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The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has been a blight on Democratic politics and U.S. foreign policy for at least 40 years. As the propaganda and financial arm of the Zionist lobby, AIPAC lobbies and directs campaign contributions aimed at ensuring that no matter how disgraceful Israel’s behavior, U.S. presidents don’t dare to cross Israel’s government, and Democratic senators and members of the House think twice before breathing a word of criticism lest they face retribution and ouster.
When I first wrote about AIPAC in 1986, in a cover piece for The New Republic titled “Unholy Alliance,” AIPAC had come up with the idea of raising money from conservatives to back pro-Israel Republican senators against liberal Democrats. Though TNR at the time was owned by Martin Peretz, very much a Zionist, even Peretz was disgusted by the ploy.
In those years, despite the “PAC” in its initials, AIPAC did not have a political action committee. Rather, it coordinated political spending among several Israel-right-or-wrong PACs.
