One of the most impressive moments of the AIPAC conference was when they brought out 193 university student council presidents onto the stage. It seemed like a brilliant strategy to me; each of those presidents represented a relationship that AIPAC was building for the future. I'm sure there will be high percentage of those presidents who go on to very influential futures.
The following is a bit of insight into how AIPAC goes about building those relationships. It was sent to us by an intern in a Congressional office in the Houston area. They attended an "official briefing on the U.S.-Israel alliance" that AIPAC held for congressional interns. It was focused on how to become "a leader of campus" and as the author points out "making the students feel special and powerful." The names of the participants have been changed.
I was asked if I wanted to go, and although hesitant, I said yes. I wanted to attend out of curiosity, and through the description, I thought (from the description of the event) that it would be an event where they gave students information on how to hone in their leadership skills.
I walked in at 1:25, and found several people sitting down, all females, at an oval conference table, and to my right, a young girl stood by a table with snacks and name tags. I introduced myself and she gave me a brief questionnaire to fill out, and told me to get myself snacks and drinks.
The questionnaire asked for contact information, such as phone numbers and emails. I believe the first question was something like, ‘How interested are you in the Israeli-American relationship?’ The choice was ‘very, little, not at all’. I circled ‘Very.’ The next question was something like, ‘How interested are you in helping out AIPAC (or was it joining? I can’t remember.)’ I put down my own answer “maybe.” I looked up at the girl and told her, it depends on what AIPAC is doing. She smiled and said, “go right ahead.” The third question was also about AIPAC, but I can’t remember what it is. However, I put down a “maybe” to that one too.
I took a seat at the table, and we all made small talk, as we waited for other interns to show up. I kept text messaging Keith frantically, to see where he was. It was 1:45, and still no sign of him. I found out that of the seven people that were there, one Intern was from Senator Bailey Hutchinson’s office. No surprise there. She’s very pro-Israel. There was an Israeli girl there too, who was interning at the Israeli embassy. Everyone else was working for AIPAC in one way or the other. The girl by the snacks was a student from A&M, and she was the Intern for AIPAC, and would subsequently get up to the podium to make a small speech.
The AIPAC Intern, (I’m so bad with names), said 13 people did RSVP, but that perhaps the weather was keeping them away. After Keith walked in, they decided to go ahead with the program, and not wait any further for the others. No one else showed up during the event.
The AIPAC Intern, talked about how disappointed she was with the Texas A&M college culture, describing “everybody there is closed-minded and conservative.” At one point she said, ‘if you asked them their opinion on something, you would get the same answer from everybody.’ She said other things to the same effect, that there is no diversity of thought at A&M. (The AIPAC workers presented themselves as middle-of-the- road, and pointed out that many of its members left AIPAC accusing it of being too liberal, i.e. not being pro-Israeli enough. This exodus from AIPAC happened during one of the Israeli-Arab wars.)
They stressed over and over again, that AIPAC was an American organization, “to be American is to be pro-Israeli,” and also, to be pro-Israeli is to be pro-American. AIPAC is high off of its “power.” It sounded cheesy, listening to them, but the reality is, that they are very powerful.
[read the full article…]{ Comments on this entry are closed }
