Summary
The formal pro-Israel lobby group formed in 1951 under I. L. Kenen, which in Christison’s account formed the core of Ambassador Abba Eban’s efforts with the U.S. public, secured congressional support for aid to Israel before the administration was formally approached, and by the 1970s could mobilize fourteen hundred Jewish leaders from thirty-one states in Washington (Perceptions of Palestine, lines 1086-1112, 1428-1440).
Details
- AIPAC was formed in 1951 on the occasion of Israel’s need for economic assistance to absorb Jewish immigrants; because the State Department was reluctant to give the aid, the Israelis went directly to Congress through AIPAC, and the lobbyists had already secured the support of congressional leaders in both houses before Eban formally approached Secretary of State Dean Acheson (Perceptions of Palestine, lines 1098-1112).
- Its publication Myths and Facts, giving the Israeli perspective, went through six editions and 750,000 copies between 1964 and 1980, and by the early 1970s its newsletter the Near East Report had a circulation of thirty thousand, including among congressmen and senators (Perceptions of Palestine, lines 1428-1440).
- In January 1970 it brought fourteen hundred Jewish leaders from thirty-one states to Washington to protest the Rogers Plan; the lobbyists were able to see 250 congressmen, almost half the entire Congress (Perceptions of Palestine, lines 1428-1440).
- In 1978, at AIPAC’s suggestion, Carter domestic adviser Stuart Eizenstat proposed that the United States supply Israel with technical data on the F-18 aircraft in order to “help break the ice” with Israel, and the information was released (Perceptions of Palestine, lines 1702-1722).
Related pages
Perceptions of Palestine, Abba Eban, Jimmy Carter, United States