The AZC, AIPAC and FARA

"22 U. S. C. §611

DEFINITIONS

§ 611. As used in and for the purposes of this subchapter--

(a) The term "person" includes an individual, partnership, association, corporation, organization, or any other combination of individuals;

(b) The term "foreign principal" includes--

(1) a government of a foreign country and a foreign political party;

(2) a person outside of the United States, unless it is established that such person is an individual and a citizen of and domiciled within the United States, or that such person is not an individual and is organized under or created by the laws of the United States or of any State or other place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and has its principal place of business within the United States; and

(3) a partnership, association, corporation, organization, or other combination of persons organized under the laws of or having its principal place of business in a foreign country.

(c) Expect [Except] as provided in subsection (d) of this section, the term "agent of a foreign principal" means--

(1) any person who acts as an agent, representative, employee, or servant, or any person who acts in any other capacity at the order, request, or under the direction or control, of a foreign principal or of a person any of whose activities are directly or indirectly supervised, directed, controlled, financed, or subsidized in whole or in major part by a foreign principal, and who directly or through any other person--

(i) engages within the United States in political activities for or in the interests of such foreign principal;

(ii) acts within the United States as a public relations counsel, publicity agent, information-service employee or political consultant for or in the interests of such foreign principal;

(iii) within the United States solicits, collects, disburses, or dispenses contributions, loans, money, or other things of value for or in the interest of such foreign principal.

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"Founded in the 1950s by Isaiah L. "Si" Kenen, AIPAC's original name was the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs. According to UCLA political science professor and author, Steven Spiegel, "the tension between the Eisenhower administration and Israeli supporters was so acute that there were rumors (unfounded as it turned out) that the administration would investigate the American Zionist Council. Therefore, an independent lobbying committee was formed, which years later was renamed AIPAC." In his book describing the early history of AIPAC, Kenen wrote that AIPAC's Executive Committee decided to change their name from American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs to American Israel Public Affairs Committee "to enlarge constituency and support."

US Department of Justice files reveal that the Kennedy administration ordered the American Zionist Council to register as the agent of Israel under the Foreign Agents Registration Act; these files were declassified in 2008.^"

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"Consequently, Kenen organized the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs (AZPAC) in 1954 to act as a pro-Israel lobby with control and financing independent of the AZC. It again changed its name to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in 1959; Edward Tivnan notes the name change was “thus coming to terms with the reality of the largely non-Zionist nature of Jewish politics in the United States (and depriving the “Zionist conspiracy” theorists among the nation’s anti-Semites of an easy victim).”

AZC’s early years were characterized with bureaucratic struggle within Jewish and pro-Israel movements. Its name change to the AIPAC alienated the Zionist Organization of America, and an important representative to the World Zionist Organization, which felt that AIPAC might surrender lobbying control to Jews who, while willing to help fund Jewish charities, schools, and kibbutzim were less dedicated to the traditional Zionist idea of Israel as a sovereign Jewish state. The two organizations refused to cooperate for several years. Competitive strains also existed between AZPAC/AIPAC and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which was also founded in 1954, to act as an umbrella lobbying group. Kenen however, considered them as irresolute on matters of vital importance to Israel "because it could not move on any issue unless it had a consensus."

In 1962, attorney general Robert F. Kennedy ordered the AZC to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act or (FARA) as the foreign agent of the Jewish Agency. In 1963, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings regarding its funding.

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"In the early 1960's Israel funneled $5 million (more than $35 million in today's dollars) into US propaganda and lobbying operations.  The funds were channeled via the quasi governmental Jewish Agency's New York office into an Israel lobby umbrella group, the American Zionist Council.  Senate Foreign Relations Committee investigations and hearings documented funding flows, propaganda, and public relations efforts and put them into the record.  But the true fate of the American Zionist Council was never known, except that its major functions were visibly shut down and shifted over to a former AZC unit known as the "Kenen Committee,"calledthe American Israel Public Affairs Committee (or AIPAC) in the late 1960's."

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"AIPAC was founded by Isaiah L. "Si" Kenen, springing from the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs. Kenen registered twice with the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) as a foreign agent for Israel. On April 21, 1947 he registered as an agent of the American Section of the Jewish Agency for Israel. Si Kenen also registered at FARA as an agent for the "Israel Information Services" on October 12, 1948 through May 13, 1951.  Kenen changed the committee's name from the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in 1959, to better reflect that it, according to him, "raised its funds from both Zionists and non-Zionists."  Kenen's emphasis on a low-key, uncontroversial, and even non-descriptive organization name continued after his departure when AIPAC spawned a network of obliquely named political action committees (PACs) across the United States designed to sway the results of key elections. From a historical perspective, all of the lessons Kenen learned running the American Zionist Council with funds and guidance from the Israeli government are part of AIPAC's "institutional DNA.""

