Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, October 1987, page 13

180 Degrees

"180 Degrees" appears every Friday in Florida Today, parent publication of USA Today. Whenever space permits, the Washington Report will present a debate between George Thompson, a retired US Foreign Service officer, and Dan Warrensford, an engineer, on some aspect of Middle East affairs.

Few people in the US are aware of AIPAC, Dan. That's the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful lobby operating in Washington today. AIPAC should be registered as an agent of a foreign power. To virtually every senator and member of the House of Representatives, its wish is their command. Since 1948, when the Israelis succeeded in shedding the cloak of captive for that of captor, AIPAC has succeeded in obtaining from the US whatever Israel wants. Currently, America's contribution to Israel is more than $3 billion per year. That's a gift. What is worse is that we have been forced to back Israel whatever, whenever and however it wants. Why? Because there are few elected representatives of Americans who would dare alienate their Israeli-loving constituents.

These are not anti-Semitic words, Dan. These are facts.

We're dealing with a group of people who have by force of arms taken land from others, created a state and occupied vast areas where they hold thousands of men, women and children under martial law.

Edward Tivnan has just produced a book entitled, The Lobby: Jewish Political Power and American Foreign Policy. I commend it to you, Dan, and to anyone else who thinks that the Palestinians may ever get a fair hearing in the US. It also will tell you how easy it was for the Israelis to con Reagan, North, McFarlane, Poindexter, and company into selling arms to Iran to justify Israeli arms sales which have been going on for decades.

Many American Jews are angry at Tivnan for writing about it in the first place. Walter Reich's review in the Washington Post Book World section was scathing. But that's because Tivnan is telling it the way it is.

—George Thompson

George, how could anyone be unaware of the existence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee? You've been a committee of one, dedicated to the disclosure of the "misdeeds" of Israel and its friends, including AIPAC.

Well, certainly the Israelis lobby for handouts from the US Congress. Doesn't everyone?

Would you be similarly outraged if Arab lobbying group were as influential as Jewish ones? Oh, sure you would. Riiigght.

Look pal, hop down off your righteous soapbox and 'fess up.' Your interest is the elimination of the state of Israel so that supporters of (choke) "moderate" Arabs like Yasir Arafat and Abu Nidal can slither into the area.

When and if you and yours are successful in prompting the withholding of American support for Israel and, thus, destruction of the only relatively democratic state in the region, your conscience should be sorely troubled.

Blood will run in rivers as your "moderate" Arabs slaughter each other, with tribal fervor, for title to the tiny parcel of land. Beirut will seem tame.

And to justify creation of internecine conflict, you claim that Israel has become a "captor" and aggressor. By what stretch of your vivid imagination can you issue such inane charges?

Since when have the Israelis leveled unprovoked attacks upon their neighbors? They have responded to the criminal acts of those you presume to champion. Yet you claim to be a gentle soul? Shame on you!

Israel willingly provides the United States a needed presence in the Middle East—for a pittance, really. So "right on" for AIPAC (which does not lobby, incidentally), and the lobbying groups for which AIPAC acts as a focal point.

—Dan Warrensford