American Israel Public Affairs Committee

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The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a special interest group that lobbies the United States Congress and excecutive branch in favor of maintaining a close US-Israel relationship. Describing itself as "America's Pro-Israel Lobby," it is a mass-membership organization including both Jews and non-Jews. AIPAC was formed during the Eisenhower administration, and since then has helped secure American aid and support to Israel. In 1997, Fortune magazine asked Congressmen to rank the "25 most powerful" lobbying organizations in DC. In 2005, the National Journal did the same. Both times, AIPAC came in 2nd - ahead of, for instance, the AFL-CIO and the NRA, but behind the AARP. In 2001, it came in 4th on the Fortune list, cementing its reputation for effectiveness.

1 History
2 Activities and stated goals
3 AIPAC's views of its strengths and achievements
4 Successes
5 Controversies
- 5.1 Espionage allegations
6 Supporters
7 Critics
8 References
9 See also
10 External links

[edit] History

Founded in 1953 by Isaiah L. "Si" Kenen, AIPAC's original name was the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs. According to UCLA political science professor and author, Steven Spiegel, "the tension between the Eisenhower administration and Israeli supporters was so acute that there were rumors (unfounded as it turned out) that the administration would investigate the American Zionist Council. Therefore, an independent lobbying committee was formed, which years later was renamed [AIPAC]." [SPIEGEL, p. 52].^{[citation needed]} Today, AIPAC has over 100,000 members.[4]

[edit] Activities and stated goals

AIPAC's stated purpose is to lobby the Congress of the United States on issues and legislation "to ensure that the U.S.-Israel relationship is strong so that both countries can work together" to meet the challenges of "stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, fighting terrorism and achieving peace".[5] It regularly meets with members of Congress and holds events where it can share its views. It also provides analysis of the voting records of U.S. federal representatives and senators with regard to how they voted on legislation related to Israel. AIPAC has been effective in gaining support for Israel among members of Congress and White House administrations.

The New York Times described AIPAC on July 6, 1987 as "a major force in shaping United States policy in the Middle East." The article also stated that: "The organization has gained power to influence a presidential candidate's choice of staff, to block practically any arms sale to an Arab country, and to serve as a catalyst for intimate military relations between The Pentagon and the Israeli army. Its leading officials are consulted by State Department and White House policy makers, by senators and generals."^[1]

[edit] AIPAC's views of its strengths and achievements

AIPAC claims its strengths lie in its national membership base and great research capacity to understand both Israel's interest and the interests of other countries affecting US-Israel relationship around the world. Some of the achievements it claims^[2] include:

Isolating Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad by advocating that the Administration place these groups on a more restrictive terrorist list, allowing the United States to sanction foreign financial institutions if they fail to block the organizations’ assets.
Disrupting Hamas financing by urging the US Presidential Administration to freeze the assets of the U.S.-based Holy Land Foundation, which has been accused of funneling money to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization by the US and Israel.
Defending Israel from bomb attacks by securing $28 million for Israel to purchase American technology, including robots and scanners, designed to detect and neutralize bombs.

[edit] Successes

AIPAC advises members of Congress about the issues that face today's Middle East, including the dangers of extremism and terrorism. It was an early supporter of the Counter-Terrorism Act of 1995, which resulted in increased FBI resources being committed to fight terrorism, as well as expanded federal jurisdiction in prosecuting criminal activities related to terrorism.

AIPAC also supported the funding of a number of Israeli military projects that have resulted in many new additions to the arsenal of America's Armed Services. The Arrow anti-missile system is now the most advanced working anti-ballistic missile system in the world.

AIPAC lobbies for financial aid from the United States to Israel, helping to procure nearly $3 billion in aid^[2] with total aid since 1949 estimated at about $108 billion.^[3]

[edit] Controversies

AIPAC has been connected to some controversial events.

