Aipac and the Lying Liars of the Israel Lobby

Mar 11th, 2009 by Richard Silverstein

Comment is Free today published my piece on Chas. Freeman’s withdrawal. I wanted to expand on a few points in it. The NY Times characterizes Aipac’s Josh Block as saying the following about the group’s involvement in the anti-Freeman campaign:

Joshua Block, a spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying group, said Tuesday that his organization had not taken a formal position on Mr. Freeman’s selection and had not lobbied Congress members to oppose it.

Interestingly, Spencer Ackerman notes that Aipac has been “shopping around oppo research” on Freeman to right-wing bloggers. If you study those two statements closely you’ll find room enough to drive a Mack truck through. Aipac didn’t DIRECTLY lobby Congress, nor did it need to take a “formal position.” All it needed to do was to call every wingnut pro-Israel blogger in town & peddle its sleazy wares to them. That’s how “journalists” like Steve Rosen, Jonathan Chait, James Kirchik, Gabriel Schoenfeld and Jeffrey Goldberg “discovered their voice” on this issue.

Unfortunately, this is the type of fine tooth combing you need to do when you deal with Aipac to discover what they’re really doing regarding issues like this.

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