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ALAN
G.
YELENSKY
REGISTERED REPRESENTATIVE
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(313) 353-5600
making bodies. This, the writer charged,
resulted in what amounted to AIPAC con-
trol over much of the $7 million distributed
by pro-Israel PACs in 1985-86.
The group's defenders insist that this
overlap is a natural function of the small
size of the Jewish activist community, not
collusion. Most politically active Jews are
involved at several levels of the political
process; it is neither surprising nor sinister
that the same people who become involved
in local pro-Israel PACs have a strong in-
volvement in the largest pro-Israel lobby.
It is important to emphasize that Jewish
lobbyists are merely using the system that
exists today— flawed though it may be—
to advance their cause in Washington. If
a major organization representing teachers
publishes a legislative report card on
members of Congress, that evaluation will
play a role in who gets money from in-
dividual teachers, and from teachers'
political action groups. There doesn't need
to be collusion for there to be influence.
The same goes for the promoters of
Jewish interests in the Capitol. A can-
didate who is evaluated as weak on Israel
is unlikely to get much money from Jewish
contributors or pro-Israel PACs. There is
no need for secret meetings, or some kind
of conspiratorial network; the process is
natural to a system in which money talks,-
and big money talks with special authority.
PLO leader Yasser Arafat.
According to numerous congressional
staffers, the memory of that defeat looms
large in the minds of legislators every time
a bill dealing with the Middle East comes
up in Congress.
AIPAC is singled out for special criti-
cism because of what some people see as
its intolerance of even minor deviations
from the pro-Israel agenda. Hyman Book-
binder, the longtime Washington represen-
tative of the American Jewish Committee,
feels strongly about this issue. "I don't
think it's right—morally, ethically or
practically—to insist that a member of
Congress have a 100 percent score on
Israel, under the threat that if it's only
99.9, you'll be labeled an enemy of Israel.
There may be honest differences of opinion
on issues like the closing down of the PLO
office. From time to time, that wrongness
has been a very bad thing when a member
of Congress differs on a relatively minor
issue, and gets bombarded. I think some
of our pro-Israel lobbyists have done this."
In fact, though, AIPAC can point to in-
stances where deviations from their posi-
tions were ignored in the interests of
preserving relationships with key
legislators. An example is the case of Sen.
Daniel Inouye, who recently opposed
It also is true that the whole nexus of
pro-Israel lobbying and politicking does
not benefit individual contributors, in the
same way that contributors to the many
professional PACs like the American
Medical Association PAC stand to gain
from the influence ,these groups are
wielding.
A Matter Of Style
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Then there is the question of style. It is
here that the pro-Israel lobby, and AIPAC
in particular, come in for the most criticism
from Jewish activists and critics of the
whole system alike.
Effective lobbying is a combination of
factors, including the distribution of infor-
mation, the development of personal con-
tacts with legislators and their staffs and
the promise of future support at the polls
or in political fundraising.
There is an implied threat at the very
heart of the process—the threat that finan-
cial support can be withdrawn at any time,
or that special interest groups can take
their complaints to the media or back to
their supporters at the grass roots level.
Critics of AIPAC argue that the group
emphasizes the "threat" component of the
process. Whether or not the group active-
ly promotes this image, AIPAC is remem-
bered on the Hill for its pivotal role in the
1984 defeat of Senator Charles Percy of Il-
linois, who infuriated the pro-Israel corn-
munity by supporting the sale of AWACs
to Saudi Arabia and by appearing to praise
HYMAN! BOOKBINDER:
Advocates a slower
and broader
approach to lobbying.
AIPAC on the issue of Stinger missiles for
Bahrain without tarnishing his strongly
pro-Israel record in the eyes of the big
group.
But other legislators privately complain
that AIPAC has unfairly painted them
with the anti-Israel brush, despite their
records of support. According to numerous
reports, Rep. Stephen Solarz (D-NY) and
David Obey (DWI) have experienced this
kind of problem with AIPAC lobbyists.
A staffer for a congressman who has—
according to some pro-Israel lobbyists—a
mixed record on Israel describes the resent-
ment that some on the Hill feel towards the