The exceedingly high influence of the Jewish lobby on congressional elections and votes is driving American foreign policies to intertwine with Israel's national interests. The fight for Israel's "survival" on the expense of justice to the Palestinians is best represented in a recently passed bill expressing unqualified support for Israel's latest military actions against the Palestinians. The overwhelmingly high vote (94:2 in the Senate, and 352:21 in the House) comes as no surprise when millions of dollars are yearly contributed by pro-Israel political action committees (PACs) to those congressmen who are either in favor of Israel's policies against the Palestinians, or opponents to those in opposition.

Pro-Israel PACs first spread across the United States in the 1980s, when the Jewish community learned that PACs formed by America's largest corporate interests, such as oil trade and arm sales, were serving their own interests in the Middle East by using their political influence to lobby aggressively at the Congress. By law, tax-exempt religious, educational, or charitable organizations were forbidden from lobbying or financially supporting a candidate for office; therefore, American Jewish organizations at that time refrained from any political activism. The alternative was to form political organizations with the sole aim of pro-Israel activism. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was found, and became the first American organization officially registered to lobby Congress directly on all legislation concerning Israel. (Despite having the letters "PAC" as part of its acronym, AIPAC is not a political action committee, and is forbidden from contributing funds to candidates).

While other special interests, such as oil trade or banking, usually have 1-3 PACs, AIPAC's national board members managed to establish over 128 PACs, spread out locally in their home states. AIPAC is now considered the largest, most powerful pro-Israel lobby in the States. Its members not only appear before Congressional committees considering legislation affecting Israel, but they also work with the President and the Executive office. AIPAC also maintains a network of wealthy activists and influential groups whom it can mobilize for support on key issues.

It is important to note that there are several influential Jewish political lobbies in the United States other than AIPAC, the most prominent of which is the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, generally known as the "Presidents Conference." It serves as a forum to reach public consensus within the Jewish community about Israel and interprets this position to the Executive branch, particularly the White House and the State Department.

In order to prohibit wealthy parties from making unlimited campaign contributions to candidates, federal law imposes a $10,000 ceiling for one candidate per PAC. Usually, however, there are at least 50 active pro-Israel PACs in every election cycle, jointly contributing total amounts of several tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars per candidate. Below is a chart showing detailed contributions by pro-Israel PACs for the election cycle of 1999-2000, as published by the online magazine The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA). Two of the largest recipients in this cycle alone are Senators Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) and Charles Robb (D-VA), who collected a total of $86,000 and $102,000 respectively. The overall largest recipient of Pro-Israel PAC money, during the period of January 1, 1978 through December 31, 2001 ("Total career" column), is Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) with a whopping amount of $564,858.

It is very important to note that these amounts are registered with the Federal Election Committee, and do not include "soft money," or money which legally is not supposed to be part of the federal campaign finance system. For example, corporations and labor unions are forbidden by law to spend money in connection with federal elections. Individual contributors are limited to a $1,000 per candidate, and no more than $20,000 per year to a political party. Therefore, soft money is comprised of corporate and union donations and/or large contributions (several hundreds of thousands of dollars) given by wealthy individuals to political parties. Election campaign money obtained from soft money is estimated to outweigh money in all congressional lobbying, and may be double or triple the amounts shown in this chart. According to WRMEA, while it is impossible to demonstrate the exact amount of pro-Israel money that goes into the United States electoral system, it is very likely that soft money donations are channeled to the same candidates who receive legal contributions displayed in the chart.

Chart: http://www.wrmea.com/html/aipac.htm

Sources:

1. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
2. Long Island Jewish Links, "Pro-Israel activist guide"