AIPAC Is in Decline—But So Are Hopes for a Two-State Solution By John B. Judis

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119268/aipac-decline-so-are-hopes-two-state-solution

August 29, 2014

AIPAC Is in Decline—But So Are Hopes for a Two-State Solution

By John B. Judis

Connie Bruck has written an excellent portrait of the Israel lobby, AIPAC, in The New Yorker. I say that as someone who knows something about the organization and has written about it myself. She brings a wealth of detail to aspects of AIPAC’s activity that prior accounts of the organization had cited, but could not quite nail down. I am thinking of the two things in particular.
First, she shows that while AIPAC has given lip-service to a “two-state solution” to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, it has worked against American and Israeli attempts to promote it. AIPAC formally endorsed the Oslo agreement in 1993, but then sought to undermine it. She quotes former AIPAC analyst Keith Weissman, “AIPAC couldn’t act like they were rejecting what the government of Israel did, but the outcry in the organization about Oslo was so great that they found ways to sabotage it.” Similarly, AIPAC helped thwart President Obama’s attempt during his first term to promote an agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Recently—and I am citing myself here too—AIPAC has appeared at best indifferent toward Secretary of State John Kerry’s attempt to revive the peace process.
Second, Bruck shows in some detail how the organization wields influence on Capitol Hill by funding House and Senate members who toe its line and seeking to defeat those who don’t. As far back as 1948, Americans who wanted Washington to back Israel recognized that they couldn’t rely on Jewish votes to make their case: There weren’t enough. What counted was the ability to raise money for politicians. AIPAC, as Bruck shows, has perfected that approach in the last 35 years. It doesn’t give money itself, but it gets its high-rolling members and friendly political action committees to do so. The politicians know where the money is coming from. And the strategy has worked. Bruck quotes former congressman Bruce Baird: “When key votes are cast, the question on the House floor, troublingly, is often not ‘What is the right thing to do for the United States of America?’ but ‘How is AIPAC going to score this?’ ”