JEWISH JOURNAL
Thomas Friedman Gets AIPAC Wrong
by David Suissa
March 8, 2019

…Apparently, in [Thomas] Friedman’s fantasy world, there’s no end to Aipac’s power. If only Aipac had taken on Netanyahu, if only they had attacked his right-wing policies that have resulted in “tens of thousands of Israeli settlers now ensconced in the heart of the West Bank,” maybe the Palestinian leaders would have come to their senses and a two-state solution would have been more likely. Never mind that there were already “tens of thousands of Israeli settlers” well before Netanyahu took office, and it was the Labor party not the Likud party that started the settlement enterprise in the first place. READ MORE

JEWISH INSIDER Responses to NYT’s “Is AIPAC Too Powerful?” Several questioned why the article retold well-reported tales from AIPAC’s past while all but ignoring the history of dual loyalty accusations and why they are problematic. Others were upset that the article featured an image of the South Florida activist donning phylacteries, something they contend was a ‘cheap ploy’ intended to portray him as something of a religious fanatic. One Twitter user also took the opportunity to complain that the ‘paper of record’ should refer to the group by its uppercase acronym AIPAC, not Aipac. But more troubling was that the story further exposed Stolberg’s eagerness to play sympathetic defender to the Democratic freshmen whom she’s supposed to be covering objectively.

JERUSALEM POST Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says AIPAC is coming after her Not only is it not official, it’s not true.

TABLET MAG Armin Rosen: How Influential Is AIPAC? Less Than Beer Sellers, Public Accountants, and Toyota A list of lobbies and their spending may surprise Congresswoman Omar and her supporters. It turns out those pro-Israel dollars are minuscule by comparison to other lobby groups…One could be forgiven for thinking that the organization under discussion was one of the biggest political spenders in America. In reality, AIPAC is a public affairs committee and not a political action committee; as a result, the group itself donates nothing to candidates or campaigns. By far the largest pro-Israel donor to political candidates last election cycle was JStreetAC, which gave entirely to Democrats.