Ben Harris of JTA has a good video on the student outreach effort by AIPAC. He quotes Jonathan Kessler, longtime AIPAC operative and now leadership development director, on how and why AIPAC cultivates young people:
Every future senator will pass through an American campus. Every future member of the House of Representatives will pass through an American campus. AIPAC’s job is to identify, engage and educate those individuals that are already self-defining and self-actualizing as campus political leaders… We simply have to find a way of identifying those most likely to emerge as America’s future policy makers, specifically foreign-policy makers…
[So it is a conspiracy? Or just a network?]
How are we going to beat back the anti-Israel divestment resolution at Berkeley? We’re going to make sure that pro-Israel students take over the student government and reverse the vote. This is how AIPAC operates in our nation’s capital. This is how AIPAC must operate on our nation’s campuses.
