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What is AIPAC for?

Does the so-called 'Jewish Lobby' produce pro-Israeli US foreign policy, or the opposite?

Historical and Investigative Research, 5 May 2005
by Francisco Gil-White

http://www.hirhome.com/israel/aipac.htm
________________________________________________________

AIPAC is the most visible organ of the so-called 'Jewish lobby.' It is widely believed that the 'Jewish lobby' has a vast influence on US foreign policy, and that in consequence US foreign policy is pro-Israel to the point of absurdity. This piece will demonstrate that AIPAC helps produce anti-Israel US foreign policy, and proudly applauds it.
________________________________________________________

Table of Contents

Introduction

Condoleeza Rice's speech to AIPAC, AIPAC's applause, and what it all reveals

All US presidents since Jimmy Carter have been trying to create a PLO state in the West Bank and Gaza

Jimmy Carter was first

Ronald Reagan was second

George Bush Sr., and Bill Clinton, came in third and fourth

Back to Condoleeza Rice and AIPAC's applause
________________________________________________________

Introduction

AIPAC is the acronym for the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee. The AIPAC website describes that the purpose of the organization is to develop a close relationship with the people who indirectly influence and directly make US policy towards Israel.

“Activists work closely with AIPAC’s professional staff, people drawn from the top echelons of government, diplomacy, academia and politics. AIPAC lobbyists meet every member of Congress and cover every hearing on Capitol Hill that touches on the U.S.-Israel relationship. AIPAC policy experts each day review hundreds of periodicals, journals, speeches and reports and meet regularly with the most innovative foreign policy thinkers in order to track and analyze events and trends.”[1]

AIPAC also says that it works to develop a grass roots effort that supplies rank-and-file activists with the best information. In this way, they can motivate the constituency to exert pressure to affect US policy towards Israel.

“Professionals in AIPAC’s regional offices reach out to activists in hundreds of communities each year from Missoula, Montana, to Miami, Florida. Whether meeting in a neighbor’s living room, attending a ballroom gala or participating in an AIPAC conference in Washington, AIPAC activists receive the most up-to-date analyses of Middle East issues and American politics. For more than two decades, AIPAC’s Political Leadership Development Program has educated and trained young leaders in pro-Israel advocacy, and encouraged them to become politically active. Students involved with AIPAC learn how to effectively advocate for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, bring their Members of Congress to campus, promote voter registration, work on political campaigns, and build relationships with other student leaders.”

It looks impressive. AIPAC is practically taking credit for US policy towards Israel. And indeed, if AIPAC were to state that it does not have an effect on US foreign policy it would be confessing to the utter futility of the multifarious, high-level and, one guesses, expensive activities it lists above. According to AIPAC, the effect it has on US foreign policy is to make it pro-Israel.

I think the truth is the opposite.

I think AIPAC tries to produce anti-Israel US foreign policy. Below I document my reasons for thinking so.

________________________________________________________

Condoleeza Rice's speech to AIPAC, and what
it reveals
________________________________________________________

Last year, “AIPAC held its largest-ever national summit from October 24-25, drawing a bipartisan group of political leaders to address more than 800 members in Hollywood, Florida.”[2] This summit provides a useful way of gauging whether AIPAC has anything to do with producing pro-Israel US policies.

At this event, Condoleeza Rice gave a speech, but not before being introduced by the AIPAC president Bernice Manocherian as someone with “a passion for and a mastery of the complex issues which face Israel and for shaping American policy in the Middle East,” and also thanked by the same “for the kindness that you have shown to me and for the steadfast friendship and support that you have demonstrated to our community over the years.”[3] Bernice Manocherian said some other dramatic things, too, forcing Condoleeza Rice to begin her own remarks with: “Well, thank you so much for that very warm welcome, and Bernice, thank you for that extraordinary introduction. I’ll never forget it. Thank you.”

Condoleeza Rice defended the US’s offensive and pre-emptive strategy in the ‘war on terror’ to AIPAC applause. She said:

“…unless we change the circumstances that produced this ideology of hatred and hopelessness so great that it causes people to fly planes into buildings and to strap suicide bombs on their bodies, our children and our grandchildren will still be fighting this war decades from now.”

Rice was making a direct linkage between the 9-11 terrorist attacks on US soil and the daily routine of suicide bombings launched against innocent Israeli civilians. The implication, of course, is that the US and Israel have a common enemy, Islamist terrorism, and therefore that the US and Israel are allies, and moreover that the US offensive strategy in the ‘war on terror’ is one where the US would like to see the Palestinian Arab terrorists defeated as much as the US wants to see Al-Qaeda defeated. Her remarks above earned her a bout of applause from this largest-ever AIPAC audience.

Condoleeza Rice talked the very tough, take-no-prisoners talk that has become the staple of the Bush administration’s foreign policy.

“State sponsors of terror have a choice: abandon their support of terror or face the consequences. The Taliban made the wrong choice and paid the price… The result of these efforts is plain. The terrorists’ world is growing smaller. The places where they can operate with impunity are becoming fewer and fewer, and we will not rest until there is no safe place for terrorists to hide.”

This got more applause.

Then, after defending her own policy in Iraq as one where the US was supposedly bringing freedom and democracy to that country, Rice said something remarkable:

“This forward strategy of freedom [the strategy used in Iraq] is also at the heart of the president’s approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict. President Bush is the first American president to support the creation of a Palestinian state. As a committed friend of Israel, he views a peaceful and democratic Palestinian state as being in the best interest of both Palestinians and Israelis. But he is also the first American president to say clearly that the nature of any Palestinian state is as important as its borders. A Palestinian state must have a just and democratic government that serves the true interests of the Palestinian people and that is a true partner for Israel in peace.

