AIPAC: Fighting for survival

(Cartoon by Khalil Bendib)

With the flailing lobby distracted by a legal battle with a former employee, peace may just have a chance.

MJ Rosenberg
Al-Jazeera

COMMENT: Take this article with a big grain of salt, but it is worth reading.

"The latest Aipac (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) scandal has not found its way into the mainstream media, although the Jewish media has done a great job in highlighting this very explosive story. (LATE UPDATE: The Washington Post is now reporting on the story.)....

There is no need to recapitulate the story here. Nathan Guttman in the Forward explains it well. The bottom line is that Steve Rosen, Aipac's former #2 guy, who was indicted under the Espionage Act and then fired, is now suing the organisation for $20mn.

Ironically, the organisation spent $4.5mn to save their former employee from imprisonment (and more money than that to save itself). In the end, the government dropped the case probably because it believed it would not prevail in court, especially with Aipac's buddies in congress breathing down the justice department's neck.

Nonetheless, Rosen, off the legal hook, was furious. How could Aipac have fired him when, in the end, the government could not prove its case? His life was in tatters thanks to being terminated, in his opinion, without cause......

But, thanks to Rosen, Aipac is spending $10mn of its donors' money on legal fees. Its top people are working with lawyers virtually nonstop. And the whole place is in the grips of fear - fear that one former employee who has the goods on Aipac will bring the whole house down...."