In 1992, AIPAC president David Steiner had to resign when he was tape recorded boasting about his political influence in obtaining aid for Israel. Steiner claimed that he had "met with [Bush's U.S. 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." Steiner also claimed to be "negotiating" with the incoming Clinton administration over who Clinton would appoint as Secretary of State and Secretary of the National Security Agency. Steiner stated that AIPAC had "a dozen people in [the Clinton] campaign, in the headquarters ... in Little Rock, and they're all going to get big jobs."^[4]

Haim Katz told the Washington Times that he taped the conversation because "as someone Jewish, I am concerned when a small group has a disproportionate power. I think that hurts everyone, including Jews. If David Steiner wants to talk about the incredible, disproportionate clout AIPAC has, the public should know about it."^[5]

[edit] Espionage allegations

Main article: Lawrence Franklin espionage scandal

In May 2005, the Justice Department announced that Lawrence Anthony Franklin, a U.S. Air Force Reserves colonel working as a Department of Defense analyst at the Pentagon in the office of Douglas Feith, had been arrested and charged by the FBI with providing classified national defense information to Israel. The six-count criminal complaint did not identify AIPAC by name, but described a luncheon meeting in which, allegedly, Franklin disclosed top-secret information to two AIPAC officials.^[6]
In April 2005, AIPAC policy director Steven Rosen and AIPAC senior Iran analyst Keith Weissman were fired by AIPAC amid an FBI investigation into whether they passed classified U.S. information received from Franklin on to the government of Israel. They were later indicted for illegally conspiring to gather and disclose classified national security information to Israel.^[7]
Lawrence Anthony Franklin pleaded guilty to passing government secrets to Rosen and Weissman and revealed for the first time that he also gave classified information directly to an Israeli government official in Washington. On January 20, 2006, he was sentenced to 151 months (almost 13 years) in prison and fined $10,000. As part of the plea agreement, Franklin agreed to cooperate in the larger federal investigation.^[8] Rosen and Weissman are still awaiting trial, currently scheduled for June 4, 2007.

[edit] Supporters

AIPAC has a wide base of supporters both in and outside of Congress. Support among congressional members includes a majority of members of both the Democratic and Republican Parties. According to American Prospect magazine, "AIPAC’s 2002 annual conference included 50 senators, 90 representatives, and more than a dozen senior administration officials."^[6] One supporter, Pennsylvania State Representative Mark B. Cohen of Philadelphia (a delegate to the 2004 AIPAC national convention in Washington, D.C.) said: "AIPAC plays valuable roles in expanding the pro-Israel communities in the United States, and in putting them in touch with those who influence the direction of American foreign policy. AIPAC is a diverse, broad-based organization which seeks to synthesize the views of its backers with objective information to pursue the advocacy of policies that benefit both the United States and Israel. No organization can better articulate the American interests in a strong U.S.-Israel military alliance than AIPAC can."^{[citation needed]}

President George W. Bush, addressing AIPAC members in Washington on May 18, 2004, stated: "AIPAC is doing important work. ... In Washington and beyond, AIPAC is calling attention to the great security challenges of our time. You're educating Congress and the American people on the growing dangers of proliferation. You've spoken out on the threat posed by Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. 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. ... These ties have made us natural allies, and these ties will never be broken."^[9]

Vice President Dick Cheney addressed AIPAC members in Washington on March 12, 2007, stating: "We find unity and strength in the values of liberty and equality and our belief in democracy and the rule of law and in our devotion to the security of America's friend, the state of Israel. As members of AIPAC, you play a vital role in making the strategic and moral case for America's friendship with Israel. I commend AIPAC for the fine work you do ... I stand here today as a strong supporter of Israel and Israel has never had a better friend in the White House than George Bush."^[10]

AIPAC has attracted many political leaders to address their conferences. Among them are current President George W. Bush, former President Bill Clinton, Vice President Dick Cheney, Senators John McCain, Evan Bayh, Susan Collins, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Former Senator John Edwards, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, House Minority Leader John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Republican Whip Roy Blunt, former speakers of the House Dennis Hastert and Newt Gingrich. It has also included former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.^{[citation needed]} Several other Congressmen and politicians, such as Barack Obama and Chuck Schumer, have attended conferences hosted by AIPAC.