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/gsmith.php?articleid=11727

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It would appear from all this that AIPAC may be an arm of the Jewish Agency.  The Jewish Agency is without a doubt "a foreign person" in the sense of the FARA act acting on behalf of the State of Israel, a foreign country.  It appears that the government of the United States several times was on the brink of forcing AIPAC to register as a "foreign agent."

AIPAC shoud be required to register under FARA as the agent of "The Jewish Agency, the "Government of Israel,"or both.  pl

 

 

 

 

Comments

[J]

Colonel,

One has to wonder just how many of the U.S. Taxpayer paid for/Congressional written/enacted economic and military aid money (roughly $4 billion per year) that the Israeli government then 'turns' (a.k.a. 'launders') into campaign contributions, propaganda fundings, and secret bank accounts that are then used by their The Jewish Agency which in turn funnels such funds to their AIPAC constituents who in turn funnel such laundered funds into U.S. Congressional Campaign Contributions, U.S. propaganda funding (the 'stuff' they use to help defeat those in Congress they deem as an 'enemy' of Israel or 'limp-wrist') and 'personal [private] bank accounts' for their bought-n-paid-for Congressional constituents, and their 'sublime' paid-for Congressional Constituents (the ones that most people don't normally associate as being Israel supporters) who in certain situations provide the 'key swing votes' -- when needed. One has to wonder......hmmm......BIG MOOLA, BIG MOOLA.

[Babak Makkinejad]

All:

Does anyone know where the Jewish Agency is domiciled?

[Not the Jewish Agency for Israel].

[J]

Babak,

Take a look at:

http://www.thejewishagency.com/JewishAgency/English/About/History

And look at the paragraph under 'the struggle for statehood', the consolidation of Israeli terrorism orgs under one umbrella which in turn were under The Jewish Agency:

"Under the leadership of the Jewish Agency an agreement was signed in October, 1945, between the Hagana, Irgun, and Lehi to establish the United Resistance Movement, which included joint operations against the British. Defiance of British authorities led to the arrest of members of the Jewish Agency Executive, along with thousands of other leading figures in the Yishuv, on Saturday, June 29, 1946 (what became known as Black Sabbath. The British also entered the Jewish Agency buildings and confiscated a large number of records, including documents that demonstrated the Agency's role in the leadership of the United Resistance Movement. Starting in 1946 the Jewish Agency recruited the Hagana to defend all Jewish settlements and neighborhoods; it also set up the Palmach commando units and took on the task of procuring weapons, ammunition, etc. Independence "

Also look at their 'North American Delegations' map.

http://www.thejewishagency.com/JewishAgency/English/delegations

Colonel,

The Jewish Agency was the forerunner of what is today the 'Government of Israel'. Which is a 'foreign entity' which in turn must be registered FARA. And AIPAC being under The Jewish Agency 'qualifies' them for FARA enrollment. Would you not agree?

[Harper]

Even a cursory reading of the FARA law makes it perfectly clear that AIPAC is a lobbying arm of the Israeli government, especially when Likud is in power. I remember that in 1992, right after he was elected prime minister, the late Yitzhak Rabin came to Washington and held a closed door meeting with the leadership of AIPAC. He confronted them on their role as the voice of the rightwing Likud in the United States. Rabin knew that AIPAC was part of the Israeli apparatus. He wasn't addressing them as a foreign leader, speaking with an American group. He was addressing them as a part of the Israeli institutional penetration of the United States. Indeed, there have been lawsuits in the U.S., charging AIPAC with illegally running a string of political action committees, all aimed at influencing the outcome of U.S. elections. Add that to the reality that, regardless of the technicalities that prompted the Justice Department to drop the AIPAC case, AIPAC figures like Steve Rosen worked with and on behalf of the Israeli embassy in Washington, gathering information, off of Israeli tasking. No amount of hair splitting can dodge that essential reality. Yes, AIPAC should be forced to register as a foreign agent under FARA. If forced to do so, they would close up shop faster than Jonathan Pollard tried to jump the fence at the Israeli embassy. I only wonder what imaginative new name they'd come up with, to continue their deeds.

[J]

IMHO Mr. Roberts has definately written an article that gives all of us some food for thought:

America's Shame
By Paul Craig Roberts
5-6-9

Why does Israel have a right to exist, but Palestine doesn't?

This is the question of our time.

For sixty years Israelis have been stealing Palestine from Palestinians. There are maps available on the Internet and in Israeli publications showing the shrinkage over time of what was once Palestine into what Palestine is today--a small number of unconnected ghettos or bantustans.

