Up to 450 Israeli patriots, guests and
picketers attended the American Israeli
Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) meeting at the Scottsdale Arizona
Hilton Hotel on Sunday morning, May 5. AIPAC describes itself on its website
as Americas Pro-Israel Lobby and
quotes the New York Times in what
calls it “The most important organization
affecting
relationship with
The meeting format was decidedly more
Israeli than American. It began with the standing singing of the Israeli
National Anthem. The American flag was present, but was not deployed in a
superior position to the Star of David. The Star Spangled Banner was not
offered, nor was there a pledge to the American flag. One verse of God Bless America was sung as a
consolation offering.
Keynote speakers included Israeli Patriot
Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, Member of Congress Jane Harman, AIPAC Executive
Director Howard Kohr, and Israeli former bureaucrat
and now Stanford Professor Ariel Levite. The reoccurring theme was that Yasser Arafat controls terrorism and the Palestinian people,
that he is guilty of acting in bad faith so the Palestinian people must be
further punished. Thus, Arafat was pictured as sort of a backwards proxy for the
people. He is guilty, but they must suffer.
AIPAC inconsistency indicates it has a love/
hate relationship with Mr. Arafat; they love to denounce him but they dont want
him to go away. Dr. Ariel Levite,
who has served in the Defense Ministry, provided his version of the history of
the Intifada where he repeatedly fixed the blame on Arafat. He stressed that the
Israeli people want peace. The writer got the impression that Dr. Levite
considers Arafat far too useful to get rid of.
Kyl and Harmon competed for which one could
do the most for
the paid AIPAC Director and the Israeli agent appear as moderates by comparison.
Kyl stopped just short of saying all Palestinians should be ejected, as his
friend, retiring Congressman Dick Armey recently publicly demanded. Kyl proudly
stated he had had taken a military jeep tour around the West Bank, and said he
agreed with Israel that it needed to appropriate a “buffer zone” between the
west bank and Syria before a treaty is signed. He called for the cessation of
funding to the PLO, which he said was upward to $170 million, and he indicated
confidence Congress would comply.
Kyles agenda mirrors the wish list of AIPAC
Director Kohr, who also said he favored de-funding a
certain United Nations investigative agency unfriendly to
Representative Jane Harmon stated that she
plans to co-sponsor a measure calling for adding
announce he would add his support.
Several notes of concern played, and several
damaging admissions, leaked out of the meeting. Howard Kohr, stated that AIPAC is troubled by the widely held view
since Day 911 that the “hatred would not
be there were it not for (
relationship with
Jane Harmon stated that the
have to go it alone” without any other country in the world with the
seems to understand this may be the case.
Harmon also stated her support for Israeli
action in the
Bank
she did not want to see us “convert every
five year old into a suicide bomber.”
Much of the meeting was consumed by a
carefully monitored
questions supposedly from the floor. However, several written questions from the
floor about the use of
civilians were not read.
AIPAC Director Kohr stated in his opening remarks, “Only one country stands with
was a surprising admission. As the crowd broke for lunch, Kohr acknowledged the presence of the pro-Palestinian
pickets in front of the building, of which, he said, constitutes a growing
worldwide problem. Mr. Kohrs speech delivered at the
previously held April 22 conference can be read on http://www.aipac.org/policy2002hak.html
AIPACs website.
A substantial picket of men, women and
children, organized by Friends of
Palestine, rotated on the line steadily from
atrocities, and AIPACs influence on Congress. Several
signs were directed at Senator Kyle of
Palestinians flags on busy
Road
of the hotel. Several counter picketers stationed themselves across the street,
waving Israeli flags.
According to a study by the Washington Report for Middle East
Affairs, Senator Jon Kyl has already been the recipient of $77,000.00 in
direct campaign funds from PACs viewed to be under the umbrella of AIPAC.
Only 48 hours after the AIPAC meeting, nine
year old Tamar Abu Sirreye of Tulkaram refugee camp was shot to death by Israeli troops
while protesting the Israeli presence in the camp with other children. He was
hit twice in the chest. In an unrelated killing the same day, Israeli military
shot to death Fatima Zakarna (32) and her two
children,
three. All were hit in the head and upper body by fire from a military vehicle
while playing in a field in Jenin. -End
For detailed information on how AIPAC goes
about influencing our Congress, see One
Nation Under Israel. Chapter 10 has a character
study of terrorist, now President, Ariel Sharon. Then President George Herbert
Walker Bush admitted in a media interview in 1991 that he had been virtually
blackmailed to grant a $10 billion dollar loan guaranty to the State of Israel,
compliments of the American taxpayers. He described his contact as an agent of
“AIPAC… a very a very strong Jewish
lobby“, … Mr. Bush later approved the loan without objection from
Congress.
