All Episodes
Previous Next
Feb. 13, 2019 - Know More News - Adam Green
32:40
MUST WATCH!!! AIPAC & Anti-BDS EXPOSED by UNDERCOVER Footage
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Tony's boss at the Israel Project used to work at APAC, where debate about Israel's actions or Palestinian rights were rarely prominent.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I know that like getting 38 billion dollars in security ideas are all matters.
So they actually would have proudly have been a part of this all my job was basically to convince students that participating in the war of ideas on campus is actually a distraction.
You can hold up signs and have rallies on campus, but Congress gets $3.1 billion a year for Israel.
Everything APAC does is focused on enforcing Congress.
Congress is where you have leopards, so you can't enforce the president of the United States directly, but the Congress can APAC is very interested in making sure that every representative and every senator toes the line on Israel.
And uh it is highly effective in that regard.
That's why it's considered to be synonymous in many people's heads with the lobby.
APEC's website shows members of Congress attending its conferences and declaring their support for Israel.
And on behalf of Congress, thank you for sending a clear and unequivocal message to the world that the United States stands with Israel now, tomorrow, and always.
I reject the BDS movement, whether it be on campuses in France and London or right here in the United States of America.
To get elected in the American political system, you need lots of money.
What AIPAC does is it makes sure that money is fuddled your way if you're seen as pro-Israel.
And it'll go to significant lengths to make sure that you stay in office if you're not in the United States.
If you continue to be uh staunchly pro-Israel.
May God bless Israel.
May God bless the United States of America.
May God bless you all.
Thank you so much.
They have questionnaires.
Anybody running for Congress is expected to fill out a questionnaire.
And they evaluate the depth of your commitment to Israel on the base of that question.
Then you have an interview with local people.
If you get APAC support, then more often than not, you're gonna win.
Jim Moran is a Democrat who represented a congressional district in Northern Virginia.
You realize it's not just the money, it's the number of concerned activists.
They'll send out postcards, they'll make phone calls, they'll organize.
I mean, that's the democratic process.
They understand the democratic process.
We made sure that there were people in every single congressional district And then you'd call them up and say, I'm calling from APAC in Washington.
I did these calls.
We hear that you're a good friends with Congressman so-and-so.
Oh my god, yes, we've been friends since elementary school.
Well, what does he think about Israel?
I never talked to him about Israel.
Well, can I come down and talk to you and help you figure out a way to talk to him about Israel?
No, just tell me.
What should I say?
I don't have to, I'll just tell them.
Our undercover reporter wanted to learn more about how funding is secured for Congressman.
Speaking of the devil.
David Oakes, a prominent pro-Israel advocate, invited Tony to a fundraising event.
Oakes later called him to discuss the details.
Is it just a social event?
No, hold on.
I'm going to email you a list of the people that this group supports.
This is the biggest ad hoc political group and definitely the wealthiest in D.C. Hold on.
*music*
Mark Kirk, Senator from Illinois.
Ted Deutch from Florida.
Barbara Comstock, she's the congressman of Virginia.
Richard Byrd, of Carolina.
Kelly Ayotte, she's fantastic.
She's in the armed committee.
They'll walk in the room and they'll say everything here is up the record.
And then they'll say hear a little bit about me, and then people will have very good money.
The fundraiser was being held in a wealthy suburb of Washington.
A big group you make the difference, it really really does.
It's the best thing for your buck, and networking is phenomenal.
Congressmen don't do anything unless you pressure them.
It kicks a can down the road unless you pressure them.
And the only way to do that is with money.
Tip changes the way thousands of media reports appear every year.
And then we add platforms of our own, getting people talking, taking command of the conversation.
this last week, but you know, when I was there, I met with both Herzog and Netanyahu.
*Music*
We use this to kind of articulate the reasons that the notion of a Jewish state, a good thing for us as Americans, and it's a good thing for Jews, and a good thing for Israel, a good thing for the West, and a good thing for everybody.
Block describes the pro-Israel lobby as a three-legged stool, propped up by influencing Congress, shaping policy through think tanks, and thirdly, Tip's role, managing the public discourse.
You've got the lobby and the politics, and you got the ideas and think tanks, but you can't define the meaning of those ideas.
Other people are doing it for you, then the third leg of the stool is there and it falls over.
He's brilliant in like a mad scientist sort of way.
