACs and candidates so far this cycle. The couple’s charitable trust, the Adelson Family Foundation, also contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to Jewish and Israeli causes.
The top recipients of contributions from pro-Israel groups are evenly distributed on party lines. In the House, former House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) has received $198,135 so far this cycle and close behind him is Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) with $191,153. Senators, though, top the charts in donations from pro-Israel groups. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has received $322,000, while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) $250,000, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) $229,000 and Mark Udall (D-Co.) $204,000. The non-partisan lines on which pro-Israel groups contribute are almost unparalleled by any other sector.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)
If you've spent any time at all reading about Israeli issues, Palestinian issues or Middle East issues generally, you've heard people on all ideological ends of the spectrum speak in hushed tones about the awesome power of AIPAC. Critics of the right-leaning, pro-Israel group often refer to it simply as "The Lobby," as if it were so powerful that other lobbyist organizations hardly even mattered. It's not considered especially controversial to suggest that the group plays a major role in shaping U.S. policy toward the Middle East.
AIPAC has bribed Presidents to ensure high level government appointments for pro-Israel and Jewish candidates, won trillions of dollars of American taxpayer aid and support for Israel, and ensured American incursions into the Middle East.
The architects of the Iraq war, Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz, were both closely tied to AIPAC, which mercilessly campaigned for the war. The book The Israeli Lobby and US Foreign Policy puts the primary blame of the Iraq invasion on AIPAC’s merciless lobbying for war. In January 2003, AIPAC executive director Howard Kohr stated, “quietly lobbying Congress to approve the use of force in Iraq” was one of “AIPAC’s successes over the past year.” Jeffrey Goldberg reported during a profile piece of AIPAC’s policy director Steve J. Rosen that, “AIPAC lobbied Congress in favor of the Iraq war.” The American media, which happens to have a disproportionate representation of Zionist executives, censored all those who disagreed with the war and labeled them unsupportive of the troops and traitors.
When AIPAC’s founder, Isaiah Kenen, was dispatched in theearly 1950s from his job at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs with orders to lobby the U.S. Congress for guns and diplomatic support as an American (rather than the U.S. State Department as an Israeli foreign agent), it was supposed to be only for six months. As that operation morphed into a semi-permanent Washington institution run outside the normal purview of the Foreign Agents RegistrationAct office, AIPAC was forced to tap a very small base of wealthy donors (some with criminal records) while simultaneously receiving covert support from the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency in Jerusalem.
After that “conduit” foreign- funding ruse was uncovered by a Justice Department investigation, Kenen emerged from the crisis and slowly built back up AIPAC’s donor base, whipping up post-1967 Six-Day War donor fears and anxieties that Israel was in danger of being overrun (it wasn’t) if people didn’t send in their checks. Now, AIPAC is pushing largely the same “Israel in danger” emotional buttons, with Iran as the flashing red light.
AIPAC spent $87,899,089 on advocacy in 2008 — significantly more than any of 212 other religion-related advocacy organizations examined by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. AIPAC’s expenditures amounted to more than three times that of the next highest-spending organization, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Conference of Bishops spent $26,662,111 in 2009, according to the most recently-available data on the subject.
AIPAC's influence is thought to be strongest in Congress, where support for pro-Israeli policies is indeed bipartisan and passionately held. Its membership is thought to include lots of Washington power-brokers and heavy-hitters, the types who, in the common telling, pull all the hidden levers of American governance and foreign policy.
AIPAC’s list of achievements on its web page include:
- Passing more than a dozen bills and resolutions condemning and imposing tougher sanctions on Iran during the past fifteen years. Securing critical security assistance to Israel each year to ensure that Israel remains capable of facing increased threats.
- Passing legislation requiring the administration to evaluate all future military sales to Arab states in the context of the need to maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge over potential adversaries.
- Passing multiple resolutions affirming congressional support for Israel’s right to self-defense in the face of terrorism by the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
- Each year, AIPAC is involved in more than a hundred legislative and policy initiatives involving Middle East policy or aimed at broadening and deepening the US-Israel bond. While building support in Washington is essential, AIPAC is found wherever the future of the US-Israel relationship could be affected. AIPAC has a network of ten regional offices and nine satellite offices that help pro-Israel activists from Missoula to Miami.
AIPAC describes itself as "America's Pro-Israel Lobby".
AIPAC is a mass-membership, American organization whose members include Democrats, Republicans, and independents.
The New York Times has called it "the most important organization affecting America's relationship with Israel." It has been described as one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington, DC.
A team of 11 in-house lobbyists work for AIPAC, including the executive director himself, Howard Kohr , and Jeff Kuhnreich, former senior policy adviser to Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.).
The annual AIPAC Policy Conference is the largest gathering of the pro-Israel movement. Thousands of participants - which included over 14,000 delegates in the 2014 conference - come from all 50 states to take part in "three of the most important days affecting Israel's future." Held at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., numerous speakers, including Presidents and Prime Ministers, speak about the importance of the U.S.-Israel Relationship.
AIPAC's stated purpose is to lobby the Congress of the United States on issues and legislation related to Israel.
