Reply #7: I disagree. My understanding of AIPAC is not that it is a single... [View All]

[Poll_Blind]

...monolithic slab which can either be toppled or stand tall. AIPAC is more like a flock of birds, or a school of fish- it is the titular head of at least 100 sub-organizations all working together, all flying or swimming generally in the same direction. Moreso, the worst of AIPAC's behavior is least-represented, in my opinion, by those organizations, local American Jewish organizations working as constituents to promote as positive a relationship as is legally possible. There is nothing illegal in this model- the role of constituents in affecting governmental decisions is a powerful tool of the people.

  But while the above describes the majority of AIPAC, physically, as an organization there is another part of AIPAC which is far more important and which leverages the constituency which AIPAC is directly in touch with: the communications directly between the Israeli government (usually via the Israeli embassy) and AIPAC. This allows Israel to communicate directly to American constituents the Israeli "needs" so that the American constituents can directly press their representatives on the matter. Here is an actual example of such explicit messages received from American Jewish constituents, from Holocaust II?: Saving Israel from Suicide, containing excerpted portions of They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel's Lobby (italicized to differentiate):

In advance of Carter's decisions ot provide a high technology missile to Israel, a procession of Jewish groups came, one after another to say:

Please explain to us why the Pentagon is refusing to sell AIM 9-L missiles to Israel. Don't you know what this means? This missile is necessary so the Israelis will be able to shoot down the counterpart missile on the Mig 21 which carries the Eight Ball 935.

A former high-ranking official in security affairs cites the intimidating effect of this procession on career specialists:

When you have to explain your position day after day, week after week, to American Jewish groups- first, say, from Kansas City, then Chicago, then East Overshoe- you see what you are up against. These are people from different parts of the country, but they come in with the very same information, the same set of questions, the same criticism.

  They know what you have done even in private meetings. They will say, "Mr. Smith, we understand that in interagency meetings, you frequently take a hard line against technology transfers to Israel. We'd like you to explain yourself."

Jewish groups in turn press Capitol Hill into action:

We'll get letters from Congressmen: "We need an explanation. We're hearing from constituents that Israel's security is threatened by the refusal of the Pentagon to release the AIM 9-L missile. Please, Mr. Secretary, can you give me your rationale for the refusal?"

  AIPAC's most successful strategies are because of this direct communication with the Israeli government which, as you can see above, are able to feed AIPAC and its sub-organizations exactly what is needed so that the constituents can place pressure where appropriate.

  If AIPAC were to suffer some great political catastrophe and lose all credibility it would not affect the sub-organizations of constituents which actually, fiber by fiber, compose AIPAC's muscle. While I recommend organizations like Stop AIPAC, removing AIPAC from the scene, in my final analysis, would change very little. If AIPAC were to disappear overnight, the various sub-organizations which really provide the power (the constituents) would in no-way be touched and another organization to marshall their power would be created long before AIPAC, to use an airplane analogy, crashed.

  What, in my opinion, is important to focus on is the relationship between AIPAC (or whatever successor organizations spring up, should it lose political clout as an organization) and the Israeli government. There are arguable cases of AIPAC influence (again directed and initiated at the behest of the Israeli government) which are detrimental to the United States in a very real and measurable way. Again, from Holocaust II?: Saving Israel from Suicide:

The Lobby and the Jackson-Vanik Amendment

  It is also impossible to estimate the full damage to the American farm economy and long-term effects on the U.S. balance of trade by the passage, in 1974, of the so-called Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the 1974 Trade Act, which was sponsored by the Israeli partisans in Congress and pushed through by the Israeli Lobby.
  This law cut off Russians from Export-Import Bank financing and denied the most favored nation tariff treatment until emigration for Russian Jews was made easier and substantially increased in numbers.
  The Soviets reacted by sharply reducing the number of Jews allowed to leave and simply bought their wheat and other agricultural products from other countries.
  Nobody explained to the American farmer why he could not sell his wheat, or why the American taxpayer had to buy his surplus from him and store it at an enormous cost, or how this is related in any way to how many Jews emigrate from the Soviet Union."

  Examination of the influence of a foreign nation on American constituents to pursuede representatives to create legislation which is favorable to that foreign nation while detrimental to other American constituents is something ripe for further exploration and long overdue.

PB