AIPAC TERROIST LUNCHEON

The Lobby
Local activists take on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee

By R.V. Scheid

Since at least the first Gulf War, it’s been the elephant in the living room. In the debate over U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, the cozy relationship Israel enjoys with the United States has not been open for discussion. The unquestioned assumption, by politicians and policy-makers of both stripes, has been that what’s good for Israel is good for the United States, and vice versa. To suggest otherwise, some critics of U.S. Middle East policy claim, is to risk being branded an anti-Semite or anti-American, or both, by what they call “the Lobby,” the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.However, if events at the Radisson Hotel on December 3 are any indication, the Lobby’s alleged ability to influence U.S. foreign policy and shape public opinion may be slipping somewhat. Inside the hotel, local members of AIPAC gathered for the nationwide organization’s annual luncheon. Outside on the street, a throng of 100 demonstrators protested the Lobby’s influence with placards and banners that called for peace in the Middle East, the “end of Zionazi apartheid” in Palestine and the dismantling of AIPAC itself.

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