Creating such a government is the right role. It’s the only role to realizing the president’s vision of two states; Israel and Palestine living side by side. A Palestinian state will never be achieved through terrorism. Israel will not permit it and the United States of America will not permit it.”

Once again, applause.

Let me now point out a few problems with all this.

First, antisemites everywhere push the argument that US foreign policy is the fault of ‘the Jews,’ because ‘the Jews’ supposedly have such control over the US government that they make US foreign policy pro-Israel and against everybody else -- this is something that a lot of otherwise good but woefully misinformed people believe. I have thoroughly refuted this belief in my chronological summary of US foreign policy towards the Jewish people and state, which goes from the 1930s to the year 2005, where I show that US foreign policy is in fact radically anti-Israel and anti-Jewish, and has been consistently so from the very beginning.[4] But the fact remains, many people believe the accusation that US foreign policy is supposedly pro-Jewish because ‘the Jews’ supposedly have enormous influence in the US government. And the same people tend to disagree intensely with the conduct of US geopolitical strategy after 9-11. In other words, a lot of people blame ‘the Jews’ -- or, more politely, Israel -- for US foreign policy that they hate. Given that, when AIPAC -- the supposedly pro-Israel lobby -- applauds Rice’s linkage of the US’s current geopolitical strategy with Israel’s response to its terrorist enemies, they give antisemites everywhere an opportunity to push the absurd argument that US imperialism is somehow the fault of Israel, which in turn helps turn large numbers of people against the Jewish state.

So whatever the intent of AIPAC’s applause here, the effect is to make things worse for Israel. AIPAC would better serve the state of Israel if it didn’t invite Condoleeza Rice to speak at all, something that should be obvious to any organization that is supposedly spending large sums of money studying the manner in which to help Israel, as AIPAC claims to do.

Another problem with the above is that Condoleeza Rice explicitly defends US policy in Israel by stating that it has the same goals as US policy in Iraq. Anybody who cares about the Jewish state, after taking even a quick look at Iraq, ought to shudder. But the AIPAC audience applauded.

Finally, here is what is most incredible: Condoleeza Rice states that, “President Bush is the first American president to support the creation of a Palestinian state.” This is simply false, and any organization boasting loudly that it does extensive research and lobbying in order to obtain from the US government a more pro-Israeli foreign policy must know this. But this AIPAC audience applauded.

Below I will correct at length this obliteration of US foreign policy history by the US foreign minister. I will show that Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., and Bill Clinton all supported, and pushed for, the creation of a PLO state before George Bush Jr. did. Once I have demonstrated this, and once it has sunk in how venerable and consistent the US push to create a PLO state has been, it will be dramatically obvious the degree to which AIPAC's boast that it produces pro-Israeli US foreign policy is a total fiction.

After demonstrating that all US presidents since Jimmy Carter have pushed to strip Israel of the West Bank and Gaza, I will return to this contradiction: Condoleeza Rice states that US foreign policy is supposedly meant to eliminate “this ideology of hatred…so great that it causes people…to strap suicide bombs on their bodies,” but she says the US wants a state next to Israel whose government will be these terrorists who teach “this ideology of hatred” to Arab children from the tender age of 5: the PLO.[5] And she sells this policy to her AIPAC audience, absurdly, as a pro-Israeli policy. The AIPAC audience. . .applauds!

Why in the world did this largest-ever AIPAC audience applaud Condoleeza Rice’s statements?

________________________________________________________

All US presidents since Jimmy Carter have been trying to create a PLO state in the West Bank and Gaza
________________________________________________________


Jimmy Carter was first
______________________

Contrary to what Condoleeza Rice stated, George W. Bush is not the first president to support the creation of a Palestinian Arab state in the West Bank and Gaza, run by the PLO. It was Jimmy Carter, in 1977, who first supported this idea in public.

As I have documented elsewhere, the UN had a strategy to demonize Israel and make the PLO appear respectable.[6] This worked beautifully, so that by 1977 a young West Bank Palestinian interviewed by Newsweek could say: “Unlike ten years ago, we now have the sympathy of the entire world.”[7] The world’s political climate having thus shifted to the degree necessary, US president Jimmy Carter, choosing his moment carefully, declared publicly his support for a “Palestinian homeland.” This is what The New York Times reported on May 13, 1977:

“[Congress] watches, with a mixture of admiration and doubt, Jimmy Carter’s efforts to reassure the Israelis while trying to get them back to the pre-1967 borders with a new Palestinian ‘homeland’ on their flank.”[8]

In what universe does it make sense for the most important newspaper to say that stripping Israel from territory it won in a defensive war, and giving this territory to terrorists pledged to the extermination of the Israelis, is a policy deserving admiration? In an antisemitic universe. And what is even more ‘admirable,’ according to The New York Times, is how skillfully Carter was pulling this incredible stunt.

It is certainly of some interest that US president Jimmy Carter came out in favor of a PLO state (what ‘Palestinian homeland’ has always meant) before the PLO ever supported the idea. In fact, before the US president’s announcement of his support for a ‘Palestinian homeland’ the PLO had been the staunchest opponent of a PLO state in the West Bank and Gaza! This is worth a short detour.

Consider this note from 1969:

“...recent rejection by Al Fatah representative of all plans to establish Palestinian state on Jordan West Bank and in Gaza Strip noted; Palestinian National Council member Dr S Dabbagh urges commandos to prepare now for strategy they will follow if Arab states accept political settlement.”[9]

Al Fatah is the dominant faction within the PLO -- it calls all the shots. The Palestinian National Council is the legislative body of the PLO. Thus, what we have above is a total rejection by the PLO, in 1969, of a PLO state in the West Bank and Gaza. Why?