And uh he was like the troublemaker.
You know, he's always breaking the rules and always getting done.
He's very effective at strategic communications and dealing with journalists.
He was SteamApp.
I mean, he could get anything on the front page of the Washington Post.
Tony had gathered that the lobby's concern with BDS was not its economic impact, but a much wider threat to the power of the pro-Israel lobby.
The specific potential of an immediate boycott, that's not a problem.
The bigger problem is the Democratic Party, the Bernie Sanders people, bringing all these anti-Israel people to the Democratic Party.
Being pro-Israel is less of a bipartisan issue.
And then every time the White House changes, policies towards Israel change.
And that becomes a dangerous thing for Israel.
There is an actually important battle you fly on the campus.
For half a century, bipartisanship has been the cornerstone of APAC's success, as its website video explains.
By some measures, Democrats and Republicans are more divided today than at any other time in the last two decades.
But America's support for Israel transcends partisan politics.
So when it comes to strengthening America's relationship with Israel, support must come from both sides of the aisle.
That's where APAC comes in.
What's begun to happen over the past decade is that support for Israel has begun to wither away in the Democratic Party.
And in contrast, support for Israel in the Republican Party has begun to increase.
And what you see is there is a substantial difference today in support for Israel in the two parties.
AIPAC has moved so far to the right that it's losing the young people.
By the time of the next presidential election, Democrats will not glibly, in a debate, say, they're running for president and I love Israel and I'm a diehard supporter of Israel.
The terrain has changed dramatically.
If you look at the changing demographics in the United States and what people's views are towards Israel and Israel's policies, it's only a matter of time before that trickles up to elected officials.
I think it's inevitable.
The kind of shift they fear is the one that happened over same-sex marriage.
You know, it was only a short few years ago that high majorities in the United States were opposed to same-sex marriage.
That change happened within the space of a decade.
The Israel lobby will look at something like that and say it wouldn't take much for that kind of historic sea change to happen with respect for U.S. support for Israel.
Oh, Lord, let's say you are there.
Yeraday, yeraday, yeraday, yeraday.
Outside AIPAC's 2017 annual conference, the first protesters were American Jews.
MUSIC PLAYS APAC is facing a challenge from the constituency whose views it was formed to represent.
AIPAC does not represent the American Jewish community.
A majority of American Jews are opposed to the policies of the State of Israel.
You do not represent the best of the Jewish prophetic tradition, and we hear the bell windows of this.
One of the groups involved was Jewish Voice for Peace.
The work that Jewish Voice for Peace does is grounded in Jewish tradition, the most basic Jewish and human values that we have.
That every single person has inherent uh worth and dignity and should be treated with respect.
We then see what's happening to Palestinians, the occupation, the displacement, the inequality, and say we need to end those things.
Or that they must attack.
Yeah, yeah.
Basically that was.
No reason.
I suppose I can say the American Jews had one job, which was to preserve your dignity from one generation to the next.
They failed.
So I don't think they have any place to be telling Israel what's what they choose to start giving money to Israel.
is what we're thinking this way.
There were few pro-Israel demonstrators.
most wanted to project their strength through israel's relationship with the united states the jewish defense league with its distinctive yellow insignias was a small but threatening presence Its members later attacked a Palestinian American man.
There's all sorts of survey data for American Jews under the age of 30.
Only 32% said that a close attachment to Israel was important to them in terms of what it meant to be Jewish.
The more and more young American Jews become aware of what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians and how indefensible that is, at least in terms of Western values, the more difficult it will be to get those younger American Jews to feel a deep commitment to the state of Israel.
American Jews are even taking their protest to Jerusalem.
The Israeli government official, who launched a covert campaign to spy on American citizens, recognizes that Israel is facing a generational time bomb.
We are not only when we met the second stage of Jews, which is the millennium of Jews.
I heard from their parents who come to me and explain how difficult it is in 60's and their children.
They do not know the state of Israel and do not see an entity that needs to be held.
Get out the way!
Move me back!
Get out the way!
Get out the way!
During Tony's volunteership at TIP, his supervisor Eric said he is looking to a future when the pro-Israel lobby will be unable to rely on AIPAC's influence in Congress.
He said they faced a major challenge and a big bowling ball was being hurled towards them.
They needed to get on the bowling ball and start dancing.
