[WCUSP] Why is the peace movement silent about AIPAC

[yvonne simmons]

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 April 17, 2007

Capuano and Kucinich Come Clean About the Lobby
Why is the Peace Movement Silent About AIPAC?
By JOHN WALSH

"AIPAC!" was the forceful one-word answer of
Congressman Michael Capuano when we asked him, "Why
was the Iran clause forbidding war on Iran without
Congressional approval taken out of the recent
supplemental for the Iraq war funding?" I nearly fell
out of my chair at his reply - not because this was
news but because of who had just said it. Capuano is a
close ally of Nancy Pelosi, her fixer and enforcer.
That was last Friday morning when a small delegation
from Cambridge and Somerville, MA, were visiting the
Congressman, known for his bluntness, as part of the
nationwide UFPJ (United For Peace and Justice) home
lobbying effort during the Congressional recess.

Later that day, Dennis Kucinich made an appearance at
Harvard, where he was asked the same question, the
reason for removing the Iran provision. "AIPAC," I
volunteered out loud. Kucinich looked my way and said,
"Exactly." Again my chair almost failed to contain me.

A few weeks earlier we had gone to the offices of
Senators Kennedy and then Kerry to discuss the war.
(My intention was to call their attention to
www.FilibusterForPeace.org to which the Kennedy aide
was sympathetic and the Kerry aide predictably
hostile.) I raised the question of AIPAC directly with
Kerry's aide, inquiring about its hawkish influence on
Kerry and other Senators. Suddenly the aide was quite
engaged. Leaning forward, he said: "That will never be
discussed publicly. That will never be discussed
publicly." Clearly even Kerry's office is unhappy with
the pressure that comes from AIPAC. 

It is widely acknowledged that the reps and senators
are ticked at AIPAC, and their hostility seems to be
growing these days. With upwards of 60% of their
campaign contributions coming directly or indirectly
from the Israel Lobby, the Democratic congressmen are
not free to respond to their antiwar base. This opens
them to an antiwar electoral challenge on the Left or
Right from forces not subservient to AIPAC. And that
could cost them their next election, a little thing
which has them very worked up. Capuano's cry of
"AIPAC" was no simple outburst of candor but a cri de
coeur for his career. 

So here we have even Congressmen and Senator's aides
complaining publicly about AIPAC. AIPAC is being outed
all over the mainstream media, largely thanks to the
door opening work of Mearsheimer and Walt. AIPAC is
skewered routinely by Justin Raimondo on Antiwar.com
and by Alex Cockburn and many others here on
CounterPunch. But there remains no anti-AIPAC campaign
within the mainstream antiwar organizations, like UFPJ
or Peace Action. (Even one supposed Congressional ally
of the peace movement was announced as a celebrity
guest at the recent colossal AIPAC meeting in
Washington, where half the Congress shows up and Dick
Cheney is a regular speaker. What gives?) 

I have been told by leaders of the peace movement that
AIPAC is a distraction from the main thrust of the
antiwar movement. And so we should not engage it;
AIPAC is to be immune. But with all due respect to the
sentiments of that leadership, immunity for AIPAC is a
prescription for disaster. To use a military analogy,
which I do not especially like, suppose that we were
trying to take a hill in Germany in 1944. And suppose
we said that we would not attack one pillbox, which
kept devastating our forces. Leave just that one
pillbox alone! The result would be devastating; we
would be cut down with every succeeding attempt at
advance. So it is with AIPAC which campaigns
relentlessly for war on Iraq, war on Iran, war on
Syria, war on Lebanon and the slow genocide of the
Palestinian people. AIPAC constantly puts the peace
movement on the defensive while it is free to be on
the offensive all the time. 

AIPAC is not just an issue for Jewish Americans or the
Jewish wing of the peace movement like Jewish Voice
for Peace; it is a major force, although not the only
one, driving the U.S. to wars in the Middle East.
AIPAC is no less a force for war than is the
Republican National Committee. In fact it is worse,
because it sinks its teeth into the foreign policy
establishment of both parties, perhaps the Dems more
so than the Republicans. If the peace movement is to
be worth its salt, then it must take action against
AIPAC. (It is marathon season here in Boston and my
friend, Israeli expatriate Joshua Ashenberg, tells me
that the foregoing thought harbors a logical error. As
he says: "A 'movement' that does not work against
AIPAC is NOT a peace movement by definition. It will
not help if I call myself a marathon runner, while I
never ran a marathon.")

In the Boston area, AIPAC appears to be especially
powerful, and so we have a special responsibility to
take it on. At the recent AIPAC conference in
Washington, the delegates from Boston/New England were
the most hawkish toward Iran. Just before the last
election a notorious ad in the Boston Globe, cheering
on the Israeli bombing of Lebanon, was engineered by
the Jewish Community Relations Council, an arm of
AIPAC here. Every major political figure in MA signed
the ad, including our "liberal" governor, Deval
Patrick, and supposed peacenik Congressman Jim
McGovern. Only Conressmen Capuano and Delahunt
withheld their signatures. In addition AIPAC appears
to raise a lot of money in our neck of the woods. 

So I have a modest suggestion. On Sunday, April 29,
beginning at 6 pm, AIPAC has its annual fundraising
dinner at the Westin Hotel in Copley Square in Boston.
(Last year a good table for 10 went for a modest
$10,000.) Show up at 5 pm to protest the machinations
of AIPAC. Which peace organizations in our area will
be there? Which ones will promote the rally? And which
will maintain their silence? 

* American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)

John V. Walsh can be reached at John.Endwar at gmail.com.


He urges one and all to sign and circulate the
petition at WWW.FilibusterForPeace.org. The Senate
Dems have the power to stop the war with 41 votes;
tell them to use it.

 









  


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