The answer to this question will be found in the PLO Charter -- or perhaps I should say charters (plural), as there have been two. The first charter dates from 1964, and in article 24 it states:

Article 24: This Organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or in the Himmah Area.[10]

Isn't that curious? In 1964 the PLO went quite out of its way, as you can see above, to state that the West Bank and Gaza (1) were not “Palestinian” lands, (2) belonged rightfully to Jordan and Egypt, respectively, and (3) were of no interest to the PLO. In 1968, however, the PLO Charter was rewritten and this is the charter that remains current to this day. This second charter removed the statements earlier contained in article 24. Its first two articles state:

Article 1: Palestine is the homeland of the Arab Palestinian people...

Article 2: Palestine, with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is an indivisible territorial unit.[11]

This means that the PLO, starting in 1968, did now begin claiming as ‘Palestinian’ the West Bank and Gaza. For you see, the boundaries of the territory called ‘Palestine’ during the British Mandate included the West Bank and Gaza (plus the rest of present-day Israel).[12] Why the PLO’s abrupt 180-degree reversal on whether the West Bank and Gaza were ‘Palestinian’? Because the year before, in 1967, after the surrounding Arab states had provoked a war with Israel, the Israelis had emerged victorious, and had captured the West Bank and Gaza.

What this means is that there is no such thing as a fixed ‘Palestinian land’ as far as the PLO is concerned; there is just land that Jews live on. Since the Jews returned to live in the West Bank and Gaza after 1967, these territories -- which the PLO had explicitly maintained it was not interested in -- suddenly became of great interest to the PLO and were called by them for the first time ‘Palestinian.’ This is easily explained, because the PLO’s purpose is to exterminate the Israeli Jews. Article 15 of the 1968 PLO charter says that the PLO means to “liquidate the Zionist…presence” (“liquidate” is the very kind of language that the German Nazis used) and article 9 states that “armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine” (my emphasis).[13] None of this will be surprising to those who know that Yasser Arafat was mentored by a leader of Adolf Hitler’s Final Solution, Hajj Amin al Husseini, and that members of Hajj Amin's organization (the Arab Higher Committee) created Arafat's -- and now Mahmoud Abbas's -- outfit: Al Fatah, which happens to be the controlling core of the PLO (now better known as the ‘Palestinian Authority’).[12a]

So, wherever Jews live in the Middle East, the PLO will claim that this is ‘Palestinian’ land that has to be liberated through “armed struggle,” and no other way -- that is, by wiping out the Jews. There will be no real negotiations. Apparently, then, the reason the PLO was at first reluctant to join the call for a PLO state is that the tactical and temporary abandonment of a policy to kill all the Jews in the Middle East was a bitter pill to swallow for an organization that was in a big hurry to complete the extermination that is its ecstatic mission and goal.

Coming back to US president Jimmy Carter, it is important to see that none of the above, of course, was a secret to him. And neither was it a secret to Carter that the Arab states, since 1969, had been pushing for a PLO state in the West Bank and Gaza. So this is the context in which Jimmy Carter announced his support for a “Palestinian homeland” in 1977. In other words, the US president simply had to know that his statement would be interpreted as support for a PLO state. To leave no doubt, the PLO, less than a week after the announcement by the US President, followed suit and declared itself for the first time in support of a West Bank PLO state.

“PLO spokesman Mahmoud Labady says PLO views Pres Carter’s concept of Palestinian homeland as important contribution to ‘just and durable’ peace in Middle East…  Says PLO would agree to establishment of Palestinian state on West Bank and in Gaza Strip…”[14]

Of course, this did not mean that the PLO was abandoning its goal of destroying Israel. It meant only that, following the US president’s lead, it was shifting tactics, as reported in another wire of the same day [emphasis mine, below]:

“PLO has reportedly joined Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia in proposing establishment of independent Palestinian state on West Bank and Gaza Strip as part of overall Middle East settlement. …PLO leaders feel it is premature to speak of recognizing Israel’s existence.[15]

How come US president Jimmy Carter and the PLO leadership appeared so coordinated, announcing their new positions within a week of each other? Were they working together through the secret back channel that The New York Times reported existed between the CIA and the PLO despite an explicit agreement the US had with Israel not to do this?[16] It appears so, because only two months later it was reported that the Carter administration and the PLO were “involved in secret high-level contacts.”[17]

One week after that:

“Reports in the state-controlled Egyptian news media said the Americans [my emphasis] were suggesting that the Palestinians form a government in exile as one way of making themselves eligible for [the] Geneva [peace conference]. The argument, the reports said, was that the Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO] cannot now be invited because it does not represent a state.”[18]

The purpose of the Geneva peace conference was to talk about the creation of a Palestinian state. Clearly, Jimmy Carter’s administration wanted this to be a PLO state.

All of this resoundingly refutes Condoleeza Rice’s absurd claim that “President [George W.] Bush is the first American president to support the creation of a Palestinian state.” Jimmy Carter beat him to the punch.

But Condoleeza Rice is even more off-base than this, because President Bush Jr. is not even the second president to support the creation of a Palestinian state.


Ronald Reagan was second
___________________________

In 1981 Reagan decided to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, over and above a massive secret buildup of Saudi Arabia begun by his predecessor Jimmy Carter, and which made Saudi Arabia

“ultimately...the largest beneficiary of U.S. weapons sales in the entire world [and] one of the most heavily armed countries in the world.”[19]

When Jewish supporters of Reagan met with him in 1981, concerned that the Reagan administration had become frankly antisemitic,

“…The White House adviser…said Reagan assured his Jewish supporters that ‘the only path to peace we’re following is the Camp David process,’ and not either peace initiatives proposed by Saudi Arabia or Europeans.

