Does AIPAC Command Congress?

 

by Grant Smith 

Posted onOctober 5, 2021

In September, pro-Palestinian members of Congress banded together to stop the Democratic House leadership’s bid to slip $1 billion in additional military foreign aid to Israel into must-pass legislation. Within days the funding reappeared in a standalone bill that quickly passed 420-9 even as Congress was stalemated on other more pressing legislation to raise the debt ceiling and repair infrastructure. Though stuck in the Senate, the extra aid seems sure to pass.

How does a lobby for a foreign government get its programs prioritized over those of the American people?

Distinguished historian and author Walter L. Hixson sits down for an extended Q&A with IRmep’s Grant F. Smith about Israel’s foremost US lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Hixson draws on insights and primary research from his new, peer-reviewed book, Architects of Repression: How Israel and Its Lobby Put Racism, Violence and Injustice at the Center of US Middle East Policy.

Grant F. Smith is the author of the new book The Israel Lobby Enters State Government. He is director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy IRmep in Washington, D.C. which co-organizes IsraelLobbyCon each year at the National Press Club.

https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2021/10/05/does-aipac-command-congress/