AIPAC regularly meets with members of Congress and holds events where it can share its views.
“Congress is pro-Israel because America is pro-Israel. Have you ever pushed on an open door? It’s pretty easy,” says Josh Block, a former media relations head of AIPAC who now runs his own lobbying firm.
In March 2009, AIPAC executive director Howard Kohr appeared before the House Committee on Appropriations' Foreign Operations subcommittee to testify about the importance of US aid to Israel. Kohr stated that "American assistance to Israel serves vital U.S. national security interests and advances critical U.S. foreign policy goals".
AIPAC wishes to strengthen bilateral relations through shared intelligence and foreign military and economic aid to Israel.
In both sides of Congress, AIPAC supports the U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership Act and $3.1 billion in U.S. security assistance to Israel for FY 2013 and 2014 and $211 million on top of that for the Iron Dome Missile System in Israel.
According to The Washington Post, "money is an important part of the equation." The Washington Post states that "AIPAC's web site, which details how members of Congress voted on AIPAC's key issues, and the AIPAC Insider, a glossy periodical that handicaps close political races, are scrutinized by thousands of potential donors".
NOTE: All lobbying expenditures on this page come from the Senate Office of Public Records.
Data for the most recent year was downloaded on July 28, 2014.
Since 1998, AIPAC has spent $20,269,436 lobbying on the Hill, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to tracking money in politics.
Although AIPAC cannot make direct campaign contributions under the law, political insiders say there are about 30 political action committees (PACs) linked with it. That’s nearly all the pro-Israel PACs that exist. The organization also encourages its 100,000-member base to give to pro-Israel causes and campaigns.
AIPAC has lots of financial clout. Over the years it has raised and spent hundreds of millions of dollars on its lobbying activities. Through the recent recession, AIPAC’s cash flow still reached almost $200 million, and in 2009, the group spent $9 million just on its annual three-day policy conference in Washington, D.C., according to IRS filings.
AIPAC raises additional hundreds of millions of dollars with the help of some of its wealthiest donors. Its AIPAC Tomorow Campaign asks members to donate parts of their estates to the organization; so far it's received $202 million worth of planned gifts, according to its Commitment Matters book.
For fiscal year 2006, AIPAC’s top contributor gave $650,000. The rest of AIPAC’s “Schedule B” donors gave on average $16,772 each. The list of $5,000-plus donors numbered just over 1,700 individuals, so numerous that AIPAC had to attach a separate spreadsheet to its return [.pdf]. This large group of donors represented the majority (56 percent) of AIPAC’s total claimed direct public support. If we assume AIPAC had approximately 50,000 paying members that year, the rest gave $464 each for a total of $50,920,792 in public support.
The pro-Israel lobby also has an affiliate called the American Israel Education Foundation that pays to take congressmen on lavish trips to Israel, among other things. A one-week trip can cost up to $28,000 for an elected official and his or her spouse. The American Israel Education Foundation raises and spends about $25 million a year, according to IRS filings. A large congressional delegation is heading for Israel. During three weeks of recess, 55 Republicans and 26 Democrats will enjoy “educational” trips funded by the American Israel Education Foundation, a tax-exempt non-profit located in the same Washington, D.C., building as AIPAC. Absent AIPAC’s influence on pro-Israel campaign contributors, members of Congress would probably skip international travel this year to meet the pressing needs of their districts or to venture to places of actual importance to the U.S., such as Europe, China, or Latin America. Instead, because AIPAC is always watching members of Congress, US representatives go to Israel.
Although AIPAC does not have its own PAC, it has its political department analyze who the pro-Israel congressional candidates are across the country and then distributes that information to the pro-Israel PACs, according Rosenberg.
Smart political organizations like AIPAC understand writing a check directly from that organization to a candidate has minimal impact, says Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California, a frequent speaker at AIPAC events. “The much better way of catching the attention of a candidate, particularly a candidate who needs a lot of money for his or her campaign, is not just to write a check but to have large numbers of individuals each write their own checks,” he says, explaining one of the things that makes AIPAC so effective. “That's what they do,” Rosenberg. says. “Otherwise they wouldn’t have a political department at AIPAC, and they have a big political department there.”
Palestine
AIPAC's aims include pressuring the Palestinian Authority to adhere to its commitments to fight terrorism and incitement against the state of Israel.Also important to the group is to support the United States congress and executive administration in rejecting the UN-backed United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict's paper, commonly referred to as the "Goldstone Report."
Iran
In the House, AIPAC supports the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act (H.R.850). In the Senate, AIPAC supports the Resolution Backing Israel Against Iran (S. Res. 65).AIPAC condemn the actions of the Iranian government in pursuing nuclear status and questioning the Holocaust.
AIPAC's official position on Iran is to encourage a strong diplomatic and economic response coordinated among the United States government, its European allies, Russia, and China. AIPAC has demanded "crippling" sanctions against Iran. In line with this approach, AIPAC has lobbied to levy economic embargoes and increase sanctions against Iran.
Here are ten reasons why AIPAC is so dangerous.