Palestine became "the occupied territory" from which Palestinians were ejected and Israeli settlements built for "settlers." Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are full of refugee camps in which Palestinians driven off their lands by Israeli force have been living for decades.

Driving people off their land is strictly illegal under international law, but Israel has been getting away with it for decades.

Gaza is a concentration camp of 1.5 million Palestinians who were driven from their homes and villages and collected in the Gaza Ghetto.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency was created 60 years ago in
1949 to administer refugee camps for Palestinians driven from their lands by Israel. As of 2002, the registered Palestinian refugee population was 3.9 million.

Caterpillar Tractor makes a special bulldozer for Israel that is designed to knock down Palestinian homes and to uproot their orchards. In 2003 an American protester, Rachel Corrie, stood in front of one of these Caterpillars and was run over and crushed.

Nothing happened. The Israelis can kill whomever they want whenever they want.

They have been doing so for 60 years, and they show no sign of stopping.

Currently they are murdering women and children in the ghetto that they have created for Palestinians in Gaza. The entire world knows this. The Red Cross protests it. But the Israelis brazenly claim that they are killing "Hamas terrorists who are a threat to Israel's existence."

The American media knows that this is a lie, but does not say so.

Israel has been able to slowly exterminate a people for sixty years without provoking sufficient outrage to stop it.

The United States, "Christian America," has been Israel's greatest enabler in its long-term murder of the Palestinian people. Millions of "evangelical Christians" endorse Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

The rest of the world condemns the Israeli military attack on the Gaza Ghetto. Last week the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution requiring a ceasefire and the withdrawal of the Israeli SS from Gaz a.

The United States abstained.

While the rest of the world condemns Israel's inhumanity, the US Congress--I should say the US Knesset--rushed to endorse the Israeli slaughter of the Palestinians in Gaza.

The US Senate endorsed Israel's massacre of Palestinians with a vote of 100-0.

The US House of Representatives voted 430-5 to endorse Israel's massacre of Palestinians.

The resolutions endorsed by 100% of the US Senate and 99% of the House were written by AIPAC, as were the speeches praising Israel for its inhumanity.

The US Congress was proud to show that it is Israel's puppet even when it comes to murdering women and children.

The President of the United States was proud to block effective action by the UN Security Council by ordering the Secretary of State to abstain.

Be a Proud American. Swagger and strut. Pretend that you are not besmirched by the shame that your government has heaped upon you. Take refuge in your ignorance, fostered by 60 years of Israeli lies, that the murder of Palestinians and the theft of their lands is "Israel's right of self-defense."
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[Paul Craig Roberts (born April 3, 1939, in Atlanta, Georgia) is an economist and a nationally syndicated columnist for Creators Syndicate. He served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration earning fame as the "Father of Reaganomics". He is a former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Scripps Howard News Service. He is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology and he holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. He was a post-graduate at the University of California, Berkeley, and Oxford University where he was a member of Merton College.
In 1992 he received the Warren Brookes Award for Excellence in Journalism. In 1993 the Forbes Media Guide ranked him as one of the top seven journalists in the United States.[1]
His writings frequently appear on OpEdNews.com, Antiwar.com, VDARE.com. Lew Rockwell's web site, CounterPunch, and the American Free Press.]

[J]

Harper,

Another way to 'dry up' AIPAC is to 'cut' their under-the-table Israeli governmental money laundering of U.S. Taxpayer paid for U.S. Economic/Military Aid money. Put in stop-gaps that prevent the Israeli government/crooked Members of Congress from using U.S. taxpayer money against our U.S. which is what is happening. RICO statute no?

Better yet, how about 'ceasing' of ALL U.S. funding to Israel altogether, after all Israel is a 'rich state' no?

[Babak Makkinejad]

J:

Thank you for your reply.

I understand that all land in Israel is owned by the Jewish Agency not the Jweish Agency of Israel] and not by real or legal persons.

What I would like to know is the Legal Jurisdiction under which the Jewish Agency has been registered and has been operating.

Is the Jewish Agency subject to the Laws of the United States?

Does the President of the United States, have the authority to exproporiate the assets of the Jwesih Agency and to otherwise sanction it under the existing Federal Statutes going back to WWII?

Does anyone know?

[The beaver]

Well what's good for the goose is good for the gander:
http://www.skeeterbitesreport.com/2009/05/obamas-quest-for-nuclear-free-mideast.html

[Cloned Poster]

$4BN is a slush fund for the promised land.

[Ryan]

I'll add to Harper's excellent post. AIPAC has an enforcement arm when their treason attracts too much attention. They can count on the smearbund known as the ADL to brand Americans who are vocal opponents of this as anti-Israel or worse, "antisemites".

