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Pulling US strings on
Israel
By Michael Flynn
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's
(FBI's) decision in early May to arrest Lawrence
Franklin, the Pentagon analyst accused of
disclosing classified information about US forces
in Iraq, has put in the spotlight the work of an
influential pro-Israel lobbying outfit, the
American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC),
as well as its many supporters in and outside
government, including former deputy defense
secretary Paul Wolfowitz (now World Bank chief),
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Under
Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith.
According to an FBI affidavit, Franklin
related information about possible attacks on US
forces in Iraq to two AIPAC employees during an
FBI-monitored lunch in June 2003. Franklin was
allegedly upset that his hardline stance on Iran
was being overlooked and he hoped AIPAC would be
able to attract attention to his views.
According to the New York Times (May 5,
2005), supporters of the "influential circle in
the Pentagon", whose members were leading
advocates for war in Iraq and have long-standing
ties to AIPAC, blame the FBI's investigation on
"the continuing struggle inside the administration
over intelligence", arguing that individuals who
supported the Iraq war have been unjustly
targeted.
Although the two AIPAC employees
had not been charged (as of early May) and the
lobbying group was informed that it was not under
investigation, the Franklin case has brought some
unwanted attention to AIPAC, as well as to the
larger issue of US-Israeli relations. Many
observers have long suspected that key supporters
for the Iraq war inside the administration -
including Wolfowitz and Feith - were at least in
part motivated by their views on Israeli security.
These views were also in line with the stance of
AIPAC and several other pro-Israel outfits.
Of all the US lobbies, few wield more
influence than the pro-Israel interest groups.
According to some estimates, about 500 national
and local organizations collectively make up the
pro-Israel lobby. And of those, AIPAC arguably
carries the most weight - "the most effective
general interest group over the entire planet",
former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich once
said of AIPAC. Extremely active in securing
weapons deals for Israel, in lobbying for
sanctions against the country's Middle East
rivals, and in promoting the political agenda of
whatever government happens to be in power in
Israel, AIPAC has long played a highly public role
in American policymaking in the Middle East.
AIPAC has also been active in pushing US
intervention in the region. In fact, its efforts
to persuade US lawmakers to go after Iraq date
back to the first Gulf War. In an interview
shortly after the 1991 Gulf War began, Thomas
Dine, then the president of AIPAC, told the Wall
Street Journal that his organization had been busy
behind the scenes building support for the war.
"Yes, we were active," said Dine. "These are the
great issues of our time. If you sit on the
sidelines, you have no voice."
According
to press reports, in 1990 alone pro-Israel groups
gave nearly US$8 million in campaign
contributions. Of those on the Democratic side of
the aisle who received public affairs committee
(PAC) cash and later supported the decision to go
to war were Senator Harry Reid, an influential
Democrat who had received $150,000 from pro-Israel
PACs during his senate election bid (a dozen years
later, in 2002, Reid would again support the use
of force against Iraq).
Other Democrats
who voted for the 1991 Iraq war resolution and
received lobby cash included Senator Richard Bryan
and Senator Howard Heflin. According to the Wall
Street Journal, the entire Alabama delegation in
both the House and Senate voted for the
resolution. Although at first glance "this can be
ascribed to the conservative, pro-military
character of the state", opined the Journal, it is
clear that "pro-Israel PACs have also cultivated
Democrats [in the state] in recent years".
A key AIPAC supporter at the time who
actively worked to get congressmen on board the
war resolution was Representative Stephen Solarz.
Solarz, who later became a supporter of various
Project for the New American Century (PNAC)
initiatives (he signed the notorious September 20,
2001 PNAC letter calling for war against Iraq
"even if evidence does not link Iraq directly to
the [September 11] attack"), personally lobbied
Senator Al Gore, who voted for the resolution, as
well as several other fence-sitters among the
Democrats, whom Solarz accused of being
"tragically shortsighted" in their view of the
Israeli-American relationship. Solarz also pushed
AIPAC to play a more public role in supporting the
use of force, as well as several other pro-Israel
lobbies, including the Reform Jewish Movement.
Once war was underway, AIPAC immediately
set about to capitalize on the growing US public
support for Israel in the wake of Saddam Hussein's
scud missile attacks on the country. According to
the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
(WRMEA), by the end of January 1991, AIPAC had
rushed off a letter to its supporters outlining a
post-war campaign. Reported WRMEA: "Counting on
the American public's newfound understanding of
Israel's vulnerability, AIPAC will press for a new
package of security aid for Israel far larger than
any previous package. Second, the lobby will
encourage the United States to strengthen its
friendship with Israel and avoid pandering toward
Arab states hostile to the West and Israel. Third,
it will request millions of dollars more in
housing loan guarantees to settle Soviet Jews. And
finally, it will work to ensure that any
diplomatic efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli
conflict will be based on close cooperation and
trust between the United States and Israel."
