The AIPAC Saga: Part I: America and Organized American Jews
Why focus on AIPAC? " AIPAC is considered one of the five most powerful lobbies in Washington, alongside giants like the American Association of Retired Persons and the National Rifle Association. Another proof of its power is the presence at the main banquet of its annual policy conference of senior U.S. politicians. Last year, about half the Senate and one-third of the Congress was at the banquet, alongside governors and dozens of other politicians. Not many other organizations can put on such a display." " Remaking the American power structure without Jews is like remaking sports without blacks. At least when it comes to blacks in sports, you can talk about it; you can say that blacks changed sports. But no one is allowed to speak up about something we all quietly know: Jews changed America. So there’s no public acknowledgment of something almost everyone understands: Jews are MAJOR players in the establishment. There’s nothing wrong with an elite. Society couldn’t operate without one. "Indeed, more and more prominent American Jews who were once committed to Zionism have altered their views. .... Discussing the contemporary American Jewish community and the fear of free and open debate about Israel and the Middle East on the part of self-appointed “leaders,” Aryeh Cohen, chair of the Rabbinics Department at the Zeigler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism, noted that : While Jewish organizations place Israel—and support for the Sharon government—at the “center” of their agenda, for the vast majority of American Jews Israel remains a largely peripheral interest. Indeed, those who are proclaimed—and proclaim themselves—“Jewish leaders” may speak for a very small constituency, largely themselves." " The link between active promoters of Israeli interests and policymaking circles is stronger by several orders of magnitude in the Bush administration, which is peppered with people who have long records of activism on behalf of Israel in the United States, of policy advocacy in Israel, and of promoting an agenda for Israel often at odds with existing U.S. policy. The head of Radio Liberty, a Cold War propaganda holdover now converted to service in the "war on terror," is Thomas Dine, who was the very active head of AIPAC throughout most of the Reagan and the Bush-41 administrations. ... Probably the most important organization, in terms of its influence on Bush administration policy formulation, is the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). "The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), established in 1985, soon became the most influential think tank with effects on the United States government's Middle East policy and US mass media reporting about the region. In contrast to AIPAC's partisan image, Indyk successfully positioned Winep as an organisation that was "friendly to Israel but doing credible research on the Middle East in a realistic and balanced way" (1). WINEP's rightward drift is also in accord with the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment that has proliferated in post-11 September US thought and culture.
For the uninitiated, AIPAC, stands for American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
The word in Washington has been that AIPAC has a "fly on the wall" that either relays or listens in to discussions on all matters to do with US's foreign policy in the Middle East. It has tentacles influencing by proxy Middle East policies of other countries such as UK and Australia.
According to Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper:
On its website, AIPAC boasts "...The New York Times has called AIPAC the most important organization affecting America's relationship with Israel, while Fortune magazine has consistently ranked AIPAC among America's most powerful interest groups. "
It is so confident of itself in blatantly affecting US policies on Israel, it proudly claimed:"AIPAC has 65,000 members across all 50 states who are at the forefront of the most vexing issues facing Israel today: stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, fighting terrorism and achieving peace. And above all, ensuring that Israel is strong enough to meet these challenges.
AIPAC's influence on US foreign policy was becoming too strong for many Americans' liking. The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA) keeps track on AIPAC's contribution to US Congressional candidates.
Through more than 2,000 meetings with members of Congress - at home and in Washington - AIPAC activists help pass more than 100 pro-Israel legislative initiatives a year. From procuring nearly $3 billion in aid critical to Israel's security, to funding joint U.S.-Israeli efforts to build a defense against unconventional weapons, AIPAC members are involved in the most crucial issues facing Israel.
Activists work closely with AIPAC's professional staff, people drawn from the top echelons of government, diplomacy, academia and politics.
AIPAC lobbyists meet every member of Congress and cover every hearing on Capitol Hill that touches on the U.S.-Israel relationship. AIPAC policy experts each day review hundreds of periodicals, journals, speeches and reports and meet regularly with the most innovative foreign policy thinkers in order to track and analyze events and trends."
Read here WRMEA's "U.S. Financial Aid To Israel: Figures, Facts, and Impact"
AIPAC's strength comes from the pervasive American Jewish influence in American political, social and cultural landscapes.
AIPAC's Power Base
No one, least of all the US mainstream media, for fear of retribution, political and career-wise, wants to talk about the power of the Jewish lobby in Washington, even if its influence on US foreign policies borders on endangering US national interests and lives of Americans in uniform.