Reagan had raised some Jewish concerns by praising what he called implicit recognition of Israel in the plan advanced by Crown Prince Fahd of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi plan calls for establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem and peace between countries in the region. The plan never mentions Israel.

The Europeans have questioned whether any settlement can be reached without active PLO participation.”[20]

So Reagan, first, endorsed a Saudi ‘peace’ plan that called for the establishment of a Palestinian state “with its capital in East Jerusalem,” and which didn’t recognize Israel’s actual existence, let alone recognize its right to exist. Then, Reagan said that, no, the Saudi plan would not be followed, and neither would he pay any attention to the Europeans, who were calling for a PLO state. Instead, the “Camp David process” would be his policy.

But the “Camp David process” was Jimmy Carter’s policy, and it called for Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza, the creation of a self-governing Palestinian Arab authority, and, after three years, “negotiations will take place to determine the final status of the West Bank and Gaza.”[21] Since Carter had pushed very hard for including the PLO in the Geneva ‘peace’ conference, it is obvious that this strategy, which looks and sounds exactly like what the Oslo process later became, and the Roadmap, was meant to create a PLO state in the West Bank and Gaza.

But Reagan had some cover because, only a month earlier, American businessman Edgar Bronfman Sr., the president of the World Jewish Congress, had written an editorial in The New York Times in which he:

1)  argued for an American role in a Middle East peace process;

2)  spoke about “genuine Palestinian needs”;

3)  presented the Arabs as genuinely wanting peace, supposedly; and

4)  advised the Israeli prime minister to accept the Arabs’ preconditions and to find “an acceptable solution for the Palestinians.” “Mr. Begin...,” Bronfman explained, “must be prepared to go further than endorsing the idea of Palestinian autonomy.”[22]

More than autonomy: in other words, a Palestinian state! Bronfman was certainly not doing Israel any favors.

Bronfman has been quite prominent in the American halls of power, and has been trotted out more than once by American presidents in support of their anti-Israeli policies, giving a supposedly ‘Jewish’ stamp on the same. This is true as a general rule: only Jews who go out of their way to attack Israel (openly or not so openly) have any real influence in Washington. Now why might that be?

Not content with the above, in September 1982, Edgar Bronfman, from his perch as President of the World Jewish Congress, publicly endorsed Ronald Reagan’s plan for Middle East peace. Reagan was using Bronfman as a ‘Jewish diplomat’ to speak for Israel, and American newspapers dutifully carried the headline “Jewish leader OKs Reagan peace plan.”[23]

The Israelis were not amused. A Washington Post article with the headline “Israel Rebuffs Reagan” stated that

“the [Likud] Israeli government [led by Menachem Begin]...unanimously and totally rejected the American initiative.”[24]

And what was Bronfman endorsing? The same article explains that

“Reagan’s proposals of last week, which called for a freeze on new and existing settlements while efforts are made to revive the Camp David autonomy talks…

The Camp David peace accords call for an interim, five-year period of autonomy for the Palestinian inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza during which the final status of the territories is to be negotiated.”

Again, the Camp David accords had been engineered by Jimmy Carter, who was trying to create a PLO state. That’s what the “final status” negotiations following Palestinian “autonomy” were to be for.

I should note that even as US President Ronald Reagan was pressing for a Palestinian state run by the PLO, these terrorists were attacking Israeli civilians from their bases in Lebanon. This became such a problem that the Israeli army had to invade southern Lebanon in an attempt to destroy the PLO. This attempt would have succeeded if not for the fact that the Reagan administration sent the US Air Force, with the French military, to pluck the PLO from its besieged position and deposit it safely in Tunis.[25]

The above demonstrates that not only did Jimmy Carter beat George W. Bush in the race to support a PLO state, but so did Ronald Reagan. And yet we are not done with the corrections to Condoleeza Rice’s historical absurdities.


George Bush Sr., and Bill Clinton, came in third
and fourth
__________

These two US presidents also supported a PLO state before George W. Bush ever did. Their very recent presidencies appear also to have faded completely from the remarkably short-term memories of the AIPAC audience members who applauded Condoleeza Rice.

And yet it was in 1989, under President Bush Sr., that the Defense Department, then headed by Dick Cheney, commissioned a study by the RAND Corporation entitled “The West Bank of Israel: Point of No Return?” This study “concluded that the Israeli-Arab conflict can only be resolved by creating a West Bank Palestinian state.”[26]

It was of course James Baker III, acting for President George Bush Sr., who then twisted Israel’s arm so that it would participate in the Madrid ‘peace’ talks, which were the prelude to the Oslo ‘peace’ process, the purpose of which was to bring the PLO back from exile for the eventual formation of a PLO state. You see, the PLO was finding it very difficult to kill Israelis from Tunis, so once again the United States government stepped in to assist this antisemitic and terrorist organization, whose goal is the extermination of the Israeli Jews.[27]

The famous signature that jump-started the Oslo Process had for backdrop Bill Clinton’s Washington DC, and he proudly posed for the moment. So it cannot be argued that Bill Clinton did not support the creation of a PLO state, given that the Oslo process -- under the watchful eyes of Bill Clinton -- created a PLO proto-state already, and given that Bill Clinton exerted himself to the limit with Ehud Barak in the effort to create a bona-fide PLO state. Arafat refused such a state because to his followers anything less than the destruction of Israel in a bloody war was a catastrophe. The failure of the Clinton-Barak-Arafat negotiations at Camp David was used by Arafat as one of the excuses to start the quite bloody Second Intifada, a bit later.[28]

Since every single US president since Jimmy Carter has been working hard to produce an antisemitic terrorist state on Jewish soil, it follows that AIPAC does not produce pro-Israel US foreign policy. If AIPAC is responsible for US foreign policy toward Israel, then it is not run by friends of Israel.

