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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2002/0412/213929266FR11USISRAEL.htm
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The hawkish factions of Jewish lobby may be out of step with members
12/04/2002
THE MIDDLE EAST: The lobby's focus over the years has been to prevent the US
from staying Israel's hand, writes Patrick Smyth, Washington Correspondent
If Israel's army is the stuff that military legends are made of, its political lobby
in the
US also puts rivals in the shade, with money, manpower, and the sort of lobbying
techniques that only the likes of tobacco and the gun lobby can emulate.
Its motto might be "my country right or wrong". Its focus over the years has been to
campaign, overwhelmingly successfully, to prevent the US from staying Israel's hand.
That "hands off Israel" approach, however, is significantly more hawkish than the
views held by the US Jewish community who, even after September 11th, back both
the Oslo land-for-peace deal and US mediation between Israel and the Palestinians
by three to one, according to a recent poll. And then, there's the not insignificant
matter of money - Israel, despite its prosperity, is the US's largest recipient of
foreign
aid - $3 billion a year. The lobby makes sure no politician dares touch it.
Two groups - the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), regarded as the
most effective foreign-policy lobby in Washington, and the Conference of Presidents
of Major American Jewish Organisations (CPMAJO) - divide up the work.
AIPAC, which has an annual budget of $19.5 million, a staff of 130, and 60,000
members throughout the country, concentrates its firepower on Congress.
And, headed by the hawkish Mr Malcolm Hoenlein, a strong ally of the controversial
settler movement, and consisting of the heads of 51 Jewish organisations, the
Presidents' Conference is meant to reflect the broad spectrum of opinion among
America's 6.1 million Jews. But with each organisation, large or small, entitled to one
vote, it is easily dominated by its more extreme elements, many of them opposed to
the peace process. Though it has a staff of only six and an annual budget of less
than a million dollars, Mr Hoenlein, who focuses his energies on the administration,
finds a ready ear in both the White House and the State Department.
He dismisses complaints within the US Jewish community that he is closer to the
Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, than the more dovish Labour Party.
"People have said we're too close to Rabin, to Barak, to Sharon, to Bibi. But we have
to be in the centre," he insists. "I was and am close to Al Gore and the Clintons, but
I've formed a real relation with George Bush, too." But Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the
president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and a prominent dove,
maintains that the conference "has been much more outspoken and forceful in
supporting governments of the right than those of the left".
Mr Hoenlein's sway has been reinforced by the stream of deeply conservative
chairmen the organisation has elected over the years.
That is also true of the leadership of AIPAC with which the conference works closely,
and whose wealthy board members mostly have political views well to the right of
their members.
It is the ability of this group to raise cash for politicians that ensures they are
listened
to - contributing substantially is a qualification for office in AIPAC. Between 1997
and
2001, the 46 members of AIPAC's board together gave well in excess of $3 million to
politicians.
The Centre for Responsive Politics estimates that the pro-Israeli lobby contributed as
much as $6.5 million to candidates in the 2000 election cycle. While the Democrats
got two thirds of that, many of the bigger spenders were staunch Republicans.
And although the first Jewish candidate for the vice-presidency, Mr Joe Lieberman,
picked up $231,000 of that, Mr Bush netted some $131,000.
"In all, hundreds of members on both sides of the aisle receive substantial pro-Israel
contributions. This giving packs all the more punch because of the lack of a
counterweight by pro-Arab and pro-Muslim groups," writer Michael Massing argued
recently in Prospect.
Most of the time AIPAC works to ensure there is no daylight between the two
governments, but sometimes it has even defied Tel Aviv to push more hawkish
stances.
� The Irish Times
End<{{{
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