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Comment by DevX101

2 years ago

AIPAC itself is a result of the President Eisenhower and later Robert F Kennedy (DOJ) demanding the American Zionist Council (AZC) register as foreign agents. Because of this, the AZC rebranded to AIPAC with the same leadership and the issue seemed to have fell off the high priority political radar since.

Incidentally, the founder of AIPAC, Isaiah Kenen registered twice with the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) as an agent for Israel. Prior to leading AIPAC, he was the leader of the American Zionist Council. He was also chief information officer for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

AIPAC's mission is pretty clear: to promote the interests of Israel. This is fine, and not unique, but that seems to me to be the textbook definition of a foreign agent, and it should be registered as such.

AIPAC has a very large budget and will be spending over $100M in 2024 to defeat any candidate for US Congress that did not align with their pro-Israel goals.

4 comments

DevX101

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digianarchist  2 years ago

Two questions:

1. Does AIPAC's use of dual-citizens (American-Israelis) allow it to circumvent the Foreign Agent Registration Act?

2. Is there any other analog to AIPAC operating in the United States for a foreign nation?

  • raincom  2 years ago

    I vaguely remember from John Mearsheimer's talk that AIPAC doesn't use any funds from Israel. Instead, AIPAC funds come from American citizens, that makes them evade FARA.

    From Wiki: 'FARA requires those who receive funds or act on behalf of a foreign government to register as a foreign agent. However, AIPAC states that the organization is a registered American lobbying group, funded by private donations, and maintains it receives "no financial assistance" from Israel or any other foreign group'

  • Animats  2 years ago

    1. No. It doesn't matter where the agent is from. It matters who the "foreign principal" is.

    2. Five China news agencies and Russia Today are registered as foreign agents. There are also over 200 foreign PACs, but they're mostly businesses. The Overseas Friends of the BJP (the ruling party in India) is registered as a foreign agent. That's probably the closest match.