“We need to talk about AIPAC” - Mehdi Hasan

picture this an official with one of Washington DC's top lobbying groups sits down for dinner with a journalist the official is asked about the time their organization was caught on tape bragging about cutting a deal with the White House and whether it's impacted their group's influence on Capitol Hill the lobbyist Smiles points to a napkin and says proudly in 24 hours we could have the signatures of 70 Senators on this napkin Now that statement alone could be considered a huge Scandal especially if that lobbying group was say the gun lobby the NRA or big farmer or Big Oil there'd be headlines everywhere about the power of special interest and big lobbies outraged from constituents and the media a lot of Democrats would be lining up to take shots at that lobbyist but believe it or not that story I just told you is real it happened and yet it's barely ever mentioned because it wasn't an NRA official who said it or a rep for big oil or big farmer or even the AARP it happened back in 2005 and the quote about the napkin was from an official with APAC the American Israel public affairs committee perhaps the most powerful and famous well Infamous member of America's broad pro-israel Lobby and today we need to talk about APAC because despite over 70% of Americans saying that lobbyists in general have too much influence despite apac's Shameless bragging about their Brazen power and influence over our elected officials their seemingly un unlimited access to the people in charge we just don't talk about APAC that much not in our mainstream media for sure and look I get it there are some very dangerous conspiracy theories out there about rich Jews controlling the government the Jewish Lobby the puppeteers the secret cabal that's really running the country anti-semitic tropes and conspiracies that have led to hate and persecution of Jewish communities throughout history these days many of them are being perpetuated by Republicans who are hyper obsessed with Jewish billionaire George Soros who they blame for funding everything from the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville to the hush money trial against Donal Trump and look anti-semitic tropes about rich Jews whether they're Soros or the Rothschilds or the Jewish community in general should absolutely be condemned but that's not what we're talking about when we're talking about APAC we're talking about a self-described powerful lobbying group one that brags about its influence puts out literature claiming that its conferences get more members of Congress than any other event by the state of the union one that openly spends millions of dollars trying to unseat Pro Palestinian members of Congress a group that in no way should be associated with bigoted conspiracy theories about Jewish space lasers or Jewish financiers but absolutely should be associated with The Wider corrupt anti-democratic role played by Lobby groups in general and absolutely should be rejected in the same way that we reject say the NRA and just have a listen to one of their top targets apac's top Targets this year New York Congressman Jamal Bowman Who currently faces a primary Challenge from George latima a pro-israel Democrat backed by APAC here is Jamal Bowman speaking with Zeto Cynthia Nixon just last week APAC represents special interests in politics big money in politics um trying to buy elections they represent all of that when we win inshallah we show the world that you can challenge power and win right in a big way that's what's a stake and indeed the stakes are high in the primary race for New York 16th Congressional District where APAC has already spent over $10 million trying to unseat Bowman making it the most that APAC has ever spent on a race Bowman is of course not the only one APAC is going after according to Politico APAC is expected to spend a $100 million this election year as they specifically take aim at Pro Palestinian progressives within the Democratic party and remember APAC is actually quite successful when it comes to targeting and taking out members of Congress they disagree with the ones they dislike take the 2022 midterms for example when APAC helped defeat congress's most Progressive Jewish member Andy Levan with their Super PAC spending over $4 million against him in his primary of course apac's same Super PAC United democracy project a rather inconspicuous name for a nakedly and Hardline pro-israel group is now running attack ads against Bowman just like they did against Levin with many of those ads having nothing to do with Israel they don't mention Israel funny that instead the ads accuse Bowman of being unable to compromise even with President Biden citing Bowman's refusal to vote for the bipartisan infrastructure act now maybe maybe APAC could have gone around preaching about the virtues of bipartisanship of reaching out across the aisle 10 or 20 years ago back when the organization was widely considered to be bipartisan but today that bipartisanship is long gone APAC panders more and more to the far right in fact apac's targeting of progressives has turned them into the perfect vessel for GOP Mega owners trying to kill Progressive policies and looky here earlier this month Politico reported that APAC has now become the biggest source of Republican donations in the most competitive Democratic primaries making it a clear case of GOP meddling now APAC would say that they're simply fighting off the extremists in Congress a classic racist dog whistle they love to invoke against the non-white members of the squad we've seen them use this before in their 2021 attack ad against congresswoman IL Omar when they told voters to stand against terrorists ah yes because calling out legitimate war crimes while being a black Muslim woman must make you Pro terrorism right the truth is that APAC couldn't care less about fighting actual extremism quite the opposite they're actually supporting it in the aftermath of January the 6th during the 2022 midterms APAC chose to endorse over a 100 members of Congress who voted against certifying the 2020 election results who chose to perpetuate Donald Trump's baseless election conspiracy theories even after the those lies had inspired a violent Insurrection from from America's own right-wing extremists oras the FBI likes to call them domestic terrorists H so much for a United democracy oh and just in case you think the people who dislike or are opposed to APAC or all brown Muslims like me I would remind you that one of their most vocal critics is another pro-israel lobbying group a more liberal more moderate pro-israel lobbying group J Street which is Accused APAC of undermining American democracy as well as the quote true interest of American Jews and pro-israel Americans who APAC often claims to represent by the way on the subject of who APAC represents again we have to be careful here APAC consists of Americans not Israelis and we have to avoid the Dual loyalty tro when it comes to American Jews having said that APAC does often tend to take the Israeli government line over the American government line for example when it came to President Obama's Iran deal and have done so for decades back in the 1960s and 70s The prominent influential very respected Democratic senator William Fulbright the longest serving chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in US history he said he wanted to see APAC register as a foreign agent but it didn't go anywhere now today thankfully some progressives in the Democratic party are finally starting to take action to fight back against the influence of APAC against this Republican front group this past March over 20 advocacy organizations including Jewish voice for peace and Justice Democrats launched a CO Coalition called reject APAC which says its goal is to defend the members of Congress who are being targeted by this pro-israel organization in 2022 Squad member Su Lee in Pennsylvania was successful in fending off a primary Challenge from an apack backed candidate now whether Squad member Jamal Bowman in 2024 is similarly successful in his New York District we shall see meanwhile sadly shamefully inexcusably the majority of elected Democrats in Congress continue to remain silent on APAC and many of them continue to take money from APAC and its proxies even as the GOP uses the organization to interfere in Democratic party primaries even as APAC itself just backs the Netanyahu government line here in Washington DC isn't it weird that we can criticize every Lobby group on Capitol Hill from the gun lobby to the oil lobby but not the pro-israel lobby not APAC not the group currently defending a genocide in the Middle East not the group currently flooding Democratic Prime with Republican money no they're off limits or you're an anti-semite

Channel: Zeteo

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Length: 8min 39sec (519 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 21 2024