AIPAC Lobbyists to Congress: Despite Sequester, Don’t Touch Israel Aid

Douglas Bloomfield at The Jewish Week informs us that 13,000 lobbyists from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) will descend upon Capitol Hill this weekend for their annual conference to order members of Congress not to cut $3 billion-plus in aid to Israel, even as automatic budget cuts are set to take place in a matter of days.

At a time when sequestration is about to take a big bite out of the Pentagon budget, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) will be sending thousands of its citizen lobbyists to Capitol Hill next week to make sure Israel is exempted from any spending cuts.

This could prove a very risky strategy at a time when millions of Americans will be feeling the bite of the sequestration debacle, from the defense budget to the school lunch program.

But not aid to Israel, which will be untouched if AIPAC gets its way.

People are coming up with all kinds of things that will need to be cut if (when) this sequester takes place. At Wired‘s Danger Room, for example, it was reported that cuts to the military budget “will mean delays for veteran funerals at Arlington National Cemetery.” So grieving American families may have to wait longer to bury their loved ones who died fighting in Afghanistan, but Israel won’t suffer one bit. Nothing could be more important than contributing money to the apartheid state.

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