On AIPAC, Lobbying, and Double Standards |
So far during my time as an undergraduate at the University of Missouri, I have noticed a certain growing obsession with the state of Israel. The contexts for these expressions have been as ideologically diverse as conspiratorial slop such as “Israel did 9/11,” to outright blood libels such as accusing Israel of being a “genocidal, apartheid, settler-colonial project.” Now, this twisted fad-driven set of grievances seems to be focused on the American Jewish lobby, AIPAC, particularly with the notion that their influence completely controls the American government.
Basically, it’s a regurgitation of the classic antisemitic trope about powerful foreign Jews secretly controlling the world, only now it’s applied to the American political system.
Just like every other iteration of this conspiracy theory, it’s all nonsense.
The American Israel Public Affair Committee is a bipartisan membership PAC composed of only Americans so it does not qualify as a foreign lobbyist group as defined by the Foreign Agent Registration Act.
Assertions that Jews and Israel run American politics easily collapse under any semblance of factual scrutiny. While AIPAC is a very strong lobbying group, they don’t have any formal affiliation with the Israeli government. Meanwhile, foreign governments such as Qatar and China, while legally, have tons of foreign agents and foreign spending in an effort to lobby US law and policymakers. Qatar has given billions to esteemed US institutions, China owns nearly 400,000 acres of US farmland, including over 40,000 acres in the state of Missouri.
Other organizations, such as the unindicted Hamas-co-conspirator, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), have also engaged in the PAC process, while advocating for pro-Palestinian policy. States such as Texas and Florida have moved to designate CAIR as a foreign terrorist organization. The FBI cut ties with the group as a result.
It is mind-numbingly convenient that those who fervently lament AIPAC and its ‘foreign influence’ are nowhere to be found condemning a lobbyist group participating in our political process who are financially in bed with Hamas. This suggests that the core issue isn’t about foreign influence, but about a deeper discomfort with Jews exercising power, regardless of the extent or legitimacy conferred.
If Jews, Israel, and AIPAC control the United States government, why, despite such supposed power and influence has America ignored Israel’s requests and pressured them away from chosen courses of action throughout our diplomatic history? Shortly after the September 11th terror attacks, Israeli government officials urged President Bush to attack Iran, not Iraq. President Bush obviously went in another direction, invading Iraq, disproving Israeli ‘control’ on the US administration. More recently, Prime Minister Netanyahu urged Congress against the JCPOA during the Obama Administration, and despite Netanyahu’s warning, the JCPOA passed.
Also during the Obama administration, the US abstained from voting on the UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which allowed the UN to pass a resolution that condemned Israeli settlements, a notable deviation from prior US positions on similar resolutions, also ignoring protests from both Israel and the American pro-Israel lobby. There are examples like these throughout the diplomatic history of the two countries.
At the very least, this suggests that our country’s geopolitical autonomy isn’t in jeopardy at the hands of one of our closest allies.
The fact that even modest lobbying groups regularly outspend AIPAC also suggests that these accusations essentially amount to pseudo-intellectual cover for classic antisemitism.
Instead of “the Jews/Zionists/Globalists/Capitalists/communists are out to get us” it’s AIPAC. So then, the question presents itself: Why are students so quick to accept such a weak conspiracy theory?
On college campuses where political identities are still taking shape and moral posturing is a norm, students responding to complex geopolitical conflicts tend to do so with an emotionality that greatly juxtaposes the process of nuance and historical understanding. When students find themselves echoing long debunked, classic antisemitic conspiracy theories, with issues that are sensitive and poorly understood, disproportionate criticism of an entire people and specific groups, in this case AIPAC, are at the forefront of abrasive, insecure, and historically illiterate individuals.