@@ JEWPAC the unstoppable @@
Arash
June 1, 2005
AIPAC the unstoppable
By Arnaud de Borchgrave
editor at large
If Social Security is the third rail of U.S. politics, Israel is the third rail of U.S.
geopolitics.
For most of Israel's short life as an independent state, the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee (http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=4178) has played the role of a
political action committee defending and advocating Israeli interests in both houses of
the U.S. Congress. It is the single most important organization affecting the relationship
with Israel.
Over the past 50 years, AIPAC has nursed through Congress scores of pro-Israel legislative
initiatives, blocking at the same time pro-Arab measures Israel deemed dangerous to its
security.
AIPAC's list of almost 100,000 members reads like a Who's Who of generous supporters of
Israeli causes. The fact that AIPAC never had to register as a foreign agent demonstrates
Israel is an integral part of the body politic, a de facto 51st state of the union.
Its most successful lobbying effort was to convince each new Congress and the occupant of
the White House that Israeli interests are identical to the United States' fundamental
interests, ergo no need to register if you are lobbying for a safer America.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon recently concluded his 11th tête-à-tête with U.S.
President George W. Bush. He had flown to the United States for AIPAC's annual conference,
attended by 5000 activists at the Washington Hilton, where congressional and
administration luminaries consider it a "must" to be seen on the podium extolling eternal
friendship between the two countries. The event draws more politicians than any other
convention, except for the president's State of the Union message.
AIPAC hall of famer Richard N. Perle's
(http://www.aei.org/scholars/scholarID.49,filter.all/scholar.asp) "Israel-right-or-wrong"
speech drew thunderous applause when he said he favored a military raid on Iran
(http://kurtnimmo.com/blog/index.php?p=676).
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice drew stony silence when she said Yasser Arafat's
successor Mahmoud Abbas "is committed to both freedom and security".
Unfortunately, the FBI threw caution to the wind when it ignored the friendly advice this
column dispensed last September, and decided to try its hand at touching the third rail.
And what a mess this created.
A Pentagon official, Larry Franklin (http://www.jta.org/storage/articleimages/15373.jpg),
who had worked at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and fell in love with Israel, was seen
sharing national security documents with his pals at AIPAC over lunch at the Tivoli
restaurant in Arlington, Virginia.
FBI surveillance tapes show Larry Franklin relaying top-secret information to "Steve
Rosen" (http://www.jta.org/storage/articleimages/15423.jpg) and "Keith Weissman"
(http://www.richardsilverstein.com/photos/uncategorized/weissman.jpg).
But this was the kind of routine exchange that had gone on for half a century. It was
hardly another Jonathan Pollard case, the Israeli spy who carted off secret documents by
the wheelbarrow-full, and is now serving a life sentence.
Larry Franklin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Franklin), 58, surrendered in early
May at the FBI's Washington field office after the government filed a criminal complaint
accusing him of handing over classified national defense information to those not entitled
to receive it. This was the first time AIPAC officials had been tagged as unworthy to hear
high-level confidences. They had listened to, or been shown, classified information of
interest to Israel for decades - and no gumshoe had ever filed a complaint. The FBI, for
reasons the bureau has kept close to its bulletproof vest, elevated routine practice to
treason.
Given Washington's perennial loss of institutional memory, there is no reason the FBI - or
anyone else - should remember a famous case that dramatized Israel's clout in Washington
during the Carter administration. An Israeli procurement general and his U.S. opposite
number were going over a list of U.S. military items the Israeli Defense Force (IDF)
needed in its next tranche of military assistance. The Pentagon-based general pointed out
several sensitive items were proscribed by Congress and doubtless would be turned down.
The Israeli then decided to humor him. In a famous retort that was leaked to the
newspapers, the IDF general said, "Our job is to deliver Congress and yours is to ship the
goods to Israel".
Larry Franklin's hot classified news seemed innocuous enough among members of the same
family who have no secrets for each other. He had been employed by the U.S. defense
department since 1979 and held a "top secret" security clearance. The FBI had been
trailing him for three years. They finally nailed him with documents on "axis of evil"
Iran that clearly were of concern to both countries.
Larry Franklin was one of 1300 employees in the policy branch of the Pentagon under
Douglas Feith (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Feith), a passionate advocate of
Israel who had once advised the right-wing Likud party.
AIPAC executive director Howard Kohr (http://www.aipacpnw.org/images/HAK.jpg) asked Rosen
and Weissman to walk the plank and the annual AIPAC conference was spared the sparring.
They both knew the FBI possessed incriminating evidence even though the bureau is yet to
deliver an indictment.
The Rosen-Weissman legal fees have already reached $1 million, but AIPAC made sure they
wouldn't go broke.
Steve Rosen gave his entire life to AIPAC. His Palm Pilot Rolodex spanned 50 states and
the rest of the world. He founded the organization's government branch, which pioneered
lobbying the administration - the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon - in
addition to Congress.
He became AIPAC's government branch. A national security and foreign policy specialist,
Steve Rosen frequently called editors and reporters he felt had strayed from the hallowed
reservation. He didn't take kindly to articles critical of the Israeli government.
AIPAC never bragged about its many successes. Anyone who's anyone among Israel's friends
and admirers knows what AIPAC achieves year in and year out.
Over the next year, its new target is to convince Congress to underwrite all the expenses
incurred by Israel in its withdrawal from Gaza and four isolated outposts in northern West
Bank, as well as the resettlement of the 8000 Israelis slated for evacuation.
The $2 billion wall-electronic-fence-razorwire-ditch is being funded by a mix of grants
and loans - also from the United States. The almost $3 billion Israel receives every year
for defense will be increased accordingly.
Full-page ads in The New York Times and Washington Times, placed by the leftist Council
for the National Interest Foundation (http://www.cnionline.org), called on AIPAC to
register as an agent of a foreign government.
Forget about it.
Council for the National Interest Foundation champions Hezbullah and Hamas, two
organizations listed as terrorist by the U.S. state department. It also long enjoyed the
support of Abdel Rahman Alamoudi, a Muslim-American who now sits in a Virginia jail cell
to face a 19-count indictment, including federal charges of money laundering, financial
assistance to terrorist organizations and a role in an alleged Libyan plot to assassinate
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah.
Council for the National Interest Foundation has a fair amount of purging to accomplish
before it can expect to be taken seriously by mainstream America. Meanwhile, AIPAC's
extraterritorial dispensation will continue unperturbed.
* Arnaud de Borchgrave is the Senior Adviser and Director of Center for Strategic &
International Studies (http://www.csis.org/experts/4deborch.htm). During a 30-year career
at Newsweek magazine (http://www.newsweek.com), Arnaud de Borchgrave covered most of the
world's major news events. At 21, he was appointed Brussels bureau chief of United Press
International (UPI), and three years later he was Newsweek's bureau chief in Paris. At 27,
he became senior editor of the magazine, a position he held for 25 years. He was appointed
editor in chief of the Washington Times (http://www.washtimes.com) and Insight magazine
(http://www.insightmag.com) in 1985. He left his post with the Washington Times in 1991,
and currently serves as its Editor-At-Large. He served as president and CEO of United
Press International from 1999 to January 2001. He is currently serving as Editor-At-Large
at UPI (http://about.upi.com/journalists/arnaud_de_borchgrave.jlst).
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9060.htm