In a 2007 bestseller, "Power, Faith, and Fantasy", historian Michael Oren argued that strong American support for a Jewish state derives from Puritan-Republican roots of the United States itself. Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) ridicules suggestions that Israel's supporters control American policy in the Middle East. Instead, he says, America supports Israel because they share fundamental values. "Americans are just solid, rock-solid with the people of Israel. It is a democratic nation and a freedom-loving people and a very decent people and they deserve to have a free and secure state."^[11] Nancy Pelosi similarly states that "America and Israel share an unbreakable bond: in peace and war; and in prosperity and in hardship."^[12]

[edit] Critics

AIPAC also has critics in the U.S. Congress, including United States Representative Betty McCollum of Minnesota, United States Representative Dave Obey of Wisconsin, former United States Representative Paul Findley of Illinois, and former United States Representative Cynthia McKinney of Georgia. Journalist Alexander Cockburn of CounterPunch and McKinney claim that AIPAC was instrumental in helping to defeat Congressional candidates that AIPAC deemed unfriendly to Israel, including former Representative McKinney of Georgia (after her first term as a Representative) and former Representative Earl F. Hilliard of Alabama.^[13]^[14]^[15]^[16]^[17]^[18]

In 2006, the New York Review of Books published a letter from Representative Betty McCollum to AIPAC executive director Howard Kohr. In the letter, McCollum demands an apology for an AIPAC lobbyist's comment that "Congresswoman McCollum's support for terrorists will not be tolerated." McCollum states that AIPAC representatives will not be allowed in her office until she receives a written apology for the comment. The incident arose after Representative McCollum voted against H.R. 4681 (Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006) [6].^[19] The Washington Post reported that Representative Dave Obey, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, stated that AIPAC has "'pushed the Likud Party line and in the process has crowded out other voices in the Jewish community,' especially those pressing for withdrawal from West Bank settlements as a concession in the peace process."^[20]^[14]^[21]^[22]^[23]^[24]

For critics, the relationship between AIPAC and the Israeli government raises other concerns. The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA),^[25] requires those who receive funds or act on behalf of a foreign government to register. AIPAC is a registered American lobbying group, and maintains that no funds or directions are received from the State of Israel. Past critics, such as former Senator William Fulbright and former senior CIA official Victor Marchetti, contended that AIPAC should have registered. The recent Lawrence Franklin espionage scandal has increased attention to FARA's possible applicability to AIPAC.^[26]

Hedrick Smith claimed in his book The Power Game: How Washington Works that AIPAC had become a superlobby: "[It] gained so much political muscle that by 1985 AIPAC and its allies could force President Reagan to renege on an arms deal he had promised to [Jordan's] King Hussein. By 1986, the pro-Israel lobby could stop Reagan from making another jet fighter deal with Saudi Arabia, and Secretary of State George Shultz had to sit down with AIPAC's executive director -- not Congressional leaders -- to find out what level of arms sales to the Saudis AIPAC would tolerate".

In their 2006 working paper The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer and Harvard University Kennedy School of Government professor Stephen Walt accuse AIPAC of being "the most powerful and best known" component of a larger pro-Israel lobby that, they say, distorts American foreign policy. They write: "AIPAC's success is due to its ability to reward legislators and congressional candidates who support its agenda, and to punish those who challenge it. ... AIPAC makes sure that its friends get strong financial support from the myriad pro-Israel PACs. Those seen as hostile to Israel, on the other hand, can be sure that AIPAC will direct campaign contributions to their political opponents. ... The bottom line is that AIPAC, which is a de facto agent for a foreign government, has a stranglehold on the U.S. Congress. Open debate about U.S. policy towards Israel does not occur there, even though that policy has important consequences for the entire world."^[27] Michael Massing discusses the controversy over Mearsheimer and Walt's paper in his essay "The Storm over the Israel Lobby" in The New York Review of Books.^[28] Former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the article was "highly overstated", and U.S. ambassador/chief Middle East peace negotiator Dennis Ross stated: "Mearsheimer and Walt should know better."^[29]^[30]

The Economist magazine claimed AIPAC's political power is one of the main reasons for America's support of Israel. "Why is America so much more pro-Israeli than Europe? The most obvious answer lies in the power of two very visible political forces: the Israeli lobby (AIPAC) and the religious right."^[31] The Economist also says that AIPAC's claim to represent Jewish opinion in the US is not without question, and that AIPAC is often too willing to "close down the debate with explosive charges of anti-Israel bias" when people question whether AIPAC's "passing more than a hundred bits of pro-Israel legislation a year" "is a good thing."^[32]