Then there are the emails driven by the AIPAC website, the editorials in the one Jewish newspaper we have in our state. And then the "Dear Colleague" letters from Jewish House members saying how important the vote is for Israel and America. They also will buttonhole the Members on the House floor. Because my boss is not Jewish, he tends to defer to his Jewish colleagues. It is like they are the experts on this. And, truth be told, all the senior Jewish Members of the House are tight with AIPAC. Also, the two biggest AIPAC enforcers, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and his Democatic counterpart, Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, are fierce AIPAC partisans, and they make sure to seek out Members on the floor to tell them how they must vote. On anything related to Israel, they speak in one voice: AIPAC's.
Pretty intimidating, no?
Obviously no one on the peace side has resources like this.
And that is why AIPAC should win. If it doesn't and if the Members of Congress who voted "no" are re-elected anyway, then the #1 tool AIPAC has going for it will be broken. That is the belief that it is invincible because of the campaign donations its directs both to those who support it and to defeat those who don't.
How odd that AIPAC would expend so much on Syria. But, of course, to AIPAC, its not about Syria or Syrian victims of chemical warfare. No, to AIPAC, this is about Iran. If it can't put over a rather minor effort against Syria, how would it sell America (including Congress) on a major war with Iran? Answer: it can't.
If it loses this vote, the 800 pound gorilla will be staggering -- alive but more like a big monkey. On the other hand, it will be able to rake in millions from credulous donors by warning that Iranian bombs are practically en route to Tel Aviv, that another Holocaust looms and anti-Semites are everywhere.
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