A powerful force in American politics

In 1789, two years after the United States Constitution had been proclaimed, one of the founders of the US, Benjamin Franklin, warned the nobility of the Constituent Council when he said: "Don't think that America is safe from threats by merely gaining independence. It is still exposed to a grave danger that is no less perilous than colonialism itself. This threat will emerge this time from the Jewish augmentation in our country, and we will subsequently be affected in the same way the European countries were, namely those which tolerated the Jews in their endeavour to undermine the traditions of the indigenous population, demoralise their youths, control their economic, financial and security institution, and who had refused intermingling with the people they were living among."

Does present-day America now look like the one predicted by Franklin? Have the Jews there held their grip on the US media and economic agencies? Are the two houses of the Congress, with their Democrat and Republican components, mere retainers and executives of policies worked out by the Jewish lobby groups, especially the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)?

From March 11-13, Washington hosted AIPAC's annual conference. It's the most powerful pro-Israel lobby in the US, particularly with regard to US foreign policy.

Over the past 50 years, AIPAC had an intense and powerful presence in Congress, to establish strategic relations between the US and Israel. Top political leaders' and Congress members' keen attendance of AIPAC's conferences is evident manifestation of their support to the organisation and Israel alike.

Howard Friedman, Chairman of the 100,000-member AIPAC, proudly said at the inception of the conference that "this week is the most important of the year for Israel's proponents. We come to Washington to ensure that our voice gets its way to Congress".

Significance

George W. Bush is the US president who most frequently attended AIPAC conferences. But Bush's absence from this year's conference didn't, however, belittle the significance of the dignatories who dashed to the conference in response to AIPAC's letter of invitation.

They included Vice-President Dick Cheney, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama (who adjusted his previous statement that no people in the world were suffering as much as the Palestinian people, by adding "and the Israeli people, too"), leaders of the majority in both houses, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee at the House of Representatives and leaders of Republican party.

Some 6,000 activists participated in the conference, apart from a number of scholars and experts on Middle East affairs. A glance at topics discussed at its seminars shows how powerful and influential the AIPAC is in the US foreign policy.

All the conference deliberations were concerned with and focused on Israel's security against any threat. As the conference adjourned, a crowd of its participants headed to Capitol Hill to discuss with the respective committees of both houses America's policies in the Middle East, and ways of strengthening relations between Israel and the US.

AIPAC is one of the top five most powerful lobbies in Washington, and one of the largest centres of political influence in the US. The limitless material on its website asserts it is there to protect Israel. In factual terms, it states that it makes about 2,000 interviews per year with US congressmen, which usually result in 100 pro-Israel acts.

Military cooperation

An expressive remark on the kind of political clout AIPAC has was made in last year's general assembly by former to vice-presidential candidate John Edwards.

He said: "We should deepen our economic ties and strengthen our military cooperation to keep Israel superior in absolute terms. This means we need to reinforce our diplomatic relations so that we can stand together against those who try to use some international institutions to sanction and isolate Israel ... We should think of new methods of linking Israel with our latest technology and successful security establishments. In this regard, I have in mind, for instance, the need to develop Israel's relation to Nato and its possible association as full member, given that Nato is the largest democratic military alliance in the world today".

AIPAC certainly has all the means and influence to impose its agenda. Editor of Forward newspaper, G.G. Goldenberg said, "AIPAC maintains strong influence on the US foreign policy. It craves to ensure that the US takes up Israel's point of view on the Middle East conflict, and on world problems in general."

This could explain the fierce campaign against former US President Jimmy Carter for his vision of the Palestinian- Israeli conflict as depicted in his book: Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.

Indeed, an organisation which overtly proclaims its goals to support, protect and defend Israel against future threats, nurtures a new generation of leadership for that purpose, and enlightens the Congress about US-Israel relations, has benefited from September 2001 attacks which shocked the American society, and left a bad image of the Arabs and Muslims.

AIPAC managed successfully in linking what happens to Israel with what happened to the US, and put the two states in the position of confrontation with a common enemy: Arab/Muslim terrorism! But how long should we talk about a powerful Jewish lobby without working on the establishment and development of a Muslim and Arab lobby to counter the Jewish lobby?

Professor As'ad Abdul Rahman is the Chairman of the Palestinian Encyclopaedia.