Peter Cornwell
Power lies in the perception of power,
and the Israel lobby, led by Aipac, the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee, is perceived to have a heck of a lot of it. Fall foul of the
Israel lobby, with its financial muscle and ability to put the word out,
and, it is said, your political career may be doomed. That, presumably,
was what Hagel was getting at when he spoke of people in Congress being
"intimidated".
Exhibit A in this argument is Chuck Percy, the three-term Republican
Senator from Illinois said to have been defeated in 1984 as a result of
an Aipac-led campaign against him. Percy's offence, according to a
committee official at the time, was to have shown "insensitivity and
even hostility to our concerns". Also mentioned is George Bush Snr's
failed 1992 re-election campaign, to which his short-lived block on loan
guarantees to Israel while it continued to expand settlements may have
contributed.
True or false? It's impossible to say. What matters is the perception.
But one thing is incontestable. Congress is overwhelmingly supportive of
Israel. Probably no more than a dozen of the 435 Representatives can
remotely be described as "pro-Palestinian", while the mood in the Senate
may be divined from a 2000 resolution expressing support for Israel,
signed by 96 of its members (Hagel was one of the four who did not).
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