________________________________________________________

Back to Condoleeza Rice and AIPAC's applause
________________________________________________________

Here again is the quote from Condoleeza Rice that got us started.

“This forward strategy of freedom is also at the heart of the president’s approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict. President Bush is the first American president to support the creation of a Palestinian state. As a committed friend of Israel, he views a peaceful and democratic Palestinian state as being in the best interest of both Palestinians and Israelis. But he is also the first American president to say clearly that the nature of any Palestinian state is as important as its borders. A Palestinian state must have a just and democratic government that serves the true interests of the Palestinian people and that is a true partner for Israel in peace.

Creating such a government is the right role. It’s the only role to realizing the president’s vision of two states; Israel and Palestine living side by side. A Palestinian state will never be achieved through terrorism. Israel will not permit it and the United States of America will not permit it.”

It is simply incredible that the US Secretary of State, in charge of US foreign policy, can so brazenly state precisely the opposite of what US foreign policy has been, pretending that George W. Bush is the first president of the United States to support a Palestinian state. It is even more incredible that she should characterize George W. Bush’s policy, which is to create a state run by the PLO, an antisemitic terrorist organization with genocidal goals, and moreover one that violently oppresses the West Bank and Gaza Arabs,[29] as one consistent with the president's supposed insistence that “A Palestinian state must have a just and democratic government that serves the true interests of the Palestinian people and that is a true partner for Israel in peace.”

Adding sauce to her dish, Rice stated that “A Palestinian state will never be achieved through terrorism. Israel will not permit it and the United States of America will not permit it.” That was in 2004, but in the present year 2005, with Condoleeza Rice presiding as US Secretary of State, the administration of George W. Bush is pushing for Ariel Sharon’s planned withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria, which is giving the terrorist PLO land for a Palestinian state as a reward for the terrorist violence of the Second Intifada!

And Bush does not consider this to be quite enough. Consider an April 12, 2005, article from The Independent, a British daily:

“Anxious to maintain the momentum towards an Israeli-Palestinian settlement, President George Bush has pointedly urged Ariel Sharon to halt an expansion of a key Jewish settlement on the West Bank, bitterly opposed by the Palestinians.

Hosting the Israeli Prime Minister at his Texas ranch, Mr Bush backed Mr Sharon’s plan to dismantle the 21 Israeli settlements in Gaza. But, in an unmistakable reference to the Maale Adumim settlement, close to Jerusalem where Israel plans to build 3,650 homes, the President told reporters that he asked Mr Sharon “not to undertake any activity that contravenes the road map or prejudices final status obligations”. The summit - Mr Sharon’s first visit to the President’s ranch in Texas - came at an especially delicate moment, amid renewed violence in Gaza that threatens a two-month ceasefire, and mounting domestic protest on the Israeli right against the dismantling of settlements there in July and August.”[30]

Notice how The Independent says that “Mr Bush backed Mr Sharon’s plan to dismantle the 21 Israeli settlements in Gaza.” This newspaper clearly wants you to think that this is Mr. Bush being pro-Israeli because the next sentence begins with ‘but’: “But…the President…asked Mr Sharon ‘not to undertake any activity that contravenes the road map or prejudices final status obligations.’” In this way the impression is created of a President Bush who, on the one hand, supports the Israelis but who, on the other hand, is tough on the Israelis. Absurd. Both of President Bush’s policy positions are radically anti-Israeli -- but especially the first, the one that is sold as pro. It is enough to make one wonder if people pay any attention to what they read.

The most incredible thing here, however, is that not only does Bush want the settlers out of Gaza, but in fact he demands this even though the Palestinian Arab terrorists are even now shooting at the Israelis:

“Mr Sharon’s first visit to the President’s ranch in Texas came at an especially delicate moment, amid renewed violence in Gaza that threatens a two-month ceasefire.”

This is a reference to the fact that “over the weekend Palestinians fired more than 80 mortars and several Kassam rockets at settlements and into southern Israel,” as explained in the Jerusalem Post.[31] The same Jerusalem Post article reports the amazing Israeli official reaction to the violence the Gaza settlers are being forced to endure even as their own government prepares to kick them out of their homes:

“Israel has decided to give Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas ‘a chance’ to bring shooting by terrorist groups under control despite the fact that the PA is not upholding its Sharm e-Sheikh commitments Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Monday.”

These are Israeli patriots? Perhaps the Israeli government will soon itself start gunning down Jewish civilians and get it all over with. Ariel Sharon is certainly talking that way.

“The tension, the atmosphere in Israel looks like the eve of the civil war,” Mr Sharon told NBC television before he met Mr Bush. “All my life I was defending Jews, now for the first time I’m taking steps to protect me from Jews,” he said.[32]

Notice that the Israeli prime minister is attacking, on American TV, those Israeli Jews who want to defend the State of Israel. And he is trying to give Mahmoud Abbas his own state, even though, as I have documented, Mahmoud Abbas gave the order for the 25 February attack that murdered some innocent Israelis and wounded about sixty, and which attack broke the ceasefire.[33]

But let us return to the largest-ever AIPAC audience, whose members just a few months ago applauded Condoleeza Rice’s statements. There are only two ways to explain their behavior:

1)  They are woefully misinformed about the real goals of the PLO, they do not understand what the US government is doing, and they have remarkably short memories about what the foreign policy towards Israel and the PLO of past US presidents has been like; or

2)  They are not really interested in producing pro-Israeli US policy.

