Pro-Israel lobby opens US meeting

By ROB REYNOLDS 
Al-Jazeera   Sunday, 11 March 2007
 
WASHINGTON  — The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — one of the most powerful pressure groups in Washington and one of the main reasons for America 's support of Israel  — is holding its annual policy conference in Washington , D.C.

The pro-Israel lobby group works to strengthen relations between the United States and Israel . The New York Times describes it as "the most important organization affecting America 's relationship with Israel " and it is regularly ranked as one of the top three most powerful pressure groups in Washington D.C.

Among the speakers at the conference which opens on Sunday will be Dick Cheney , the US vice-president, Nancy Pelosi , the house speaker and Tzipi Livni , Israel 's foreign minister. 

Free trips to Israel
The organization was set up shortly after Israel 's foundation in 1948 and now has 100,000 members. It's credited with winning billions of dollars in U.S. aid for Israel , including for buying the latest military weaponry. Nathan Guttman, Washington bureau chief for the U.S.-Jewish newspaper, The Forward, says: "AIPAC is very influential because they have the grass roots organization. When a congressman first comes to Washington he already knows AIPAC; he has met their activists in his district; he knows
what it means to be pro-Israel."

Although AIPAC does not make direct campaign contributions, it has spent millions of dollars on professional lobbyists and paying for politicians to visit Israel . In the past two election cycles, pro-Israel groups have given over $9m to congressional candidates, with slightly more than half going to Democrats.

'Most powerful lobby'
Certainly, if you are ranking Americans involved in pursuing a foreign government or country’s interests, Israel outranks them all.  Massie Ritsch is an analyst for the Center for Responsive Government, a lobbying watchdog group. Ritsch said: "The pro-Israel lobby is the most powerful among foreign interests that want contact with the federal government.

"Members of Congress have travelled to Israel more often in the past two years, more often than they’ve been to Chicago , in our own country [the U.S. ].

"It is the most travelled foreign destination for members of Congress."  Jewish power a sensitive topic Delegates say Iran will be the number one issue at this year's AIPAC conference.

Guttman said: "We will hear a lot about the danger of a nuclear Iran … thousands of AIPAC supporters will go to the [Capitol] Hill on Tuesday and lobby to toughen sanctions against Iran ."

In the United States , the power of the pro-Israel lobby is a sensitive topic. When a pair of university professors, John Walt and Stephen Mearsheimer, published a paper last year suggesting the pro-Israel lobby’s power distorted American foreign policy, they were attacked and labelled anti-Semites.