In 2001, Philip Weiss, who is Jewish himself, had this to say:
Allan C. Brownfeld, associate editor of the Lincoln Review, a journal published by the Lincoln Institute for Research and Education wrote in "As Mideast Process Proceeds, Will American Jewish Groups Be a Help or Hindrance?" :
Psychologically attuned Jews and Hollywood Jews changed the language of popular culture -- Seinfeld, Weinstein.... I have not even gotten to finance or the law, though anyone who doubts the Jewish influence here should ask how many white-shoe law firms still keep gentlemen’s hours.
I’d go further and argue that the greatly diminished influence of church on public mores wouldn’t have happened without secularized Jews gaining cultural power.
And no one ever talks about it.
If you talk about Jewish influence, you’re risking a Holocaust.
There are so many Jews in the media that the cone of silence falls over the territory where you might expect wider discussion.
The establishment tends to be portrayed as a kind of bland rainbow of excellence—all welcome, Jews, suburbanites, Asians, Hispanics. By the way, I don’t claim to know how Jewish the membership of the establishment is. Twenty percent, 50 percent? I’m guessing 30.
But a democracy demands some accountability of these elites."
The fundamentalist Christian Right in the US gave added strength to the Pro-Israel Jewish lobby.'...here we are, probably the most learned, most affluent, most politically powerful Jewish community in the history of the world, and we are tied in knots about who we are.
The borders of accepted speech are assiduously patrolled by self-appointed guardians of the walls. (I have a file of hate mail, letter after letter of people comparing me to a kapo, and I am far from alone in this.)
The public domain of our institutions and the popular Jewish press has been colonized by the most right-wing element of our community.
Israel is a problem for me because it claims to speak for the Jewish community, and the Jews who speak for it confound and subvert that Judaism that I love and teach—the Judaism that can contribute to creating a better and more just world."
As noted by Stephen Zunes, Chair of the Peace and Justice Studies program at the University of San Francisco in the article, "US Christian Right's Grip on Middle East Policy" : " In recent years, a politicized and right-wing Protestant fundamentalist movement has emerged as a major factor in US support for the policies of the rightist Likud government in Israel.
The Neo Cons and the Pro-Israel Lobby
The (Christian Right) fundamentalist leader Gary Bauer, for example, now receives frequent invitations to address mainstream Jewish organizations.
Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted, "We have no greater friends and allies" than right-wing American Christians."
Within the Bush administration, the neo-conservatives (neocons) are pushing the same agenda as AIPAC.
Bill Christison and Kathleen Christison wrote in "Dual Loyalties -The Bush Neocons and Israel" (Note: Bill Christison was a senior official of the CIA. and had served as a National Intelligence Officer and as Director of the CIA's Office of Regional and Political Analysis. Kathleen Christison, a former CIA political analyst.)
Read here Stephen Green's article "Serving Two Flags: Neocons, Israel and the Bush Administration" and HERE
These people, who can fairly be called Israeli loyalists, are now at all levels of government, from desk officers at the Defense Department to the deputy secretary level at both State and Defense, as well as on the National Security Council staff and in the vice president's office.
Pro-Israel activists with close links to the administration are also busy in the information arena inside and outside government.
The incestuous nature of the proliferating boards and think tanks, whose membership lists are more or less identical and totally interchangeable, is frighteningly insidious.
The dual loyalists in the Bush administration have given added impetus to the growth of a messianic strain of Christian fundamentalism that has allied itself with Israel in preparation for the so-called End of Days."
Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP)
There is another powerful Pro-Israel lobby group that acts as a Washington think-tank. It calls itself "Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP)".
Joel Beinin, a professor of history at Stanford University , wrote in "Tel Aviv's Influence on American Institutions: The Pro Sharon Think-Tank" :
Crossed the Line?
The institute's founding director, Martin Indyk, was previously Research Director of the leading pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC ).
As Indyk had been raised and educated in Australia, he had to be quickly naturalised as a US citizen in order to join the Clinton administration. Later he served as US ambassador to Israel, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, and then did a second tour as ambassador to Israel.".
While AIPAC targets Congress through the massive election campaign contributions that it coordinates and directs, WINEP concentrates on influencing the media and the executive branch. To this purpose it offers weekly lunches with guest speakers, written policy briefs, and "expert" guests for radio and television talk shows.
Since the outbreak of the current intifada, WINEP's previous "moderate" Zionist outlook has been marginalised in Israeli political discourse.
Its new political stance ensures that WINEP will have access to the Bush administration, even if its affiliates do not comprise the inner circle of Middle East policymakers as they did in the Bush Sr and Clinton days."
Has the Pro-Israel Lobby in the US crossed the line between looking after Israel's interest and endangering US national interest and American lives, notably, the lives of the men and women in the US military?
The voices of concern are getting louder. Coming in Part Two .
YOUR VIEWS ?
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