Pro-Israel Lobby AIPAC Defeated in Iran Deal Battle

Activists, lobbyist and senior journalists in the United States have agreed that the Iran deal and the support it has received from lawmakers in the U.S. Congress constituted a defeat and a major setback to the largest pro-Israeli lobby group in the U.S., the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

“The lesson that lawmakers have learned from this experience is that right-leaning pro-Israel groups are not immortal,” Dylan Williams, vice president of government affairs for the pro-Israel J Street group that supports the deal, told the Washington Post. “Blood can be drawn. And it is possible to stand up and say “no” to them. And not suffer political consequences.”

According to a report by the U.S.-based National Public Radio (NPR) last month, AIPAC and Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran spent between $20 million and $40 million to lobby against the Iran deal.

However, the Iran nuclear deal has been now supported by one-third of the U.S. Senate meaning U.S. President Barack Obama have now secured a veto against the Republican bill that aims at striking down the deal.

In the U.S., a president needs the support of one-third of the Senate or the House of Representatives in order to uphold his veto.

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A former senior official at the AIPAC said that despite such significant financial investment against the deal, the group failed to convince Democrat lawmakers to come out against it and abandon the Democrat president.

“Where is the lobbying machine? What did all that money buy?,” Steve Rosen, a former top lobbyist for AIPAC asked speaking to U.S.-based The Forward news website. “This is a very bad moment for AIPAC.”

Meanwhile, AIPAC officials blamed the setback on the visit that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made to the U.S. last March, in which he addressed the Congress to convince lawmakers against the deal.

However, the visit put a stain on U.S.-Israeli relations as Netanyahu, along with the majority-Republican Congress, had organized the address without the knowledge of Obama or his administration, contrary to diplomatic protocols.

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“Netanyahu’s speech in Congress made the Iranian issue a partisan one,” an AIPAC official told Israel’s Walla news speaking on condition of anonymity. “As soon as he insisted on going ahead with this move, which was perceived as a Republican maneuver against the president, we lost a significant part of the Democratic Party, without which it was impossible to block the agreement.”

But, the visit was in fact supported by AIPAC. The lobbying group's CEO Howard Kohr said then ahead of Netanyhu's Congress speech that it was "important," and added that "we hope and urge members of Congress to be there to hear what he has to say." 

However, Jonathan Border, Washington-based senior writer for Newsweek, highlighted that the issue goes deeper than Netanyahu's controversial speech. He wrote in a recent article that the Democrat support for the deal, especially from Jewish Democrats, have “exposed a larger rift between Jewish Democrats and Israel’s main U.S. lobby, AIPAC.”

Meanwhile, J Street's Williams said that his group and supporters of the deal would have to continue their work for years to come in order to secure the deal despite the weakening of the biggest pro-Israeli lobbying machine.

“The fight is not over just because the Iran deal gets past Congress,” he said, “it’s something we’re all going to have to keep our eye on for years.”

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