Is there an Israel lobby? Barry Lando, a former producer for "60 Minutes," writes:
A few years back I did a report on AIPAC for "60 Minutes" with Mike
Wallace. One after another, all the congressional offices I contacted
confirmed the tremendous influence that AIPAC wielded, and the fear
that could be inspired by an AIPAC threat to target a particular
candidate. We were, however, unable to convince a single sitting House member,
senator or staff person to talk on the record. Not that they disagreed
with the premise. They were just terrified of taking about AIPAC.That included the late John Chafee, the powerful U.S. senator from
Rhode Island, who at the time was being targeted by AIPAC in his
re-election campaign. Normally a stalwart supporter of Israel, Chafee
had once contravened AIPAC policy by voting to supply an AWACS plane to
Saudi Arabia. When the report was finally aired it was the target of more irate mail
and phone calls from Jewish organizations across the country than just
about any other report I ever did for "60 Minutes."
Note the adjective: "terrified." This was before the war in Iraq. And "60 Minutes" is now terrified about the idea of putting Walt and Mearsheimer on air…
