The Israel Lobby Is No Longer Invincible
A long-time institution in American politics may be more of a glass cannon than it seems.
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In 2005, former American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) executive Steve Rosen made a boast to Jeffrey Goldberg of the New Yorker. Grabbing a napkin and pushing it towards Goldberg, he said, “You see this napkin? In twenty-four hours, we could have the signatures of seventy senators on this napkin.”
It was hardly an exaggeration. In the decades since AIPAC was formed, the organization developed awesome power, particularly going into the 1990s and 2000s. Resolutions or legislation dealing with Israel would typically pass with the votes of over 90 percent of the Congress, with little debate or discussion.
Why was this? To explain, I want to share a little anecdote from when I worked in Washington, D.C.
