I was re-reading my last post about ‘peace in the middle east’ and in doing so I realized that in order to attempt peace across the ocean we need to open our eyes on the home front — and moreover who is really at the helm of our government.

A Brief History…

AIPAC was founded in the 1950’s by Isaiah L. “Si” Kenen, and was originally known as the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs. The AIPAC we know today was formed due to alleged “friction” between the Eisenhower administration and the AZCPA. In Kenen’s book, describing the early history of AIPAC, Kenen wrote that AIPAC’s Executive Committee decided to change their name to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee “to enlarge constituency and support.”
The current President of AIPAC is David Victor, from Detroit, Michigan. AIPAC, as an independent, not-for-profit entity, is entirely funded through contributions from its members (more on this later).

AIPAC’s Goals…

AIPAC lobbies for financial aid from the United States to Israel, helping to procure up to three billion in aid yearly. This is substantial when you realize that Israel is now “the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since World War II.” In addition, the result of AIPAC’s ‘effective’ lobbying includes numerous exceptional provisions that are not available to other American allies. Some of these include: providing aid as “all grant cash transfers, not designated for particular projects, and… transferred as a lump sum in the first month of the fiscal year, instead of in periodic increments. Israel is also allowed to spend about one quarter of the military aid for the procurement of defense articles and services, including R&D, in Israel rather than in the United States.”
[Congressional Research Service]

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, which is highly critical of American support for Israel, has estimated total aid since 1949 at approximately $108 billion. If thats not scary to you it should be — its your money!

AIPAC’s aims also include pressuring the Palestinian Authority to adhere to its commitments to fight terrorism and incitement against the state of Israel, strengthening “bilateral relations” through shared intelligence and foreign military and economic aid to Israel, condemning the actions of the Iranian government in pursuing nuclear status and questioning the HOlocaust, and levying financial restrictions in order to hinder Iran’s nuclear development.

Who Supports AIPAC?

Pretty much everyone who’s in power because theres two options when it comes to AIPAC in the political area, play ball or brace yourself for a substantial political bashing. On a more factual note — AIPAC has widespread support both inside and outside of Congress. Within congress you will find support with the majority of members in both the Democratic & Republican parties. “AIPAC’s 2002 annual conference included 50 senators, 190 representatives, and more than a dozen senior administration officials.” [American Prospect]

In addition, many political leaders have addressed AIPAC conferences, including Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama & Bill Clinton, Vice Presidents Dick Cheney and Joe Biden, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Other influential peoples include John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, John McCain, as well as current and former members of the leadership of both parties in Congress, and current/former Prime Ministers of Israel.

Power Structure…

AIPAC’s power structure is similar to that of a major corporation in many ways — there are Presidents, Executive Committee members, Executive directors, Board members, & Officers. Where it gets interesting is when you start to look at who some of these members are and the political or economical clout they hold in the U.S. system.

Some notable members include:

Neal M. Sher, (former executive director of AIPAC), who was the former head of the Office of Special Investigations.

Thomas Dine (Executive Director AIPAC 1980-1993), worked as a foreign policy staff member in the U.S. Senate (70-80), was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and held three fellowships at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government as well as serving in the American Embassy in New Delhi, India.

Morris “Morrie” J. Amitay (Executive Director AIPAC), worked for one year in the U.S House of Representatives and five years as a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate, where he “took a lead role in organizing congressional initiatives affecting Israel.”

Steve Grossman (President AIPAC), was the President of Grossman Marketing Group, a family-owned marketing company and acted as Chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party and was nominated National Chairman of the Democratic National Committee (97-99’).

Daniel Abraham (Board Member AIPAC), frequently included in Forbes 400 list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, and is notable for his introduction of the Slim-Fast beverage in the late 70s. Has a net worth of 1.4B dollars. Abraham has been a long time donor to the Democratic Party as well as the Clinton Foundation, giving $1.5M to the party and ranked as the number one contributor of soft money t the national parties in 2000. He also wrote the book “Peace is Possible,” with a foreword by President Bill Clinton.

Rudy Boshwitz (Board Member AIPAC), former Independent-Republican U.S. Senator from Minnesota. Served in the Senate from December of 1978 to 1991.

And the list goes on and on….

Are there any Critics?

The answer is — Yes, but not many. The best-known critical work on AIPAC is The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy written by University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer and Harvard University Kennedy School of Government professor Stephen Walt. In the working paper and resulting book they accuse AIPAC of being “the most powerful and best known” component of a larger pro-Israel lobby that 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.”

This is a sentiment shared with the New York Times, who described AIPAC on July of 87‘ as “a major force in shaping United States policy in the Middle East.” And in 97‘ Fortune magazine, who named AIPAC the second-most powerful influence group in Washington, D.C.

But the list of AIPAC dissenters is a short one — and with good reason. They’ve got a hit list a mile long and have no qualms about ostracizing you politically or socially. They’ve been known to fund campaigns against anyone who won’t play ball.

Whats the point?

Its simple really — the fact that AIPAC has its hands in almost every monetary & political cookie jar in the U.S. should be, at the very least, frightening; & the continuation of settlement building, bloodshed, and perpetuation of the Zionist agenda, on our tab, should make your blood boil. Israel is the foreign policy blunder from which we have never recovered, and has dictated our policy in the Mid East for decades (in the wrong direction I might add).

However, this isn’t about the 3+ billion dollars in aid we give to them yearly, thats merely a fraction of the fear that AIPAC should illicit from Americans. The real problem is corruption on the domestic political playing field. The fact that AIPAC has been federally investigated for buying U.S. intelligence, and planting spies in our agencies to further their  anti-arab agenda is atrocious. Not to mention AIPAC has been top dog in the lobbying game of buying Congressmen as well as other politically influential individuals, and as such, has become a scary political power monopoly.

Yet, its not just our men and women of Congress that sell out to the anachronistic and jaded ideals of Israel — but our corporations as well. Starbucks, Huggies, and Slimfast all give considerable amounts of money to AIPAC, just to name a few.

Is there a solution?

This goes back to my earlier post about how to create peace in the Middle East; in order to fight this war on “terror” “effectively” we  need to focus on the home front first. That means standing by our Constitution with a matched tenacity akin to that of our forefathers. We the people of the United States of America need to stand together as a united, well-informed, and organized group against the tides of not only domestic political corruption but also, international corruption. That means no more occupied territories, no more militaristic menacing, and no more economic wrist slaps to nations that seek international autonomy. For it is not only our Constitutional right to rise up against a puppet government, but our duty as American citizens. Couldn’t the world be a better place with a little less corruption and a little more co-operation?