You can prove that the attack is suffering from some of the trends in public opinion that are affecting the Democratic Party.
APACS is slipping very, very quickly among Democrats.
They're not going to be able to maintain the bipartisan support.
So I always say that the foundation that APACS sat on is running.
And that's there used to be actually widespread public support for Israel in the United States.
And so I don't think that a pact is going to remain as influential as it is.
I don't think Apex would have been spirit anymore.
Which is worries them because what who is the Israeli government leverages Jewish organizations in the diaspora.
Absolutely.
So Israeli government leverages Jewish organizations in the diaspora?
Absolutely.
So Israeli government leverages Jewish organizations in the diaspora?
Yes, absolutely.
Jewish voice for peace, or as I call it Jewish voice for the mosque.
They'd be like having a group called like, you know, African Americans for slavery.
You know, it's like it's crazy, right?
A lot of the JVP people are not um not Jewish.
Um they've had a real problem of like people basically pretending to be Jews because the anti-Israel activism sound it's a little more sexy.
You're here to you're here speaking, uh speaking with the rabbi.
I I I work for for Jewish Voice for Peace.
Uh I mean, we're we're we're a Jewish organization.
I mean, again, I think that's another kind of absurd, absurd claim.
When you talk about SJP and when you talk about BDS, you talk about them as a hate group.
Um, as a as a movement that absolutely endorses violence against civilians.
Not military conflict, but violence against civilians, aka terrorism.
Our undercover reporter was attending a dinner at the annual conference of the Israeli American Council in Washington.
He met an American involved in the Israeli government's anti-BDS campaign.
In my job, I get to work with every major news network and don't even hurt gay media.
Every university president takes our calls to make certain things.
It's the best.
There's a genuine government organization.
The discussion was dominated by the boycott divestment and sanctions movement.
But for the most hard host media, so you're behind the I'm even rescue faculty after what they're doing is loving relationships with all politicians.
Hey, look.
Even when a politician is going to turn to that, when it's all shit.
Israel is sent to it and it's not to the table.
The three-day conference brings together the constellation of pro-Israel lobby groups in the US.
On the surface, things seem to be looking good for Israel.
Israel's booming.
It's the start-up nation.
More venture capital is going into Israel today than at any other time in history.
So why don't we just calm down, realize that EDS is worthless, it's losing and ignoring.
*music*
I don't think BDS was ever supposed to be about getting colleges to take their money out of Israel.
So if we focus on the dollars, we could feel really good about ourselves.
If we focus on the fact that an effort's being made to distance us, those who love Israel, Israel from the rising generation, I think we need to worry.
BDS has taken everybody surprised, it's come up, you know, uh behind everyone's back and bit them on the ass.
Yeah, that's a complete mess.
Um I can tell you that I don't think anybody's doing a good job.
Um we're not even doing a good job.
We did some good research, but we haven't figured out how to do anything with it.
The slurs the lobby once relied on are no longer working.
Personally, I think anti-Semitism um uh as a smear is not what it used to be.
Looking back on it now, it's all f it's all crap.
Oh yes, in general, obviously.
But also it's just not all I don't know, it doesn't do anything.
I mean, fighting back against it has no practical effect.
What has a back to the effect is getting Congress to give Israel military.
The New York Times Israel through its lobby has manifested so much power over the United States Congress that we're embroiled in wars that I don't believe we should be.
Our kids are coming back in body bags.
And in the long run, this Israeli lobby is going to hurt Israel.
So as soon as you mention Israel, someone claims you're an anti-Semite.
The truth of the matter is I'm pro-American, Sean.
And I don't know.
I don't like hear me.
Hear me.
Listening.
I don't like what's happening in America today.
You look at America.
It is totally dedicated to supporting Israel, even when Israel commits uh international crime.
In fact, uh candidates for election need to uh to inform the Jewish lobby that they are supporting Israel.
Why are you conflating Israel with all Jews?
All the why are you conflating Israel with all Jews?
All Jews are not responsible for Israel.
Why not?
So then should you should all Muslims be conflated with ISIL?
In America, American Jews mostly support Israel.
These remarks sound like the conspiratorial anti-Semitic remarks of people that we have heard from over the years.
And what you said was, quote, talking about uh Israel and and quote Jewish people, they're controlling much of our foreign policy, they're influencing much of our domestic policy.