 

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The first possibility may be reasonable for the laypeople in the AIPAC audience, though it is nevertheless cause for considerable alarm. But whether the first possibility is reasonable for the AIPAC leadership can be gauged by reminding ourselves what AIPAC is supposed to be doing. For that, I quote AIPAC again, talking about itself:

“Activists work closely with AIPAC’s professional staff, people drawn from the top echelons of government, diplomacy, academia and politics. AIPAC lobbyists meet every member of Congress and cover every hearing on Capitol Hill that touches on the U.S.-Israel relationship. AIPAC policy experts each day review hundreds of periodicals, journals, speeches and reports and meet regularly with the most innovative foreign policy thinkers in order to track and analyze events and trends.”

Is it possible that AIPAC is spending all that money and time learning about the Arab-Israeli conflict and still they can applaud Condoleeza Rice when she asserts the monumental absurdity that George W. Bush is supposedly the first US president to support a ‘Palestinian state’? Is it possible that, after all their research, these AIPAC leaders can applaud Condoleeza Rice’s claim that Bush Jr.’s efforts to create (before his second term expires[34]) a PLO state -- led by the terrorist and Holocaust denier Mahmoud Abbas -- constitute a pro-Israel policy?

It is possible.

M.J. Rosenberg is a “former editor of AIPAC’s Near East Report.”[35] The Jerusalem Post article that relates this factoid is authored by the same Rosenberg, and it contains his argument that the Gaza withdrawal makes sense, and that the Israelis should trust Mahmoud Abbas, the author of the 25 February attack against innocent Israelis:

“Fortunately Sharon is taking his first big step. But it cannot be the last. At their meeting in Texas I hope President Bush told Sharon that once the Gaza withdrawal is finished implementation of the road map in all its parts must begin.”

If AIPAC is pro-Israel, then -- we are entitled to ask -- what would an anti-Israel organization do?

http://www.hirhome.com/logo-HiR.gif
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Footnotes and Further Reading
________________________________________________________

[1] NOTE (26 August 2010) The quotation in the text was take from AIPAC’s website as it stood on the date of publication of the article:
http://www.aipac.org/documents/whoweare.html

Though that page no longer exists, it is available in the Wayback Machine Internet Archive:
http://web.archive.org/web/20050423201322/http://www.aipac.org/documents/
whoweare.html

AIPAC now explains itself in the following page:
http://www.aipac.org/about_AIPAC/Learn_About_AIPAC/26.asp

And that page reads as follows:

[quote from AIPAC begins here]

A Voice for the U.S.-Israel Relationship

For more than half a century, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has worked to help make Israel more secure by ensuring that American support remains strong. From a small pro-Israel public affairs boutique in the 1950s, AIPAC has grown into a 100,000-member national grassroots movement described by The New York Times as "the most important organization affecting America's relationship with Israel."

Political advocacy is one of the most effective ways in which AIPAC works to accomplish its mission. Each year, AIPAC is involved in more than 100 legislative and policy initiatives involving Middle East policy or aimed at broadening and deepening the U.S.-Israel bond.

AIPAC works to secure vital U.S. foreign aid for Israel to help ensure Israel remains strong and secure. AIPAC is working to promote strategic cooperation between the two nations, to develop sound U.S. anti-terrorist policies, to share homeland security techniques and technologies, and to stop rogue nations such as Iran from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

These efforts are critical to Israel's security and to American interests in the Middle East and around the world. In addition to working closely with Congress, AIPAC also actively educates and works with candidates for federal office, White House, Pentagon and State Department officials, and other policymakers whose decisions affect Israel's future and America's policies in the Middle East. AIPAC keeps political leaders and citizen activists apprised of critical developments affecting the U.S-Israel relationship through publications such as the Near East Report and continually updated news and issues analysis.

Creating Citizen Advocates

While building support in Washington is essential, AIPAC is found wherever the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship could be affected. AIPAC has a network of 10 regional offices and nine satellite offices that help pro-Israel activists from Missoula to Miami learn how they can affect Israel's future and security by promoting strong ties with the United States.

Throughout the year and around the country, AIPAC sponsors exciting events and educational programs featuring leading members of Congress, policymakers and top analysts.  AIPAC also works on hundreds of college campuses, teaching student activists how to answer Israel's detractors and how to use political involvement to build support for Israel.

The core of AIPAC's mission is building a base of citizen advocates who team with our expert staff to educate America's elected officials, policy makers and opinion leaders. But we also engage in many important initiatives to ensure that whatever the future holds, AIPAC will be positioned to effectively promote the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Among our most recent efforts is the Synagogue Initiative, which makes AIPAC information and staff available to congregations across America. AIPAC also reaches out to Christian, Hispanic, African American and other key community leaders to help ensure that Americans remain committed to a strong and vital U.S.-Israel relationship.

