In May 2009, Congressmen Eric Cantor (R., Va.) and Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) wrote to President Barack Obama about U.S. policy toward Israel. Their staff sent the letter as a PDF but forgot to change the name of the file to something other than "AIPAC Letter Hoyer Cantor May 2009.pdf."[...]
Friday, April 29, 2011
One could be forgiven for thinking that the last three letters of AIPAC stand for “political action committee.” But since the American Israel Public Affairs Committee does not itself make campaign contributions to political candidates, technically it is not a PAC. Curiously, however, the 30-odd “unaffiliated” pro-Israel PACs, most with deceptively innocuous names, all seem to give to the same candidates—almost as if there were a guiding intelligence behind their contributions. In the eyes of the Federal Election Commission, AIPAC is a “membership organization” rather than a political committee. This means that, unlike actual PACs, AIPAC is not required to file public reports on its income and expenditures[...]
Thursday, April 28, 2011
At the end of one of my first journeys to the Israeli-occupied West Bank in 2004, I endured a shocking experience at Ben-Gurion Airport. I never imagined that Israeli security forces would abuse a 79-year-old Holocaust survivor, but they held me for five hours, and strip-searched and cavity-searched every part of my naked body. The only shame these security officials expressed was to turn their badges around so that their names were invisible[...]
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Not too many people have heard of AIPAC, which stands for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. It is not a PAC, under the standard definition of Political Action Committees, but a lobbying group. Here is how AIPAC describes itself on its website: "For more than half a century, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee has worked to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship. From a small pro-Israel public affairs boutique in the 1950s, AIPAC has grown into a 100,000-member national grassroots movement described by The New York Times as "the most important organization affecting America’s relationship with Israel." That goal is one that we would ordinarily admire—American citizens bonding together to let their government know how they feel about issues that are important to them, as Americans. The problem here is that AIPAC is a group of American citizens who have bonded together to influence the American government to work for the interests of a foreign government—Israel[...]
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
By Sharon Miller, San Francisco intern for CODEPINK April 20, 2011 marks the one-year anniversary of the BP explosion, oil spill, and environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, leading to the deaths of eleven workers and to the [...]
Friday, April 15, 2011
Today, the House voted on the People’s Budget and a paltry 77 representatives stood up for the people’s choices. Nevermind the vote – the budget is the rational blueprint for our country’s future. Perhaps in the excitement over Blue Eye’s Fantasy Budget and Obama’s Fiscal Policy Speech, you missed the unveiling of The People’s Budget. [...]
Friday, April 29, 2011
1 Comment