The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has recently established its own political action committees. AIPAC is using tens of millions of dollars of PAC money to knock off candidates for office it believes won’t be sufficiently deferential to the government of Israel. There is a lot of current analysis about this in social and even legacy news media. Most of it has one thing in common: no history about how, when or why AIPAC came into existence.
What exactly is AIPAC and where does it come from? Who founded AIPAC, and when? What did AIPAC’s founder do before creating a lobby for Israel in the U.S.? What happened when he ran into trouble with the Senate and Department of Justice? How does AIPAC history inform us about foreign influence on U.S. political campaigns and American Middle East policy today?
Those are questions we answer in this thirteen-episode podcast.
A declassified 1961 Senate Foreign Relations Committee memo finally reveals the original reason for ever investigating the Israel lobby. In 1954, Israel launched the Operation Susannah false flag terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities in Egypt aimed at scuttling the return of the Suez Canal to Eqypt. But the Israeli terrorists were caught and prosecuted, leading to a diplomatic crisis with the U.S.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee feared that Israel and its U.S. operatives could launch future violent attacks to influence American policy. Pinhas Lavon, the Israeli Minister of Defense blamed for the failed terror operation, became a board member of the Jewish Agency, the same Israeli government funded entity that funded AIPAC's startup lobbying and public relations campaigns in the U.S.
Details from declassified FBI files released in 2012 reveal AIPAC founder Isaiah Kenen's early interactions with the Mossad, which led the FBI to conclude he was more involved in a massive covert operation for Israel's government than simply public relations and lobbying.
The FBI report frankly categorized Kenen’s exchanges as examples of “efforts being made by the Israelis to change the policies of the United States State Department.”
Israel spent $61 million setting up an Israel lobby in America. While Israel's most prominent critics say the lobby is "American as apple pie," that is only true in the sense that apple pie is also a foreign import.
It is the conclusion of this podcast that AIPAC is the expansion and continuation of this Israeli foreign influence operation.
This concludes the podcast "How Israel Made AIPAC".
If you would like to review citations for all of the content in the podcast, and even reproductions of formerly classified documents, purchase a copy of the paperback version of the book "How Israel Made AIPAC: The most harmful foreign influence operation in America." Or, request one of a limited number of free paperback copies of "How Israel Made AIPAC" by emailing your name and mailing address to info@irmep.com.This podcast was created and is copyrighted by the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy. If you would like to learn more about IRmep or support IRmep research, visit www.IRmep.org.
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19 Sept 2022
Episode 13: Above the Law
AIPAC learns the more entangled and influential its funders become in elite political circles, the less likely its operatives will be prosecuted for electoral fraud and joint espionage operations with Israel's government.Foreign Agents Registration Act enforcement gradually becomes a cudgel to wield exclusively against out-of-favor foreign governments as elite law firms and associates of high officials such as Marion Javits and Billy Carter are paid to lobby for Iran and Libya. Courts rule that attorney-client privilege can shield key communications between foreign principals and their U.S. agents, further eroding FARA.
The anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism's leadership and George Washington University legal scholar William T. Mallison pressure the Justice Department to obtain the Jewish Agency's foreign financing and control documents. After its 1953 covenant with the Israeli government (which also finances the Jewish Agency) is filed with the Department of Justice, the Jewish Agency suddenly stages a suspicious paper "reconstitution" claiming it actually has an entirely different foreign principal with no Israeli government linkages.
Liberated from White House, DOJ and Senate scrutiny, AIPAC engages in a joint espionage operation with Israel's Minister of Economics against U.S. industry in 1984. In 1986 two AIPAC officials rig the California senate race to install Alan Cranston, who goes on to lavishly fund aid to Israel. In 1988 AIPAC illegally coordinates "independent" stealth PACs with misleading names to advance other Israeli government preferred candidates. In 2004 AIPAC executives Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman try to tripwire the U.S. into war with Iran using stolen classified Department of Defense information, even as an Israeli prosecutor finds the Jewish Agency continues to launder billions into Illegal Israeli settlements.
AIPAC quietly works to gut U.S. lobbying laws and enact special carve-outs for itself over lobbying junkets as Foreign Agents Registration Act enforcement slowly crumbles. The 2002 book Jewish Polity and American Civil Society declares that AIPAC is now free to engage in unlimited U.S. lobbying in concert with Israel's government.
