Meet Me in the AIPAC Lobby

By Mayer Amschel

 

In today’s toxic political climate, it seems that everything has to be partisan. We cannot seem to agree on anything, from how many genders there are to whether or not traps are gay (they are). According to Pew Research Center, the average political partisan gap has increased by twenty-one percentage points since 1994. Democrats and Republicans will split hairs on everything from tax reform to Civil War statues, but there is one issue that has managed to remain bipartisan through decades of polarizing presidents: the United States’ unequivocal support for Israel. Israel has been the largest recipient of U.S. foreign and economic aid since 1976, receiving over $140 billion throughout its alliance with the U.S., and continues to receives nearly 1/5th of our military budget annually. It is the only U.S. aid recipient that is not held accountable for its expenses, which becomes especially problematic when it acts against U.S. interests. We have given them top notch military weapons despite the fact that they are the only country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons (which they have conveniently not declared). The United States’ generosity towards Israel is unmatched, but is it justified?

How has Israel returned the favor? It has become our biggest liability in the War on Terror because of the myth that both the U.S. and Israel share the same terrorism interests. However, last I checked, the U.S. was not the one building illegal settlements in Palestine and Hamas was not aiming rockets at New York. Our unconditional support for Israel increases anti-Americanism in the Arab world and is a contributing factor towards terrorism against us; Israel doesn’t get attacked solely because it is an American ally. In fact, the Israelis have a history of false flag terror operations against the U.S., like the well documented Lavon affair and the sinking of the U.S.S. Liberty. The Lavon affair was a failed Israeli operation where Egyptian Jews were recruited by the Israelis to plant bombs inside civilian targets to be blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood and Egyptian Communists. The goal of this was to convince the British government to retain its troops in the Suez Canal. Luckily, that operation failed, but the sinking of the U.S.S. Liberty by the Israeli Air Force during the Six Day War resulted in the death of 34 American crew members and injured over 171 others. This was supposed to be blamed on the Egyptians to give the U.S. a reason to enter the war against Egypt, but the evidence overwhelmingly pointed towards Israel. On top of our greatest ally killing our own citizens, Israel routinely ignores requests from the U.S. to stop assassinations of Palestinian leaders and construction of illegal settlements. Out of any other ally, Israel has conducted the most aggressive espionage acts against the U.S. As recently as December 2013, Israel slyly passed over secret U.S. military technology to China. This technology had the possibility of being passed on to Iran, which bought military equipment from China the previous year. During the Cold War, Israel received large amounts of classified information which it passed on to the Soviet Union in exchange for Soviet Jews getting more exit visas.

Given the ceaseless list of reasons for why unconditional support for Israel provides no benefit, how does the the U.S. get looped into supporting foreign policy decisions that benefit only Israel? The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is one of the most powerful lobbies in Congress. Every single presidential candidate last year with the exception of Bernie Sanders pandered to AIPAC as if they were running for office in the Jewish state itself. Anyone running for office that goes against its interests can be guaranteed that AIPAC will heavily fund their opposition pro-Israel candidate. AIPAC’s severe stranglehold on Congress runs so deep that it’s not uncommon for Congress members to consult them for information before the Library of Congress. The lobby runs counter to American values and interests by silencing criticism with unwarranted labels of anti-semitism and lobbying for legislation that infringes on American’s rights’ to control their purchasing power. There are now seventeen states that have passed anti-BDS legislation condemning or outlawing these states from doing business with companies that boycott Israel. This went so far as to the city of Dickinson, Texas, where applicants for Hurricane Harvey relief funds had to put in writing that they would not participate in boycotts against Israel. Not only is this a flagrant violation of free speech rights, but also hurricane relief has nothing to do with boycotting Israel. AIPAC is essentially a foreign agent with a strong stranglehold on our government. Why does two thirds of Congress lobby on behalf of a foreign government? Would you be comfortable if Russia or Mexico or any other country had that much power over our politicians? Sure, other countries have lobbies, but none have ever been as powerful as AIPAC. If we continue to prioritize the interests of foreign nations above our own, we will never put America first.

 

References:

http://www.people-press.org/2017/10/05/the-partisan-divide-on-political-values-grows-even-wider/

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/john-mearsheimer/the-israel-lobby

https://www.defensetech.org/2013/12/24/report-israel-passes-u-s-military-technology-to-china/

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/anti-bds-legislation

https://www.aclu.org/news/texas-city-tells-people-no-hurricane-harvey-aid-unless-they-promise-not-boycott-israel