1. AIPAC is lobbying Congress to promote a military confrontation with Iran. AIPAC – like the Israeli government – is demanding that the U.S. attack Iran militarily to prevent Iran from having the technological capacity to produce nuclear weapons, even though U.S. officials say Iran isn’t trying to build a weapon (and even though Israel has hundreds of undeclared nuclear weapons). AIPAC has successfully lobbied the U.S. government to adopt crippling economic sanctions on Iran, including trying to cut off Iran’s oil exports, despite the fact that these sanctions raise the price of gas and threaten the U.S. economy.2. AIPAC promotes Israeli policies that are in direct opposition to international law. These include the establishment of colonies (settlements) in the Occupied West Bank and the confiscation of Palestinian land in its construction of the 26-foot high concrete “separation barrier” running through the West Bank. The support of these illegal practices makes to impossible to achieve a solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict.
3. AIPAC’s call for unconditional support for the Israeli government threatens our national security. The United States’ one-sided support of Israel, demanded by AIPAC, has significantly increased anti-American sentiment throughout the Middle East, thus endangering US troops and sowing the seeds of more possible terrorist attacks against the US. Gen. David Petraeus on March 16, 2010 admitted that the U.S./Palestine conflict “foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel.” He also said that “Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples in the [region] and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda and other militant groups exploit that anger to mobilize support.”
4. AIPAC undermines American support for democracy movements in the Arab world. AIPAC looks at the entire Arab world through the lens of Israeli government interests, not the democratic aspirations of the Arab people. It has therefore supported corrupt, repressive regimes that are friendly to the Israeli government, such as Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak. Events now unfolding in the Middle East should convince U.S. policy-makers of the need to break from AIPAC’s grip and instead support democratic forces in the Arab world.
5. AIPAC makes the U.S. a pariah at the UN. AIPAC describes the UN as a body hostile to the State of Israel and has pressured the U.S. government to oppose resolutions calling Israel to account. Since 1972, the US has vetoed 44 UN Security Council resolutions condemning Israel’s actions against the Palestinians. President Obama continues that policy. Under Obama, the US vetoed UN censure of the savage Israeli assault on Gaza in January 2009 in which about 1400 Palestinians were killed; a 2011 resolution calling for a halt to the illegal Israeli West Bank settlements even though this was stated U.S. policy; a 2011 resolution calling for Israel to cease obstructing the work of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees; and another resolution calling for an end to illegal Israeli settlement building in East Jerusalem and the occupied Golan Heights. (List of the UN resolutions concerning Israel and Palestine)
6. AIPAC attacks politicians who question unconditional support of Israel. AIPAC demands that Congress rubber stamps legislation drafted by AIPAC staff. It keeps a record of how members of Congress vote and this record is used by donors to make contributions to the politicians who score well. Members of Congress who fail to support AIPAC legislation have been targeted for defeat in re-election bids. These include Senators Adlai Stevenson III and Charles H. Percy, and Representatives Paul Findley, Pete McCloskey, Cynthia McKinney, and Earl F. Hilliard. AIPAC’s overwhelmingly disproportionate influence on Congress subverts our democratic system.
7. AIPAC attempts to silence all criticism of Israel by labeling critics as “anti-Semitic,” “de-legitimizers” or “self-hating Jews.” Journalists, think tanks, students and professors have been accused of anti-Semitism for merely taking stands critical of Israeli government policies. These attacks stifle the critical discussions and debates that are at the heart of democratic policy-making. The recent attacks on staffers at the Center for American Progress is but one example of AIPAC efforts to crush all dissent.
8. AIPAC feeds U.S. government officials a distorted view of the Israel/Palestine conflict. AIPAC takes U.S. representatives on sugar-coated trips to Israel. In 2011, AIPAC took one out of very five members of Congress—and many of their spouses—on a free junket to Israel to see precisely what the Israeli government wanted them to see. It is illegal for lobby groups to take Congresspeople on trips, but AIPAC gets around the law by creating a bogus educational group, AIEF, to “organize” the trips for them. AIEF has the same office address as AIPAC and the same staff. These trips help cement the ties between AIPAC and Congress, furthering their undue influence.
9. AIPAC lobbies for billions of U.S. tax dollars to go to Israel instead of rebuilding America. While our country is reeling from a prolonged financial crisis, AIPAC is pushing for no cuts in military funds for Israel, a wealthy nation. With communities across the nation slashing budgets for teachers, firefighters and police, AIPAC pushes for over $3 billion a year to Israel.
10. Money to Israel takes funds from world’s poor. Israel has the 24th largest economy in the world, but thanks to AIPAC, it gets more U.S. tax dollars than any other country. At a time when the foreign aid budget is being slashed, keeping the lion’s share of foreign assistance for Israel meaning taking funds from critical programs to feed, provide shelter and offer emergency assistance to the world’s poorest people.
The bottom line is that AIPAC, which is a de facto agent for a foreign government, has influence on U.S. policy out of all proportion to the number of Americans who support its policies. When a small group like this has disproportionate power, that hurts everyone—including Israelis and American Jews.
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