The Evil Genies of the Israel Lobby

As evil as the Israel lobby, it is an evil genies. And it deserves acknowledgements in that regard. I will focus this post on one of its nefarious deeds: student indoctrination.

Every year, AIPAC - the main pro-Israel lobby - brags about how many students attend its annual fanatical conference in Washington D.C. There the students pledge to continue to work on Israel's behalf and are equipped with new propaganda points. I had always assumed that these students were American Jewish campus activists, but I was wrong. Many of them are Christians and have little background knowledge on Israel or any connect to the Jewish people.

AIPAC does not so much consider ethnicity or religion when it offers student an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, instead it considers the student's political activism on campus.

The Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA) recently attended the annual AIPAC conference where it interviewed many of the attending students. It found that most of students are in student government and that AIPAC - in its own words - selects such students based on the premise that those in student government now will later join the ranks of American politicians, and better to get them young. These are ignorant kids who jump at the opportunity to fly to Washington for free and get booked at a hotel on AIPAC's dime. If they have to stand for a few hours of indoctrination a day, so be it. AIPAC bargains on the belief that they can be attached to the pro-Israel narrative while still in college and that they will carry this to their potential future careers. Evil, but genies:

Of course, the students will never hear about this:

“The settlers used to come with dogs – they would send the dogs out to attack us,” said Manar, a schoolgirl from the South Hebron Hills, which is firmly embedded in Area C. She is 13, but looks 10. Like many Palestinians in the area, Manar lives in a village of tents and cave dwellings in the South Hebron Hills. From there she walks two hours to her school. A report by Christian Peacemakers Teams, based in al-Tuwani village, documents many incidents in which settlers, often wearing hoods or masks, have stoned children, beaten them, and stolen their backpacks. (Stoning attacks have also been documented by videos taken by villagers in the area.) Besides the dogs, settlers have fired eggs at Manar with slingshots. Because of the attacks, the Israeli army is required to escort the Palestinian children, but “sometimes they don’t come on time” and Manar misses school for fear of the settlers. “Sometimes they have black hoods covering their faces. So it’s really scary.”

Nearly four years after Israel littered southern Lebanon with mines during its devastating war with Hezbollah, teenager Mohammed al-Hajj Mussa can barely bring himself to speak of the day he lost his legs. On August 11, 2006, the lean, dark-haired boy was riding behind his father on a motorbike to deliver food to a nearby town badly hit in the Israeli raids when a cluster bomb went off under one of the tyres. "Later, I was told that I was found in a creek about four hours after the explosion," Mohammed, now 15, told AFP at his rundown home in the Palestinian refugee camp of Al-Bass, located in the southern coastal town of Tyre. "I came to when they were pulling me out of the water, and I knew it. I could see my legs falling apart."

AIPAC may seem so sophisticated now, but it is not insurmountable and even the most powerful agency cannot stand against the tide of history and justice.