Within a few short months, however,
newspapers were reporting that AIPAC and the rest
of the pro-Israel lobby had suffered a "damaging
reversal" and that Israel was "no longer an
automatic ally". It seems that the administration
of George H W Bush was more interested in
maintaining relations with other Arab states and
pushing for a comprehensive Middle East peace deal
than it was in keeping the lobby happy.
Despite these setbacks, AIPAC was again in
the thick of things during the leadup to the 2003
invasion of Iraq. According to press reports,
AIPAC membership jumped nearly 50%, to some
70,000, in the wake of the September 11 attacks,
in part through ties the group had made with the
Christian Right, which reflected a key strategy
promoted by many neo-conservatives and foreign
policy hardliners during the 1990s. In late 2002,
as talk about war heated up in Washington, AIPAC
held a "national summit" in Atlanta to discuss the
possible war and to strategize with supporters.
Among the speakers at the conference were
Wolfowitz, Tom Ridge and Ralph Reed, the former
head of the Christian Coalition.
Commenting on the burgeoning relations
between the Christian Right and the pro-Israel
lobby, Reed said: "I don't think there's any
question that since September 11 and the attack on
the United States there's been a renewed dialogue
and a new relationship between the Jewish
community and the Christian community because of
their shared friendship to Israel and their mutual
opposition to terrorism."
Not long after
Bush declared an end to the war in Iraq in May
2003, AIPAC focused its attention on a new target
- Syria. AIPAC helped lobby for the passage of new
US sanctions against Syria, long a key goal of
neo-conservatives and Likud supporters both in the
US and Israel. Reported the Deutsche Presse
Agentur (November 14, 2003):
In his speech this month about the
need for the Middle Eastern countries to move
toward democracy, US President George W Bush won
some praise, but his words were also met with
apprehension among Arab countries in the region
... The basis for such worries ... was that
Bush's speech was preceded by suggestions from
the so-called neo-conservatives. They were the
spearhead of the drive that led to the invasion
of Iraq. For example, one of them, Richard
Perle, chairman of the Defense Policy Board,
talked [while in Israel] about the Syrian
government's failure to stop infiltration of
guerrillas into Iraq. He coupled that with the
observation that Syria's military strength was
feeble. This occurred at the same time that the
Israeli lobby in Washington, the American
Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), was
using its muscle on the US Congress to pass the
Syria Accountability Act. This would impose US
sanctions on Syria unless Syria ended its
occupation of parts of Lebanon, cut its ties to
Palestinian groups the United States regards as
terrorists and stopped its alleged developments
of chemical and biological
weapons. AIPAC has also lobbied
heavily for US funding of various Israeli weapons
programs, including its Arrow missile defense
system. Its website explains: "Since 1990 the
Israeli Ministry of Defense and the US Ballistic
Missile Defense Organization have cooperated to
develop missile defense technology to counter the
threat of long-range missiles, which are being
developed by countries such as North Korea and
Iran. This military cooperation between the US and
Israel has resulted in the deployment of the Arrow
missile defense system, and the continuing
development of the Tactical High Energy Laser
(THEL)."
After the Senate voted in 2002 to
include money for the Arrow system and other
Israeli military priorities in a defense spending
bill, AIPAC proudly reported, "In a vote of 95-3,
the Senate last week passed the fiscal year 2003
Defense Appropriations bill, which provides
substantial funding for US-Israel strategic
cooperation. The Arrow missile defense program
received $80 million above the administration's
request for a total of $146 million. Additional
funding includes the following: $23.5 million for
the Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (MTHEL);
$64.9 million for the Litening II Targeting Pod;
$35 million for Bradley Reactive Armor Tiles; $22
million for the Hunter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle;
and $20 million for the Improved Tactical
Air-Launched Decoy (ITALD). Learn more about these
defense programs by visiting our interactive
strategic showroom."
Several high-profile
Bush administration folks have had financial
interests in many of the weapons systems pushed by
AIPAC, including Jay Garner, the former "mayor of
Baghdad", whose SY Coleman produced parts for the
Arrow missile system. Garner also has strong ties
to the neo-conservative Jewish Institute for
National Security Affairs.
Michael
Flynn is a research associate with the Right
Web program of the International Relations Center
(IRC).
(Copyright 1996-2005
International Relations Center)
Published
with permission of the International
Relations
Center. |
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