About our Organization

AIPAC is registered as a domestic lobby and supported financially by private donations. The organization receives no financial assistance from Israel, from any national organization or any foreign group. AIPAC is not a political action committee. It does not rate, endorse or contribute to candidates. Because it is a lobby, contributions to AIPAC are not tax deductible

[quote from AIPAC ends here]

[2] http://www.aipac.org/summit2004.html

NOTE (16 August, 2010): AIPAC has removed the above page, but it may be found at the Wayback Machine Internet Archive:
http://web.archive.org/web/20041030032233/http://www.aipac.org/summit2004.html

[3] THE AIPAC NATIONAL SUMMIT: A SPECIAL ADDRESS; DR. CONDOLEEZZA RICE, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR; MONDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2004; HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA; Transcript by: Federal News Service, Washington, D.C. http://www.hirhome.com/israel/rice_aipac.pdf

[4] “Is the US an Ally of Israel?”; Historical and Investigative Research; by Francisco Gil-White.
http://www.hirhome.com/israel/ihrally.htm

[5] “Does the Palestinian Education System Prepare Children for Peace with Israel, or for Terrorism and War?”; Emperor’s Clothes; 16 July 2003; reprinted from Palestinian Media Watch.
http://emperors-clothes.com/archive/bulletin-71.htm

[6] “The US supported the election of a pro-PLO Nazi war criminal to the post of UN Secretary General.” From: “Is the US an Ally of Israel?”; Historical and Investigative Research; by Francisco Gil-White.
http://www.hirhome.com/israel/ihrally.htm#1974

[7] Newsweek, June 13, 1977, UNITED STATES EDITION, INTERNATIONAL; Pg. 55, 849 words, The West Bank Today, Milan J. Kubic.

[8] Source: The Policy Of Confusion, By James Reston; New York Times (1857-Current file); May 13, 1977; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2001); pg. 20

[9] Source: The New York Times Company: Abstracts; Information Bank Abstracts; New York Times; March 14, 1969, Friday; Section: Page 8, Column 1; Length: 119 Words; Journal-Code: Nyt

[10] The text of the original 1964 Charter, taken from the PLO’s website at the UN.
http://www.un.int/palestine/PLO/PNA2.html

Just in case this text is removed, here are two other links where you may find the text of the original chapter, with its important claim of no Palestinian sovereignty over the West Bank and Gaza:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/cove1.html

[11] http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/plocov.asp

Note: we are directing you to the Archives of Yale Law School’s Avalon Project for this document, because the PLO has removed the text of the 1968 Charter from its UN website.

[12] The map on the left shows the boundaries of British Mandate Palestine (territory on the left, in yellow). The map on the right enlarges that territory and shows the location of Judea and Samaria (also known as “the West Bank”).

mandate.gif

westbank3.jpg

[12a] The most complete documentation on this is here:

“HOW DID THE ‘PALESTINIAN MOVEMENT’ EMERGE? The British sponsored it. Then the German Nazis, and the US.”; Historical and Investigative Research; 13 June 2006; by Francisco Gil-White.
http://www.hirhome.com/israel/pal_mov4.htm

Some of this material was originally published here:

“Anti-Semitism, Misinformation, And The Whitewashing Of The Palestinian Leadership”; Israel National News; May 26, '03 / 24 Iyar 5763; by Francisco J. Gil-White
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/article.php3?id=2405

[13] Translation: The Associated Press, December 15, 1998, Tuesday, AM cycle, International News, 1070 words, Clinton meets with Netanyahu, Arafat, appeals for progress, By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent, EREZ CROSSING, Gaza Strip. [Emphasis added]

Article 9…says that “armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine.”

Article 15 says it is “a national duty to repulse the Zionist imperialist invasion from the great Arab homeland and to purge the Zionist presence from Palestine.”

Article 22 declares that “the liberation of Palestine will liquidate the Zionist and imperialist presence and bring about the stabilization of peace in the Middle East.”

[14] New York Times; May 17, 1977, Tuesday; Section: Page 5, Column 1; Length: 106 Words; Byline: By Marvine Howe; Journal-Code:  Nyt; Abstract

[15] New York Times; May 17, 1977, Tuesday; Section: Page 5, Column 1; Length: 106 Words; Byline: By Marvine Howe; Journal-Code:  Nyt; Abstract

[16] To read about that agreement between the US and Israel, which the Unites States violated immediately, see:

"In 1975, the US reached an agreement with Israel not to have contacts with the PLO. The US immediately violated the agreement."; from “Is the US an Ally of Israel?”; Historical and Investigative Research; by Francisco Gil-White.
http://www.hirhome.com/israel/ihrally.htm#1975

[17] New York Times; July 20, 1977, Wednesday; Section: Page 8, Column 3; Length: 81 Words; Journal-Code:  Nyt; Abstract:

“Beirut newspaper Al Anwar repts Carter Adm and Palestinian guerrilla leaders are involved in secret high-level contacts.  Cites June 24 meeting between William W Scranton, reptdly representing Carter, and PLO repr Basil Akl, London.  Says exch began in May with note from PLO head Yasir Arafat delivered to Carter by Saudi Prince Fahd.  Note reptdly outlined Arafat’s views on PLO role in Arab-Israeli Geneva peace talks and on Palestinian state and peace treaties with Israel (S).”

[18] The Associated Press, August 2, 1977, AM cycle, 911 words, By BARRY SCHWEID, Associated Press Writer, ALEXANDRIA, Egypt

[19] “The Arming of Saudi Arabia” Transcript of PBS FRONTLINE Show #1112; Air Date: February 16, 1993
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/arming-i.htm

[20] The Associated Press, November 19, 1981, Thursday, PM cycle, Washington Dateline, 345 words, Reagan Seeks to Reassure Jewish Supporters, By DONALD M. ROTHBERG, AP Political Writer, WASHINGTON

“…The White House adviser also said Reagan assured his Jewish supporters that ‘the only path to peace we’re following is the Camp David process,’ and not either peace initiatives proposed by Saudi Arabia or Europeans.