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12 Sept 2022
Episode 12: Secret Deal
JFK's initiative to inspect the Israeli nuclear weapons production facility at Dimona and keep the Israelis from going nuclear dies in Dallas. AIPAC strives mightily, promoting legacy media reports, to convince Americans that Dimona will never produce nuclear weapons. Barrons charges the State Department "once more placed itself in a ridiculous posture by accusing Israel of conspiring to build atomic weapons."
AIPAC's umbrella group switches to an offensive posture against registering as a foreign agent. FARA section staffers criticize capitulation on the registration issue and ask soon-to-be Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach to hold firm. AIPAC's umbrella floods the DOJ with irrelevant payroll and other unsolicited documents. Finally in 1964 an agreement is struck for the lobby to file "representative" expenditure reports. In early 1965 the DOJ receives damning reports of massive payoffs to media organizations like the New York Times, sundry academics doing "independent" research, Zionist operatives and spokespersons barnstorming America to promote Israel. But rather than publicly disclose the itemized expenditure filing as required by FARA, the DOJ locks it away….until 2008. One FARA staffer is outraged.
5 Sept 2022
Episode 11: Fighting Justice
The Department of Justice orders AIPAC's umbrella organization to begin registering as an Israeli foreign agent on November 21, 1962. JFK friend Simon H. Rifkind is hired to help the lobby wriggle out of the order, claiming they would stop laundering Jewish Agency funding into the United States for Israel lobbying and propaganda. Rifkind argues that registering as a foreign agent would "choke the very life" out of the Zionist movement. The anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism celebrates news of the order, as the New York Times scrambles to get inside information.
Justice Department lawyer Nathan Lenvin warns Israel lobby representatives that the Fulbright Senate hearings on foreign agents proved beyond doubt that the AIPAC umbrella was not disseminating "educational" material but rather was receiving huge Jewish Agency cash infusions to propagandize Americans and lobby Congress in league with the Israeli state.
A curious Wall Street Journal report that Justice Department officials were "weighing the risk of offending Jewish opinion in the U.S" triggers a huge outpouring of letters from American Jews to Congress and RFK that they should follow rule of law. In October, 1963 the FBI offers its assistance to enforce the FARA order as additional evidence of foreign control continues to accumulate.Fortunately for AIPAC, on November 22, 1963 JFK is assassinated and the drive to enforce the FARA order gradually begins to fall apart.
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29 Aug 2022
Episode 10: Senate Investigation
AIPAC founder Isaiah L. Kenen flees for Iran as the Justice Department moves closer to registering the Israel lobby as a foreign agent because of its overseas funding. The American Council for Judaism fights the Zionist takeover of comunal fundraising entities in the US. Senate Foreign relations Committee investigators uncover massive Jewish Agency/Israeli government funding flows into U.S. lobbying and public relations via seized documents. Jewish Agency lawyers whither under Senator J.W. Fulbright's interrogations as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's foreign-funded political activities are exposed. Fulbright questions by AIPAC's founder is registered as a domestic, rather than a foreign, lobbyist.
Podcast website: https://IRmep.org
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22 Aug 2022
Episode 9: Near East Report
How did AIPAC founder Isaiah Kenen use the Near East Report to keep score of Congress member votes that impacted Israel? Why did Kenen constantly call out the American Council for Judaism and Senator J. W. Fulbright in the Near East Report? What kinds of cartoons did the Near East Report run and how did they frame the plight of Palestinian refugees and Arabs? What role did Kenen play inserting Israel into "planks" of both major political parties? How did Kenen frame Israel's false flag terror attacks (Operation Susannah) against American targets in Egypt and subsequent Lavon Affair fallout? How did the Israeli-government-funded Jewish Agency secretly cover the costs of publishing the Near East Report? When did CNN superstar Wolf Blitzer work as an editor at the Near East Report and how did his approach differ from Kenen's?Podcast website: https://IRmep.org
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15 Aug 2022
Episode 8: American Zionist Council
How did Harry Truman resist Isaiah Kenen's Israel lobby public relations issue framing? What were David Ben-Gurion's directives to the American Zionist Council where AIPAC functioned as the lobbying and PR division? According to Kenen, how were Israel's core interests served by forming AIPAC? How much was Kenen paid by Israel's government to lobby American politicians in a delegation to Israel after a $65 million aid package passed through the U.S. Congress?Podcast website: https://IRmep.org
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8 Aug 2022
Episode 7: Israel Office of Information
What was the Israel Office of Information and AIPAC founder Isaiah L. Kenen's role at IOI? How long did Kenen remain as an employee of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs at IOI? What propaganda information did IOI omit in its FARA filings? How did Kenen, chafing under FARA, maintain an active lobbying campaign in the U.S. Congress for foreign aid while still operating as an employee of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs? Why did the Justice Department tell Kenen to keep registering as an Israeli foreign agent even after he left IOI?
