Very telling article from the previous Gulf War about how much influence a certain lobbying group(s) has on pushing the US into endless wars for the benefit of a parasitic foreign country…
Jewish Lobbyists Quietly Backed Resolution Allowing Bush to Commit U.S. Troops to Combat
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
MONDAY JANUARY 28, 1991
WASHINGTON - When Congress debated going to war with Iraq, the pro-Israel lobby stayed in the background-but not out of the fight.
Leaders of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee now acknowledge it worked in tandem with the Bush administration to win passage of a resolution authorizing the president to commit U.S. troops to combat. The behind-the-scenes campaign avoided Aipac’s customary high profile in the Capitol and relied instead on activists-calling sometimes from Israel itself-to contact lawmakers and build on public endorsements by major Jewish organizations.
“Yes, we were active.” says Aipac director Thomas Dine. “These are the great issues of our time, If you sit on the sidelines, you have no voice.”
Swing Votes
In the end, pro-Israel lawmakers were divided on the vote. But the lobby’s influence nonetheless was crucial, especially in helping the White House pick up Democratic support that has typically been denied to recent presidents in other foreign policy confrontations such as the covert war in Nicaragua.
Democrats who have benefited from large contributions by pro Israel political action committees were among the swing votes, and the administration says that having pro-Israel liberals behind the resolution made it easier to hold moderate Republicans as well…
Rarely have the stakes been higher-or has a case of money and ethnic politics been more sensitive and complex. The debate revealed a deep ambivalence among Jewish lawmakers over what course to follow, pitting their generally liberal instincts against their support of Israel.
Friends and families were divided. And even as some pro-Israel advocates urged a more aggressive stance, there was concern that the lobby risked damaging Israel’s longer term interests if the issue became too identified with Jewish or pro-Israel polities.
“American Jews should have no fear in expressing their support for the president of the United States,” says Jerry Lippman, editor of the Long Island Jewish World.
Yet Aipac took pains to disguise its role, and there was quiet relief that the vote showed no solid Jewish bloc in favor of a war so relevant to Israel. “It isn’t such a bad idea that we were split,” says one Jewish lawmaker…
Like Aipac itself, Mr. Solarz’s often-unnoticed strength is his ability to reach beyond his traditional base and find votes among Southern conservatives such as Rep. Ralph Hall, a Texas “Bell Weevil” Democrat who is warmly supportive of the New York congressman-and Israel. More broadly, pro-Israel PACs have poured money into campaigns for Southern Democrats not immediately identified with their cause.
For example, the Alabama delegation voted in a bloc with Mr. Bush in both the House and Senate. At first glance, this can be ascribed to the conservative, pro military character of the state. But pro-Israel PACs have also cultivated Democrats there in recent years.
A total of 25 pro Israel PACs gave Sen. Howell Heflin $87,350 toward his re-election in the 1989-1990 election cycle. Federal records also list $51.375 in contributions from pro-Israel committees to then-Congressman Richard Shelby when he ousted GOP Sen. Jeremiah Denton in 1986…
http://www.abbc.net/adl/aipac3.htm
“Think of CUFI as a Christian version of AIPAC” - Pastor John Hagee