Tuesday, 17 April 2007CAIRO ÔÇö American Jewish investment baron George Soros launched a blistering criticism against the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its role in shaping American foreign policy, accusing it of stifling criticism of Israel.
"While the other architects of the Bush administration's failed policies have been relentlessly exposed, AIPAC continues to be surrounded by a wall of silence," he wrote in a 3577-word article in the current issue of the prestigious New York Review of Books magazine.
"I believe that a much-needed self-examination of American policy in the Middle East has started in this country; but it can't make much headway as long as AIPAC retains powerful influence in both the Democratic and Republican parties."
Soros, a long-time political activist, insisted that AIPAC has exceeded its original purpose of lobbying the Congress on issues and legislation that are in the best interests of Israel and the US.
"It became closely allied with the neocons and was an enthusiastic supporter of the invasion of Iraq. It actively lobbied for the confirmation of John Bolton as US ambassador to the United Nations," he said.
"More recently, it was among the pressure groups that prevailed upon the Democratic House leadership to drop the requirement that the President obtain congressional approval before taking military action against Iran."
Soros further said the AIPAC continues to oppose any dialogue with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas.
"AIPAC under its current leadership has clearly exceeded its mission, and far from guaranteeing Israel's existence, has endangered it.
A year ago, Stephen Walt of Harvard and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago maintained that AIPAC has diverted the US policy so far from the national interest.
In a 12,500-word essay entitled "The Israel Lobby," they said pressure from Israel and its lobby played an important role in the decision to invade Iraq, an arch-enemy of Israel, in 2003.
Founded in 1953, AIPAC has more than 100,000 members and is considered one of the most influential special interest groups in the United States.
Stifling Criticism
Soros complained that while discussions about Israel's actions and policies were being freely done in Israel itself, American politicians and intellectuals were being censured when doing the same.
"While other problem areas of the Middle East are freely discussed, criticism of our policies toward Israel is very muted indeed," he said.
"One explanation is to be found in the pervasive influence of AIPAC, which strongly affects both the Democratic and the Republican parties."
Soros, who descends from a family of Hungarian immigrants, blamed that on AIPAC.
"The pro-Israel lobby has been remarkably successful in suppressing criticism," he wrote.
"Politicians challenge it at their peril and dissenters risk personal vilification."
He recalled that when Howard Dean called for an evenhanded policy toward Israel in 2004, his chances of getting the nomination were badly damaged.
"Following his criticism of repressive Israeli policy on the West Bank, former president Jimmy Carter has suffered the loss of some of the financial backers of his center."
In response to charges of bias and anti-Semitism, Carter, a Noble Peace prize winner, said he wanted to provoke a discussion of issues debated routinely and freely in Israel but rarely in the US.
"Academics had their advancement blocked and think-tank experts their funding withdrawn when they stepped too far out of line," said Soros.
When Walt and Mearsheimer tried to publish their AIPAC essay a year ago, they found no takers in the US publishing world.
As it was eventually published in the London Review of Books amid accusations of shoddy scholarship and anti-Semitism.
"It is up to the American Jewish community itself to rein in the organization that claims to represent it," said the American Jewish billionaire.
"But this is not possible without first disposing of the most insidious argument put forward by the defenders of the current policies: that the critics of Israel's policies of occupation, control, and repression on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem and Gaza engender anti-Semitism," he insisted.
"Anti-Semitism predates the birth of Israel. Neither Israel's policies nor the critics of those policies should be held responsible for anti-Semitism."
17 April 2007
Islam Online |
Tuesday, 17 April 2007
Soros Blasts AIPAC
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