Reagan had raised some Jewish concerns by praising what he called implicit recognition of Israel in the plan advanced by Crown Prince Fahd of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi plan calls for establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem and peace between countries in the region. The plan never mentions Israel.

The Europeans have questioned whether any settlement can be reached without active PLO participation.

Stein said discussions soon between administration officials and Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon would demonstrate ‘the true nature of the validity and sincerity of the commitment of the president to Israel’s security.’”

[22] The New York Times, October 17, 1981, Saturday, Late City Final Edition, Section 1; Page 23, Column 1; Editorial Desk, 927 words, BE BOLD, MR. BEGIN, By Edgar M. Bronfman

[23] Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA), September 23, 1982, Thursday, Midwestern Edition, Pg. 12, 428 words, Jewish leader OKs Reagan peace plan, By Daniel Southerland, Staff correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor, Washington

[24] The Washington Post, September 6, 1982, Monday, Final Edition, First Section; World News; A1, 807 words, Israel Rebuffs Reagan, Approves 3 Settlements, By Edward Walsh, Washington Post Foreign Service, JERUSALEM, Sept. 5, 1982

[25] “In 1982, the US military rushed into Lebanon to protect the PLO from the Israelis.” From: “Is the US an Ally of Israel?”; Historical and Investigative Research; by Francisco Gil-White.
http://www.hirhome.com/israel/ihrally2.htm#1982

[26] “In 1989, with Dick Cheney, the US began supporting a PLO state in the open as the ‘only solution’ to the Arab-Israeli conflict.” From: “Is the US an Ally of Israel?”; Historical and Investigative Research; by Francisco Gil-White.
http://www.hirhome.com/israel/ihrally2.htm#1989

[27] “In 1991, Bush Sr.'s administration forced Israel to participate in the Oslo process, which brought the PLO into the West Bank and Gaza.” From: “Is the US an Ally of Israel?”; Historical and Investigative Research; by Francisco Gil-White.
http://www.hirhome.com/israel/ihrally2.htm#1991

[28] The beginning of the Second Intifada is usually blamed on Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount. However, PLO officials have explained to Arab audiences—lest they get the wrong idea—that the Second Intifada was planned in advance and had nothing to do with Ariel Sharon’s visit.

“A Palestinian Cabinet minister…Communications Minister Imad Falouji said during a PLO rally that it is a mistake to think that the intifada, or uprising, in which more than 400 people have been killed, was sparked by Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon’s controversial visit to Al-Aqsa mosque compound in late September.

‘It had been planned since Chairman Arafat’s return from Camp David, when he turned the tables in the face of the former U.S. president (Bill Clinton) and rejected the American conditions,’ Falouji said.

…Israel long has contended the intifada was planned.

…Falouji, in Lebanon for an Arab telecommunications conference, was addressing a Palestine Liberation Organization rally at the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp on the southern edge of this port city, 45 kilometers (28 miles), south of Beirut. He also said the PLO is reviving its ‘military action’ groups to escalate the fighting against Israel.”

SOURCE: Associated Press Worldstream,  March 2, 2001; Friday,  International news,  363 words,  Palestinian Cabinet minister says Palestinian uprising was planned,  SIDON, Lebanon

[29] “In 1994 the CIA trained the PLO, knowing it would use this training to oppress Arabs and kill Jews.” From: “Is the US an Ally of Israel?”; Historical and Investigative Research; by Francisco Gil-White.
http://www.hirhome.com/israel/ihrally2.htm#1994

[30] BUSH CALLS FOR HALT TO NEW SETTLEMENTS AS SHARON WARNS OF ‘CIVIL WAR’ IN ISRAEL, The Independent (London), April 12, 2005, Tuesday, Final Edition; FOREIGN NEWS; Pg. 28,29, 674 words, BY RUPERT CORNWELL IN WASHINGTON

[31] Mofaz: We’ll give Abbas another chance,  The Jerusalem Post, April 12, 2005, Tuesday, NEWS; Pg. 2, 599 words, Nina Gilbert

[32] BUSH CALLS FOR HALT TO NEW SETTLEMENTS AS SHARON WARNS OF ‘CIVIL WAR’ IN ISRAEL, The Independent (London), April 12, 2005, Tuesday, Final Edition; FOREIGN NEWS; Pg. 28,29, 674 words, BY RUPERT CORNWELL IN WASHINGTON

[33] “Can Israel Survive if it Does Not Defend Itself?” By Francisco Gil-White; The Soapbox; 27 February, 2005
http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~soapbox/Articles/CanIsraelSurvive.htm

[34] “More than an election, this is a new beginning,” The Weekend Australian, January 8, 2005 Saturday All-round Country Edition, WORLD; Pg. 13, 1488 words, Nicolas Rothwell

 “US officials have suggested an independent Palestine could come into being by the end of Bush's second term, four years from now. Palestinian negotiators hope for a breakthrough within the year.”

“Bush Praises Successful Vote As Key to Palestinians' Future,”  The Washington Post, January 10, 2005 Monday,  Final Edition, A Section; A14, 513 words, Michael A. Fletcher, Washington Post Staff Writer.

“President Bush applauded the…overwhelming victory for Mahmoud Abbas
…In his statement, Bush also called on Israel to follow through on its plans to withdraw from occupied territories in Gaza and parts of the West Bank…
The president also has promised to support Abbas with an infusion of financial aid…
…Outgoing Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, speaking on ABC's "This Week," urged Israel to release more Palestinian prisoners [read: terrorists] as a show of good faith to jump-start peace talks.”

[35] Playing a non-zero sum game,  The Jerusalem Post, April 12, 2005, Tuesday, OPINION; Pg. 16, 939 words, M. J. Rosenberg
 


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