What do you mean by that?
Because that sounds to me like a bizarre conspiracy theory.
Why would you say something like that when it's just first of all patently untrue?
And yes, I believe Israel through their through their lobby has manifested total power of the Congress United States.
Total power.
And my concern is that taxpayers and the citizens of the United States should control their government, not a foreign entity.
To suggest, as you're doing here tonight, that they control our Congress, that quote, they are influencing and the sole control of influencing of our domestic policy is an absurdity.
It sounds like you are a kook.
Sean, I'm not suggesting it.
I'm telling it.
Yes, I believe they manifest a great power over America.
The Jews are ruling the world by proxy.
That's an outrageous claim with no evidence.
Of course, how can you say that?
How can you say that Jews are ruling the world?
That is an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, is it not?
If you refuse to see evidence, what is your evidence helping?
What is your evidence for the fact that Jews are, quote, ruling the world?
Jews are not too many.
There are not very many Jews in this world.
By themselves, they cannot rule this world.
But they can influence countries to do the work for them.
And America is very much under Jewish influence.
That is why it supports Israel, whether Israel is doing the right thing or not, whether it commits crimes or not.
Israel does all kinds of horrible things.
Okay, but your very reference to the Jews, many would say, is anti-Semitic.
We'll have to agree to disagree on this.
But I believe that Israel has a powerful strangold on the American government.
They control both members of the House, the House and the Senate.
They have us involved in wars of which we have little or no interest.
Our children are coming back in body bags.
Our nation is bankrupt over these wars.
And if you open your mouth, you get targeted.
And if they don't beat you at the poll, they'll put you in prison.
Will you back down from quote, they are controlling much, meaning the Israelis, they are controlling much of our foreign policy.
Will you back off that statement?
No, I don't.
All right, that we disagree.
Congressman, thanks for being with us.
Good to be on your show.
In a speech in 2003, you said, quote, the Jews rule the world by proxy.
They get others to fight and die for them.
In 2012, you wrote, you were glad to be labeled anti-Semitic, and that sympathy with Jewish victims of the Holocaust was wasted and misplaced.
Isn't it the case that your political legacy, your accomplishments, will forever be tainted until you apologize and withdraw such anti-Semitic remarks?
Oh.
I believe I'm speaking the truth.
It was an insane war that brought us low economically.
Morally, we went to war against a guy who had absolutely nothing to do with 9-11.
It was a total pretext.
It's it's inexplicable.
And there you go to Cheney, there you go to Bush, there you go to the Jewish neocons Jewish neocons who wanted to remake uh the world who wanted to remake uh the world.
Maybe I can say that because I'm Jewish and uh to bring about a certain result of the money.
That there was this grand conspiracy of the neocons, and you said Jewish neocons that they somehow went to war on a pretext for the state of Israel.
Cynthia, there uh many reports uh that talks about the influence of the uh Israeli lobby, the APAC, on United States politics in general.
Did you experience anything uh in that realm as far as the what one would call the interference in American policy uh by APAC?
Well, it's interesting because when I first uh w went to Congress, I did not go to Congress to um pay particular attention to any area outside of the black community that I represented that was in need, and of course, uh U.S. Africa policy, which was abhorrent and unfortunately still is.
Um but what I ran into, I bumped into at almost every turn were these special interests.
And there's no more special interest that has i uh uh any more influence than the pro-Israel lobby.
And so then when I did outreach, for example, to the Muslim community in the United States, uh I bumped into the pro-Israel lobby, which of course does not want to have to contend with a politicized Muslim community which is as large as and is as wealthy as the pro-Israel lobby is in the United States.
So, yes, I um uh first handedly and also frontally was uh uh uh assaulted by the presence of the pro-Israel lobby to such an extent physically assaulted,
well uh politically assaulted to such an extent that my father had to ask the question publicly, what does Stone Mountain Georgia have to do with Israel?
What I was doing was servicing the needs of my constituents, and I was not allowed to do that because I did not tow the line on U.S. policy for Israel.
What line is that that they wanted what were you towed directly that you had to tow a line or explain that to me?
Well, every candidate for Congress at that time had a pledge.
They were given a pledge to to sign.
And I was uh new on the scene, and uh so the pledge had Jerusalem as the capital city, uh the military superiority of the American Congress people have to sign this pledge.
