Claims About US Aid to Israel and AIPAC's Influence in Congress

The United States gives Israel $14 billion.

Israel takes $100 million of that and gives that to AIPAC.

Ugh. AIPAC then gives $9 million back to Donald Trump.

See how this works? So they're just bribing us with our own money.

That's what this is supposed to be pointing out.

The cloud of AIPAC here on Capitol Hill is legendary.

Practically every congressman and senator, uh, is, says his prayers to the AIPAC lobby.

No, they've done an enormous job of, of corrupting the American democratic process.

George Ball was number two in the State Department under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and he has never been reluctant to criticize the pro-Israel lobbies.

It's the most effective lobby in the United States today, and I would put that ahead of the National Rifle Association.

I give them an A for effort. What's wrong with picking a candidate to support on the basis of the way that he has voted?

Isn't that the American way? I think it's, it's an, a, a caricature of the American way.

In recent years, AIPAC and the pro-Israel PACs have helped defeat, among others, Congressman Paul Findley and Pete McCloskey, Senators Harrison Schmitt of New Mexico, Walter Huddleston of Kentucky, and Chuck Percy of Illinois.

Like Senator Chafee, Percy, too, came out in favor of that sale of AWACS to the Saudis.

I finally reached the stage where, as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, I saw our foreign policy totally turned around, with a Muslim world, 800 million people, looking askance at the United States of America.

What is happening? Who is running the foreign policy?

Uh, can Israel and the prime minister have more power than the entire Senate of the United States or the president of the United States?

I don't believe it's an ally at all. We have no alliance with them.

I mean, they insist on total freedom of action, and they insist on, on, uh, our subsidizing their total freedom of action.

The amount of that subsidy is remarkable and a testament to AIPAC's clout on Capitol Hill.

All together, Israel gets more than $3 billion a year in assistance from the United States.

Sometimes the, the votes go through without a single debate, involving billions of dollars. You couldn't spend that kind of money in this country without a huge debate going on, but a foreign government gets this money without debate because simply it's, it's just organized to get it.

Is there a possibility that, of a backlash if Israel is perceived as too powerful in the halls of government here in Washington?

There's always this possibility. If, if people begin to believe that little Israel is calling the shots, then I'm certain Americans would resent that.

Uh, they won't want any country, big or small, to be calling the shots in the Congress of the United States.

Is it common sense or cowardice on the part of senators who just don't want to talk about this?

Oh, I would say the senators would say it's just being practical.

This past week, three major Jewish organizations took issue with AIPAC.

The leaders of the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, and the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith asserted in a letter to the president of AIPAC that AIPAC does not speak for the consensus of the organized Jewish community.

And in a CBS News poll of 1,530 American adults two weeks ago, we asked, "Do you think that in order to preserve the security of Israel, the US should give Israel more aid than it gives any other country?"

13% said yes, 72% said no, 15% said they don't know.