AIPAC: The Israeli Front in Washington for Spying on the US
"AIPAC is doing important work. In Washington and beyond, AIPAC is calling attention to the great security challenges of our time. You've always understood and warned against the evil ambition of terrorism and their networks. In a dangerous new century, your work is more vital than ever." The L.A. Times reported on Friday that the American administration does NOT believe Israel's contention that it does not spy on America and that U.S. government officials say Israel secretly maintains a large and active intelligence-gathering operation in the U.S.
OTHER RELATED ARTICLES..... The only members of the American Congress who are aware of the true figures or even suspect the total of US funding to Israel, are the Congress members who sit on the committees that allocate these funds. These committees have mainly Jewish members. Often these committee members have received huge campaign donations from Israel’s Washington lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Among them are Hadassah, the Zionist women’s organisation, which arranges a steady stream of American Jewish visitors to Israel and the American Jewish Congress, which mobilises support for Israel among members of the traditionally moderate left-of-centre Jewish mainstream.
An example of the ADL’s fund raising style, were two letters sent out in the 1980’s warning Jewish parents against the alleged negative influences on their children, arising from the increase of Arabs at American universities. It also keeps secret files on individuals in Arab-American, African-American and peace and justice groups.Read here for more The pro-Israel lobby, whose principal Jewish component is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), became a significant force in shaping public opinion and US Middle East policy after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Its power was simultaneously enabled and enhanced by Israel's emergence as a regional surrogate for US military power in the Middle East in the terms outlined by the 1969 Nixon Doctrine. In the 1970s and 1980s, the lobby was able to unseat representatives and senators who could not be counted on to support Israel without qualification, such as Sen. Charles Percy (R-IL), Rep. Paul Findley (R-OH) and Rep. Pete McCloskey (R-CA). In 2002, the pro-Israel lobby successfully targeted African-American representatives Earl Hilliard (D-AL) and Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) for defeat in Democratic primaries. Hilliard and McKinney were both vulnerable for reasons unrelated to Israel. McKinney, for instance, was defeated in part because the open primary allowed Republicans angered over her comments about the September 11 attacks to cross over and vote against her in the Democratic primary. Nonetheless, their defeat enhanced the impression that the pro-Israel lobby wields great power in electoral politics.
Thus, the adoption of WINEP's policy recommendation to "resist pressures for a procedural breakthrough" by both the Bush and Clinton administrations delayed the start of meaningful Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, contributed to the demonization of the PLO and multiplied the casualty rate of the first Palestinian intifada.
CLICK HERE on the list of names of TOP TEN US CONGRESSMEN who received contributions from AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) in 2002
TOTAL for 2001-2002 Election Cycle
$ 3,015,086
TOTAL 1978-2002 Funds to Congressional Candidates
$37,622,268
TOTAL No. of Recipient Candidates, 1978-2002
1,865
Don't expect these funded-Congressmen, the elected representatives of citizens of the United States to speak out against AIPAC as a negative influence on United States' national interest, least of all for spying on the US.
Read here article by Thomas B. Edsall and Molly Moore in Washington Post " AIPAC Is Embroiled in Investigation of Pentagon Leaks"
On May 18, President George W. Bush stood before the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington and spoke effusively to its members :
Just over three months later, the most powerful pro-Israel lobbying organization in the United States is embroiled in an FBI probe into whether Pentagon officials gave AIPAC representatives classified material and whether they in turn passed it to the Israeli government.
For AIPAC, the allegations are potentially devastating to its credibility and large influence in Washington.
"What really is troubling is the issue of dual loyalties," said Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Calif.), one of many senior members of the House who have defended AIPAC.
Israel was established in 1948, and AIPAC was set up six years later. It now has 85,000 members, an annual budget of $33.4 million and a staff of 165, with offices in Washington, 10 states and Israel.
In 2003, the organization reported spending $1.28 million on lobbying.
Read here article by Nathan Guttman " FBI probes Jewish sway on Bush government"
The FBI investigation into the Pentagon mole affair has expanded beyond data analyst Larry Franklin's immediate circle to encompass the entire issue of Jewish influence on the neoconservative part of the administration.
The FBI queries have recently been focusing on a number of officials, all from the neoconservative wing, who had access to the debates on Iranian affairs, the Washington Post reported yesterday.
The officials include
The officials said the FBI and other bodies spy on Israeli diplomats in Washington and New York as a matter of routine. The report said that Israel has long attempted to recruit U.S. officials as spies and to procure classified documents, according to the Times.
For many years we have read that Israel separately receives $1.8 billion in military aid and $1.2 billion in economic aid. Both these figures are accurate, but since they are never combined with indirect funding and are often quoted separately, it gives a false impression of the total annual US aid to Israel.
AIPAC draws on the support and resources of the Conference of Presidents of major American Jewish Organisations, an umbrella group set up solely to co-ordinate some 52 national Jewish organisations throughout America.
The American Jewish Committee plays the same role with the centre and right-of-centre Jewish community. It also publishers ‘Commentary,’ one of the lobby’s principal national publications.
The most controversial lobbying group is the B’nai B’riths Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Its original pupose was to protect the civil rights of American Jews.
The last 20 years have seen the ADL regress into a conspiratorial and well funded (US$45 million a year) hate group.
The establishment of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) in 1985 greatly expanded the lobby's influence over policy as well. WINEP's founding director, Martin Indyk (former Jewish Australian), previously been research director of AIPAC which, then as now, focuses much of its efforts on Congress.
Indyk developed WINEP into a highly effective think tank devoted to maintaining and strengthening the US-Israel alliance through advocacy in the media and lobbying the executive branch.
When Israel became serious about attempting to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, it circumvented the US-sponsored negotiations in Washington (and the pro-Israel lobby) and spoke directly to representatives of the PLO in Oslo. The result was the 1993 Oslo Declaration of Principles.
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