The annual conference of the American Israel Public AffairsCommittee (AIPAC) is reportedly focused on the congressionaldesignation of Israel as a “major strategic ally” of the US, aunique status that would be enjoyed only by the Jewish state. Themove is seen as facilitating Israel’s military action againstIran’s alleged nuclear weapons program, which also appears on theconference agenda.
But according to the policy director at Just Foreign PolicyRobert Naiman, the pro-Israel conference is focusing on Iran so asnot to draw attention to the unresolved Israeli-Palestinianconflict – as well as protecting US funding of Israel from budgetcuts.
RT: The US has been Israel’s faithful ally since thefoundation of the state. Why does it need to become official, whythe formalization?
RN: Well, according to lobbyists associated with theAmerican Israel Public Affairs Committee, it has to do with thecoming threat of budget cuts. Under this sequester… there’resupposed to be across-the-board cuts to the US budget. So thatshould mean that the US aid to Israel, which is substantial,billions of dollars a year, should also be cut – but the Israellobby doesn’t want the aid to Israel to be cut. So their long gameis that with this designation of ‘major strategic ally’ they wouldmove things that are currently paid out of the US aid to Israelinto the base Pentagon budget. They’ll argue, ‘well, this is aboutthe national security needs...’
So their goal here is to exempt aid to Israel from the so-calledacross-the-board cuts. But of course they don’t want to announcethat on the marquee, because Americans are going to be told: ‘oh,now we have to cut Head Start early childhood education because ofthe sequester cuts, but meanwhile aid to Israel is going to beprotected.’ That’s going to make a lot of people in the UnitedStates very angry.
RT: It’s clear how Israel would benefit from this. Butthe US rubber-stamping the status of Israel as its ‘major strategically’ – how do they benefit from it?
RN: Well, they don’t – it has nothing to do with thebenefit to the US. This is about what you can get away with ifyou’re lobbyist in Washington and the American people aren’t payingattention. If AIPAC and members of Congress are in a closed room,they’re going to agree on one thing. If the American people don’tfind that out, it’s not reported in the press. This isn’t in theNew York Times, it’s not in the Washington Post. It’s in theinsider press that covers the stuff, Jewish telegraphic agency, forexample, that covers AIPAC. So outside the people who follow suchnews, this is not in the mainstream American media yet.
RT: The conference will focus mainly on Iran, which isseen as the emerging threat. But the conflict with the Palestiniansis very real and has been for decades. Why isn’t solving that onthe agenda?
RN: Well, the American Israel Public Affairs Committeedoesn’t want to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they’recompletely content with the status quo. They want Israel to retaincontrol of the West Bank, they want Israeli settlements in the WestBank to expand, so they’re completely happy with that. In fact,these are the people that do a lot to drive the focus on Iran, theAmerican Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Israeligovernment, which are like two twin brothers. This focus nowactually helps them change the channel from the Israeli-Palestinianconflict. They don’t want anybody to think about or talk about…three million Palestinians who don’t get to vote for the governmentthat rules their lives, while their neighbors can stir in theIsraeli Knesset.
