The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference begins on March 2.
By Philip Giraldi
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/is-aipac-doomed/#.UxOKn4XEAjx
The American Israel
Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference begins on March 2
and will conclude with an address by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu on March 4. The organizers boast that the meeting of
"America's Pro-Israel Lobby" will attract "more than 14,000 pro-Israel
Americans, more than two-thirds of Congress, [and] more than 2,200
students from 491 campuses".
There will be speeches by Senator John McCain and by Secretary of State John Kerry.
As part of the group's
lobbying effort, the attendees will descend en masse on the Capitol
Hill offices of Senators and Congressmen, delivering the message that
AIPAC is alive and well in spite of some recent very public setbacks.
They will demand that
the United States continue to pressure Iran with new sanctions even as
the White House is searching for a way to avoid another potentially
catastrophic war in the Middle East.
They will argue that
Iran is a danger to the entire world and must be reduced to a level
where it cannot even contemplate either offensive or retaliatory
defensive action against Israel, to include the dismantling of its
nuclear program and destruction of its ballistic missiles with a range
exceeding 500 km.
AIPAC will claim record
levels of fundraising and grassroots support. Indeed, its endowment
totals $100m, its annual budget is nearly $70m and it has more than 200
employees, making it the most powerful and best funded foreign policy
lobby in the US. But largely invisible amid the self-congratulating and
lobbying process will be any sense of what the actual US vital
interests might be vis-a-vis Israel.
The powerful Israel
lobby, of which AIPAC is a part, has long argued that the foreign
policy and security interests of Washington and Tel Aviv are identical,
or to use the currently fashionable expressions, there is no space
between the two and the US will always "have Israel's back".
A Tiny Client State
Washington's political
class has wholeheartedly and uncritically adopted both the
Israel-centric jargon and also Tel Aviv's skewed perceptions of Middle
Eastern realities, producing the unique spectacle of a great global
power doing everything possible to placate a tiny client state.
Pandering to Israel will be on full display at the AIPAC conference.
But amid all the
celebration AIPAC's leadership knows that it can no longer produce a
napkin and have the signatures of 70 senators on it within a day. Nor
does its steady flow of "information memos" sent to the legislature and
the media command the same respect they once did.
Recent US engagement in
Iraq, Libya, and Egypt, all supported by Israel and its supporters for
various reasons, are increasingly being regarded as in no way
beneficial to the US, quite the contrary.
AIPAC can no longer
draft legislation favorable to Israel, send it over to Congress and
expect a finished bill to emerge, passed with a unanimous vote. It has
suffered major defeats through its open support for bombing Syria and
for legislation increasing sanctions on Iran, the former opposed
overwhelmingly by an aroused war-weary public and the latter stalled in
a suddenly nervous Congress.
AIPAC also opposed the
appointment of Chuck Hagel as Defense Secretary due to his alleged
"anti-Israel record", though it did not do so openly and only lobbied
the issue quietly on Capitol Hill. It was, nevertheless, a defeat.
Even The New York Times
is taking note that AIPAC is now very much on the defensive, forcing it
to respond to the Times commentary with an op-ed of its own defending
its position on Iran, an uncharacteristic move for a group that is
accustomed to operate in the shadows.
The rift has come about
because reality and illusion have parted company. The reality is that
the US cannot afford another war in the Middle East, either financially
or in terms of the unintended consequences that wrecked the Iraqi and
Afghan interventions.
It has only one
compelling vital interest in the region and that is to keep energy
resources flowing and a war with Iran would instead deliver a shock to a
world economy that is still in recovery. Against that is the illusion
that Israel is some kind of strategic asset or global partner for the
US.
Apart from the pressure
being exerted by groups like AIPAC, Americans are becoming increasingly
aware that Washington has no compelling reason to sacrifice its own
interests to sustain the freedom for Israel to behave as it wishes.
Nor does it have any
justification to protect it from its neighbors, any more than it has a
responsibility to do so for any other country in the Middle East. And
there is a growing understanding that the lopsided relationship, not
only hugely expensive in dollar terms, motivates terrorist groups like
al-Qaeda to attack Americans.
This is not to say that
the US cannot play a positive role and act in support of the best
interests of all its friends in the Middle East, which it would
accomplish by becoming genuinely an honest broker with a demonstrated
interest in regional stability rather than in regime change.
AIPAC's tunnel vision
only permits it to see one "closest ally" and that must be Israel.
Every other country is therefore reduced to a second rate player whose
interests must coincide with those of Tel Aviv or be disregarded.
Wrong Side of History
The persistence of the
AIPAC argument, which also idealizes Israel's rather flawed and corrupt
democracy to help make its case for a "special relationship", has done
grave damage to US interests throughout the Muslim world. As has
sometimes been noted, Washington had no enemies in the post-colonial
Middle East before Israel was founded in 1948. Now it has few friends.
Washington's close
embrace with Tel Aviv has been fostered by a mainstream media unwilling
to be too critical of Israel's actions. But this long established
unanimity of viewpoint involving both media and its symbiotic punditry
is beginning to erode as alternative sources of information continue to
proliferate, which is why the leadership of AIPAC must seriously be
concerned.
The shift in opinion is
both permanent and growing in magnitude, including numerous younger
Jews and Jewish liberals who have been speaking out to tell AIPAC that
it does not speak for them, particularly given its record of uncritical
support for increasingly hard line Israeli governments.
A better informed
American public increasingly averse to foreign military adventures is
becoming aware that issues formerly seen in Manichean terms are
actually a good deal more complicated and then there is the experience
factor. Recent US engagement in Iraq, Libya, and Egypt, all supported
by Israel and its supporters for various reasons, are increasingly
being regarded as in no way beneficial to the US, quite the contrary.
This explains the lack
of fervour for a repeat performance in Syria or against Iran. It also
means that AIPAC has found itself on the wrong side of history in terms
of the desires of the American people, surely not a good place to be
for a Washington lobby.
- Philip Giraldi is a
former military intelligence and Central Intelligence Agency officer
who has worked on counter-terrorism in Europe and the Middle East. He
is currently Executive Director of the Council for the National
Interest and is a regular contributor to a number of websites and
magazines. (This article was first published in Al Jazeera - www.aljazeera.com)
John out is Cohen and him as Secretary of State is his name obviously he's a Priest of the Serphant see the video for revelation and resurrection of our sanity!
ReplyDeleteCult of the Metzitzah b'peh AIPAC meets again. Should America be a Century 21 Consciousness then no more Apartheid Genocidal Agenda to do what IT has done and does and won't stop so we stop IT now.
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