03
Apr
2007
10 Comments
AIPAC Promo Video
I stumbled onto to this AIPAC promotional video, if you’re not already familiar with AIPAC, AIPAC is a special interest group that lobbies American politicians for pro-Israeli policy. They aren’t the largest lobby but are considered the most powerful and influential lobby in the U.S. The following is a short promotional video for AIPAC.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCcpHE06flc[/youtube]
I don’t know about you but I find it scary to hear an American say he wants another country to maintain its military superiority. How troubling would it be if Egyptian Americans were lobbying the U.S. to develop Egypt’s military superiority?
Cross posted from Whisper of Madness
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It’s so funny to see Arabs whining about AIPAC,considering that the great majority of Christians in America support Israel
If Arabs want sympathy in America ,the Arab Lobby has to do more than just pay James Baker etc for services rendered.The Arab lobby has to convince the American People that the “angry Arab” is not the face of the Arab World
melanie Phillips has more about Carter and James Baker’s ties to Saudi Arabia.
Baker’s
http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/?p=1424
G, Arabs aren’t “whining” about AIPAC, they are concerned, and rightly so.
When will they ever be convinced? These people know it’s not true, but say it anyways. Look at media superiority and how much influence that has on public opinion.
Not only is it our job to act, which we are increasingly doing, but it’s your job to listen as well. (I assume you’re American, right?)
We’re not whining, we’re questioning.
Well, support for Israel in a section but powerful one in America is well known. Few months back, two prominent American professors, Stephen Walt of Harvard and John Mearsheimer of University of Chicago, wrote an influential paper, titled “The Israel Lobby” and described more than what D.B. Shobrawy questions above… The document is around 70-80 pages long and if time permits, I recommend everybody to go through this vital research study.
Sounds informative, can you give us the link for it please?
AIPAC is powerful but definitely not the most powerful. I think that goes to AARP or the NRA… but that is just me.
And the Israel Lobby is not very academic, much more of a polemic.
Esra’a,
the Walt/ Mearshimer article is pretty easy to find if you google it. You will also find a whole bunch of articles refuting it, calling into question the research that went into it, and calling out inaccuracies. Harvard and the University of Chicago distanced themselves from the piece and it has generally been called shoddy, partisan work.
I have read it and think it is biased and misleading, to say the least. Is there an Israel lobby? Sure, AIPAC exists and in my opinion, is no different than the strong Cuban Lobby in Washington that causes the US to persist with the Cuban embargo. Is the Cuban embargo the best thing for the US? I have no idea but find it interesting that you don’t see long treatises on whether the Cuban Lobby is sinister or hurting the US.
What I found disturbing about the Mearshimer/Walt article is the blatant misrepresentation of American Jews as not being loyal to America… and the unfortunate falling-back on the whole “Jews control” everything canard. I wish we did, becaue frankly, I’m trying to throw a wedding and would love to hit “the club” up for some more cash from the banks!
Bribing is what lobby groups do. Kinda sad.
Well, the U.S. does support Egypt’s military, to the tune of $1.3 billion a year in military aid since 1979. Plus we give them close to a billion a year in economic assistance through USAID – which indirectly also aids the military, because money Egypt doesn’t have to spend on their own economic development goes into the military budget.
Overall, we’ve given Egypt about $60 billion in US aid over the past three decades, money out of the pockets of American taxpayers, for which we get little in return.
Lioara, any powerful document (especially with unconventional views) automatically invites criticism, and certainly Walt/Mearshimer paper did produce a lot of debates and critiques. Yes, you’re right that Harvard “distanced” itself by not having its logo on the paper. But, I was not surprized by this action because the paper dealt with a very “sensitive” issue, after all, it was titled “The Israel Lobby”!
With due respect to your views, I think Walt and Mearshimer did raise a lot of questions which we need to think about and analyse. It’s an important document, from two prominent academics. We may or may not agree with its content, but we should read it and discuss it in proper light.
The link: http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP06-011