Then Graham tacked and said, AIPAC doesn't do anything wrong, "quite the contrary," it's just a group of Americans banding together to exercise influence; and "we all know how the game's played" at AIPAC conferences. His comments are at 1:04.
Graham:
Here's the deal. AIPAC - are you familiar with AIPAC - American Israeli Political Action Committee [incorrect name]. They come up here in droves lobbying Congress to do things in their view good for the US Israel relationship. I know they have a lot of contacts in Israel. Should somebody like that be a foreign agent?I wonder if there's a secret meaning here Graham is sending. Just because AIPAC is American citizens doesn't mean they're not acting as proxies for a foreign government. "Droves" is one of Benjamin Netanyahu's words: Arabs are coming out in droves, he warned his voters before the last election.
[It's not appropriate to comment, says Adam Hickey, the deputy assistant Attorney General for the national security division].
I'm not suggesting AIPAC's doing anything wrong, quite the contrary. They're a group of Americans who have banded together to maximize their influence to speak about something important to them that involves a foreign ally. So I think the AIPAC model is a good thing and that's not my concern. Because they're very transparent, they have conventions, and we all know how the game's played there. So I just want to make sure that lobbying on behalf of a foreign government or a US relationship with a foreign government is not a bad thing so long as you do it right.
And yes, Graham, part of Joe Lieberman's neoconservative gang, knows how the game is played. Two years ago as a presidential candidate he had a glass of wine or two and joked that he was going to have an "all-Jewish cabinet" if he won because of all the pro-Israel money he was raising.
"If I put together a finance team that will make me financially competitive enough to stay in this thing...I may have the first all-Jewish cabinet in America because of the pro-Israel funding. [Chuckles.] Bottom line is, I've got a lot of support from the pro-Israel funding."Thanks to Susie Kneedler.
Reader Comments
to our Newsletter