Dear editors/ members,
Assalamu Alaikum. Pleaser read / publish this article on dispropottionate
influence of Jewish lobby and future policy directions of US politics and
society. We should keep this hard fact in view.
Shah Abdul Hannan
----- Original Message -----
From: Omer Totonji
To: Omer Totonji
Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2007 9:40 AM
Subject: Fwd: The Economist: The Big Leviathan:The American Israel Public
Affairs Committee
Subject: Fwd: The Economist: The Big Leviathan:The American Israel Public
Affairs Committee
>
Taming Leviathan
Mar 15th 2007
From The Economist print edition
Kevin Kallaugher
These are both the best of times and the worst of times for the
American-Jewish lobby
THIS week saw yet another reminder of the awesome power of "the lobby". The
American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) brought more than 6,000
activists to Washington for its annual policy conference. And they proceeded to
live up to their critics' darkest fears.
They heard from the four most powerful people on Capitol Hill-Nancy Pelosi
and John Boehner from the House, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell from the
Senate-as well as the vice-president (who called his talk "The United States
and Israel: United We Stand") and sundry other power-brokers. Several
first-division presidential candidates held receptions.
The display of muscle was almost equalled by the display of unnerving
efficiency. There were booths for "congressional check-in", booths for
"delegate banquet troubleshooting", and booths full of helpful young people.
The only discordant note was sounded by a group of a dozen protesters-Orthodox
Jews in beards, side-curls and heavy black coats-holding up signs saying "Stop
AIPAC", "Torah forbids Jews dictating foreign policy", and "Judaism rejects the
state of Israel".
The lobbyists had every reason to feel proud of their work. Congress has
more Jewish members than ever before: 30 in the House and a remarkable 13 in
the Senate. (There are now more Jews in Congress than Episcopalians.) Both
parties are competing with each other to be the "soundest" on Israel. About
two-thirds of Americans hold a favourable view of the place.
Yet they have reason to feel a bit nervous, too. The Iraq debacle has
produced a fierce backlash against pro-war hawks, of which AIPAC was certainly
one. It has also encouraged serious people to ask awkward questions about
America's alliance with Israel. And a growing number of people want to push
against AIPAC. One pressure group, the Council for the National Interest-run by
two retired congressmen, Paul Findley, a Republican, and James Abourezk, a
Democrat-even bills itself as the anti-AIPAC. The Leviathan may be mightier
than ever, but there are more and more Captain Ahabs trying to get their
harpoons in.
Some of the most determined are Arab-Americans, who have been growing in
numbers and influence for years-there are probably about 3.5m of them-and who
have been in the eye of a political storm since September 11th 2001. They are a
growing political force in northern Ohio and Michigan, and their institutions,
such as the Arab American Institute and the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR), have plenty of access to Middle Eastern money.
But so far their performance has been unimpressive. James Zogby has been
promising a breakthrough for his Arab American Institute for 20 years. CAIR
remains marginal. Arab-Americans are badly split between Christians (63%) and
Muslims (24%). They have also been late in taking to politics. Between 1990 and
2004 Arab-Americans donated $788,968 to candidates and parties, compared with
$56.8m from pro-Israeli groups.
AIPAC's ace in the hole is the idea that it represents Jewish interests in
a country that is generally philo-Semitic. But liberal Jewish groups retort
that it represents only a sliver of Jewish opinion. A number of more liberal
groups have started to use their political muscle-groups such as the Religious
Action Centre of Reform Judaism, Americans for Peace Now and the Israel Policy
Forum. These groups scored a significant victory over AIPAC by persuading
Congress to water down a particularly uncompromising bit of legislation, the
Palestinian Anti-terrorism Act, which would have prevented any American contact
with the Palestinian leadership. This accomplishment led to a flurry of
speculation that George Soros might try to institutionalise this successful
alliance by creating a liberal version of AIPAC.
It has yet to materialise. And it is doubtful whether Mr Soros, a left-wing
Democrat who has little sympathy with Israel, would be the best patron for such
an organisation. But the growing activism of liberal Jewish groups underlines a
worrying fact for AIPAC: most Jews are fairly left-wing. Fully 77% of them
think that the Iraq war was a mistake compared with 52% of all Americans.
Eighty-seven per cent of Jews voted for the Democrats in 2006, and all but four
of the Jews in Congress are Democrats.
Dissenting voices
An even bigger threat to AIPAC comes from the general climate of opinion.
It is suddenly becoming possible for serious people-politicians and
policymakers as well as academics-to ask hard questions about America's
relationship with Israel. Is America pursuing its own interests in the Middle
East, or Israel's? Should America tie itself so closely to the Israeli
government's policies or should it forge other alliances?
Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former national security adviser, worries that
America is seen in the Middle East as "acting increasingly on behalf of
Israel". Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, has compared the situation
in Palestine to segregation, and argued that there could "be no greater legacy
for America than to help bring into being a Palestinian state". Philip Zelikow,
her former counsellor, argues, in diplomatic language, that the only way to
create a viable coalition against terrorists that includes Europeans, moderate
Arabs and Israelis, is a "sense that Arab-Israeli issues are being addressed".
The biggest challenge facing AIPAC is how to deal with this changing
climate. Its members have been admirably honest about their mission in life.
They boast about passing more than a hundred bits of pro-Israel legislation a
year. But they are too willing to close down the debate with explosive charges
of anti-Israel bias when people ask whether this is a good thing. America needs
an open debate about its role in the Middle East-and AIPAC needs to take a
positive role in that debate if it is to remain such a mighty force in American
politics.
Copyright © 2007 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All
rights reserved.
http://www.economist.com/world/na/displayStory.cfm?story_id=8861497&fsrc=nwlptwfree
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
TV dinner still cooling?
Check out "Tonight's Picks" on Yahoo! TV.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We won't tell. Get more on shows you hate to love
(and love to hate): Yahoo! TV's Guilty Pleasures list.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We won't tell. Get more on shows you hate to love
(and love to hate): Yahoo! TV's Guilty Pleasures list.
