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History’s Shadows
PHOTO COURTESY WIKIWANT.COM
AIPAC Makes It Official: It’s All About the Benjamins By Walter L. Hixson
AIPAC is expanding its Washington, DC offices and building a new 11‐story building next door, nearly tripling the pro‐Israel organization’s office space. IN 2019 the Israel lobby smeared Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) with the baseless charge that she had invoked “anti-Semitic tropes” by stat-
History’s Shadows, a regular column by contributing editor Wal‐ ter L. Hixson, seeks to place various aspects of Middle East poli‐ tics and diplomacy in historical perspective. Hixson is the author of Architects of Repression: How Israel and Its Lobby Put Racism, Violence and Injustice at the Center of US Middle East Policy and Israel’s Armor: The Israel Lobby and the First Gener‐ ation of the Palestine Conflict (available from Middle East Books and More), along with several other books and journal articles. He has been a professor of history for 36 years, achieving the rank of distinguished professor. 18
ing the obvious, that the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Congress was “all about the Benjamins.” Now, three years later, AIPAC has announced the formation of a new PAC and super PAC enabling the pro-Israel lobby to engage in direct funding of political candidates, which AIPAC had previously farmed out to smaller PACs. The move confirms that when it comes to maintaining a compliant Congress, it truly is all about those Benjamins that the lobby regularly pours into propaganda and political campaigns. AIPAC’s entry into direct lobbying provides a good opportunity to probe the historical trajectory of the preeminent pro-Israel lobby organization.
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
MARCH/APRIL 2022