Yes, you sign the pledge, if you don't sign the pledge, you don't get money.
So for example, it was almost like uh water torture for me.
My parents observed this.
I would get a call, and uh the person on the other end of the phone would say, I want to do a fundraiser for you.
And then we would get into the planning, I would get really excited because of course you have to have money in order to run a campaign.
And then two weeks, three weeks into the planning, they would say, Did you sign the pledge?
And then I would say, No, I didn't sign the pledge.
And then my fundraiser would go, kaput.
So well, I just want to get into this pledge a little bit more.
Um so this is uh basically something that is mandatory that every Congressperson has to sign saying that what Jerusalem you said is the capital of Israel and what else?
Uh uh you make a commitment that you will vote to support the military superiority of Israel, that um uh uh the economic assistance that Israel wants that you would uh vote to provide that.
This isn't a question for the Congress people serving that they are representing or they're supposed to be representing the people of the United States, not a foreign country, and yet they have to pledge allegiance to a foreign state.
That's what all questions this what I was asked to do.
And um I made it public.
This probably nobody had said anything about it, but I made it public, and then you know, the excuse was, well, you know, those were just uh overzealous uh advocates for Israel.
So then the tactic changed.
And uh but this is what is done for 535 members of the United States Congress.
One hundred senators, four hundred and thirty-five members of the House of Representatives have to now write a paragraph, which basically says the same thing.
So it's not a pledge, but it's a paragraph, and you post it, and you know, there are these forums you have to go to at the synagogues or whatever, and then you know, if you don't perform appropriately, then you don't get money to run your campaign.
The problem is that it requires an awful lot of money to run a campaign.
Most of our donors were like good next, you know, actual uppers.
Um that's the quality is starting to improve or attracting more impressive people.
Until recently, you know, the people were attracted, you know, is the guy as well be gives away 25,000 a year, 10,000 is to us, and this is his hobby and full-time job, and you want to shut the f first time calling.
We're finally starting to expand into the classic donors that APAC has, which is like the more elite, easier to work with, smart strategic, you know, writing big checks that way.
It takes just as much time to get a $10,000 check from someone so does get five for a thousand dollars.
The money raised by APAC doesn't just fund congressmen who support their goals.
If you wander off the reservation and you become critical of Israel, you not only will not get money, APAC will go to great lengths to find somebody to run against you and uh support that person very generously, and the end result is you're likely to lose your seat in Congress.
They threaten, they immediately threaten.
Even if they know that APAC can't defeat them, APAC can make their lives more difficult.
They can make sure that their next town meeting or something of some members of the Jewish congregation jump up and say, but you're anti-Israel.
In 2002, AIPAC was lobbying Moran to vote for the invasion of Iraq.
The executive director of uh APEC said that his most important accomplishment was securing the authorization for the use of U.S. military force in Iraq.
APEC was pushing it very hard.
Why does AIPAC benefit from the United States going to war?
The United States getting involved in wars in the Middle East is ultimately in Israel's interests, because we have a stake in the region.
Congressman Moran refused to vote for the invasion as Apex requested.
There are compelling fundamental reasons why this body should oppose this resolution.
Then at a public meeting he was asked to question.
She said, uh, why aren't more Jews involved in the marches against the war?
I said, if the leaders of the Jewish community were opposed to the war, I think that would make a difference.
The lobby reacted, claiming this was evidence of Moran's belief in a Jewish conspiracy that was leading America to war.
There was a conservative rabbi in my district who was assigned to me, I assume, by AIPAC.
And he had warned me that if I voiced my views about the Israeli lobby, that That my career would be over and implied that it would be done through the post.
And sure enough, the Washington Post editorialised brutally.
Everybody ganged up.
*music*
So what are the main outlets that work with?
Washington Post is the biggest one.
Isn't that like just down there with someone?
Yeah.
actually that building.
Moran claims the Washington Post's editorial board has a close relationship with APEC.
The principal editorial board of the Post itself has been a very effective instrument because they've been able to maintain their credibility, and it's a great paper in every other way, but because they have such credibility, they're extremely effective.
Anti-Semitism has come to mean anti-Israel.
The AIPAC crowd doesn't really care very much about whether or not a person likes Jews or wants one to move next door All they care about is what their position is on Israel.
Both of my daughters married Jewish men, and grandchildren and Jewish.
▲
Export Selection