Podcast website: https://IRmep.org
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1 Aug 2022
Episode 6: Arms Smuggling
Which Israeli pre-state terrorist and arms smuggling entities freely operated in the U.S.? How and why did they penetrate the U.S. Department of Treasury? How and when did the Secretary of Treasury threaten President Franklin D. Roosevelt's State Department with charges of anti-Semitism if the administration refused to support Zionist aims? Who was Vladimir Jabotinsky?" What was the "Transfer Agreement?" How did U.S. war surplus arms and equipment become a target for Jewish Agency and Haganah arms smugglers? What was the division of labor for smuggling front operations like the Sonneborn Institute, Materials and Manpower for Palestine and who were the key operatives ? What overseas activities did the CIA detect?Podcast website: https://IRmep.org
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1 Aug 2022
Episode 5: Foreign Agents Act
Why did the U.S. enact the Foreign Agents Registration Act? When and why did enforcement move from the State Department to the Department of Justice? What were the key provisions of FARA and how did they change over time? What was the Jewish Agency for Israel and why did it have to register under FARA? Which U.S. individuals and organizations were prosecuted for violating FARA?Podcast website: https://IRmep.org
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1 Aug 2022
Episode 4: Lobbying for a Country
In what ways was the creation of Israel like a business startup? What did the nascent Israel lobby want from President Harry Truman and how did they approach and lobby him? Why did the U.S. State and War Departments oppose U.S. recognition of Israel? Why was the American Council for Judaism also opposed? How was Isaiah L. Kenen involved in official UN missions traveling to Palestine on behalf of the Jewish Agency? What secret documents did the Zionist movement leak to taint the Arab cause? Why did Truman resent such Zionist pressure campaigns? How did The Nation magazine help Israel's cause at a critical juncture? Who was Abraham Feinberg and why did he factor so heavily in Democratic Party fundraising for Truman and in following decades? Which Zionist group was hedging its bets by simultaneously lobbying the U.S. and Germany during WWII? The maintenance of which secrets helped advance the Zionist cause?Podcast website: https://IRmep.org
To support this podcast visit https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/1388020
1 Aug 2022
Episode 3: AIPAC’s Founder
Who was AIPAC's founder Isaiah L. Kennen? Where was Kenen from and how did he get his start? How did his father's disastrous wartime dealings supporting Russia's Tsar impact the family? How did Kenen's journalism morph from lobbying for labor rights, to U.S. entry into WWII and finally the formation and U.S. subsidization of Israel? Which major U.S. Zionist leaders did Kenen work with, and why was Theodore Herzl's plan for a Jewish state so important to Kenen?Podcast website: https://IRmep.org
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1 Aug 2022
Episode 2: Why this Matters
Why is the history of the intense battle between the U.S. Department of Justice, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kennedy administration and AIPAC so important, but so little known? Why is AIPAC circumspect about its origin story? How has AIPAC largely written its founder, Isaiah L. Kenen, out of that history? What three developments concerning the formation of Israel have had an enormous impact on Americans?
Podcast: How Israel Made AIPACPodcast website: https://IRmep.org Support this podcast https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/1388020
1 Aug 2022
Episode 1: This Series
Israel’s lobby the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC is knocking out American politicians it thinks won’t be deferential enough to the Israeli government. But what is AIPAC and where does it come from? When was a key chapter of AIPAC’s secret history finally declassified and released by the U.S. Department of Justice? How to subscribe to this podcast and support IRmep.
Podcast website: https://IRmep.org
Support this podcast https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/1388020
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