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| Larry Franklin, Defense Dept. analyst, was reportedly used in an attempt to "sting" AIPAC officials |
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Jonathan Friendly is the national editor of , which owns the weekly Jewish newspapers in Detroit and Atlanta. He is a former journalism professor at the University of Michigan and a former reporter and editor at The New York Times.
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By Jonathan Friendly
January 3, 2005
"The work that AIPAC does is a vital part of our democratic process. You speak out boldly, and that's good for America, it's good for Israel and good for the cause of peace and justice in the world."
-- President George W. Bush
It is one of the oldest charges brought against Jews, that they are not loyal to the country they live in. It has been around in the Western world for 600 years or so, flourishing as the idea of nationalism replaced the allegiance to the Catholic Church as the dominant force in Europe.
But it seemed to be different in America. While not part of the Christian religious majority and despite the fling with socialism, Jews were rarely deemed to have a primary allegiance to some other nation or cause.
And that is why it is so distressing to realize the loyalty question is an underlying motif in an FBI investigation of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful lobbying agency.
Even if the investigation does not result in formal charges -- and it seems likely not to -- Jewish leaders fear it could lead to the demand that AIPAC be forced to register as a "foreign agent," as if it were the representative of Israel instead of the voice to Congress of the American Jewish community.
For openers, the immediate facts hardly seem sufficient cause for a criminal inquiry.
A defense department official, Larry Franklin, told two AIPAC aides in June 2003 that the Pentagon might be developing a plan to destabilize Iran and prevent its further work on nuclear weapons. He apparently didn't give them any documents, and the plan itself had only the lowest level of secrecy classification.
A year later, however, according to a Jerusalem Post report, the FBI was squeezing Franklin about another leak and forced him into a sting operation against AIPAC. The Post said Franklin told AIPAC officials that Israeli operatives in northern Iraq might be in jeopardy, and they relayed that
information to the Israeli Embassy.
Franklin may have been out of line at the first meeting, and the AIPAC officials seem to have erred in giving the information to the embassy. But the errors are lightweight compared to the real problem of fighting terrorism that should be the FBI focus. The initial transfer of information in 2003 might have been worthy of a rebuke, even a public one, but it is hardly the stuff that justifies an entrapment tactic.
The fallout for AIPAC could be very damaging to an institution that over the last 50 years has worked hard to give Congress credible information about how American Jews feel on policy issues affecting this country's relationship with the Jewish state. While AIPAC positions have generally mirrored those of the Israeli government, it has also taken stands in opposition to the Israeli government, very notably in 1982 when its director endorsed Ronald Reagan's peace plan.
More often, the organization serves as a moderating force in counseling Congress on what it believes would be best for America and for Israel.
Ninety years ago, Louis Brandeis pointed out that Zionist interests serve American interests and that is even truer now, with Israel as the model for the kind of liberal democracy that America wants to encourage in the Middle East.
It would be tragic if Jewish Americans and the institutions that represent them come be labeled as "foreign agents."
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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