Right now, they are pushing hard for an increase in the federal "hate crimes" law with S. 909. HR. 1913 is the house version that recently was passed with little notice. This legislation will be used against those who are critical of Israeli policies as they affect America. The bill is in the senate now with hearings on it tomorrow.

[Patrick Lang]

Babak

The Jewish Agency is not an American institution and is, I believe, beyond the reach of American law in most things. AIPAC is an American "not for profit" and fully within the reach of US law.

The Jewish Agency does not "own all property in Israel" or in the occupied territories. In particular, much of the property in the Jerusalem area is owned by the major Christian churches, Catholic and Orthodox and leased to various entities many of them Israeli. pl

[arbogast]

I had a acquaintance who used to refer to Jews as "Arabs". I think he did it to attempt to avoid the antisemite tag that awaits anyone who does not grovel before the likes of AIPAC.

But there is an "element of truth" in the appellation.

Israel is a Middle-Eastern country. The United States is not. The United States seems to do very poorly when it takes sides in the Greater Levant. That's the problem.

I would note that China, whose emissaries are flocking to Algeria, for example, does not make this mistake.

[Mark Stuart]

Colonel: (please feel free to edit as you see fit)

I've asked that question before, albeit formulated differently, and i still have to get an answer. So at the risk of repeating myself: do We The American People have any legal recourse to force AIPAC to register as a Foreign Agent?

I am in no way a legal expert but here is my suggestion: follow the money!

Our Government often followed the paper trial or used the Interstate Commerce clause to legally rid us of some nefarious entity or at least weaken them (i.e: organized crime, KKK or more recently terrorists).
Following the paper trail to either indict those entities or disable them might be an option. But what is AIPAC legal disclosure obligations? Where could those financial documents be found? Could some forensic accounting research help unravel AIPAC's nefarious relationship with a foreign entity and uncover its shady dealings with some of our own Representatives?

There is a sense of immunity and impunity that prevails among our own elected officials for which we all bare some responsibility, collectively and individually.

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague." Marcus Tullius Cicero.

[The beaver]

Ryan

Paul Craig Roberts refers to it here:
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4679.shtml
Criminalizing criticism of Israel is the end of free speech
On October 16, 2004, President George W. Bush signed the Israel Lobby’s bill, the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act. This legislation requires the US Department of State to monitor anti-Semitism worldwide.

To monitor anti-Semitism, it has to be defined. What is the definition? Basically, as defined by the Israel Lobby and Abe Foxman, it boils down to any criticism of Israel or Jews.

Rahm Israel Emanuel hasn’t been mopping floors at the White House. As soon as he gets the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 passed, it will become a crime for any American to tell the truth about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and theft of their lands.

It will be a crime for Christians to acknowledge the New Testament’s account of Jews demanding the crucifixion of Jesus.

[William R. Cumming]

Organizations can be "not-for-profit" under the laws of some states, even in corporate form but whether or not they qualify for federal exemption from the income, gift and estate tax are separate issues. If given exemption, these organizations file annual disclosure forms 990 and I think 990F for private operating foundations.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Col. Lang:

Are you certain about areas outside of Jerusalem? For I have heard that no one owns the land in Israel one rents it (from Jewish Agency ?). Sort of like Mexico.

Where was the Jewish Agency incorporatd? Under what jurisdiction?

US has hired Jewish Agency to aide the religious minorities of Iran to settle in the West (largely Jews and Christians - not the Bahai). Is the Jewish Agency then an oragn of US Government - de facto?

Can the President of the United States, invoking threat to nationa security of US, harm the Jewish Agency under existing laws?

[Leila Abu-Saba]

The ADL put my father on their list of "PLO members" back in the 70s when that meant "terrorist." A friend of ours alerted my dad, who merely laughed. He was prone to going to public meetings in towns like Peoria, IL and Greensboro, NC to speak for justice in Palestine/Israel.

"I am not a member of the PLO because I do not qualify," he would say. "I am not a Palestinian." He really didn't give a hoot. He also had a security clearance going back to his student days in Lebanon, associated with a scholarship he accepted, that seems to have given him entree all over the place. Nixon audited his tax returns 3x but otherwise Dad never had trouble. It was a CIA scholarship he later found out, and it seems to have paved the way to his NASA security clearance etc.

Anyway. I was recently "interviewed" for a "cookbook" by a person who asked me all kinds of details about my father's employment in the 1970s. She knew what university he'd been teaching at from 1969-1973. She even called back to verify that he taught at NC A&T State U. I dumbly believed at first that it was really for a cookbook. Then figured out of course it wasn't. Yuk.

Such behavior loses its power when exposed to the light (and to ridicule). Let them put my name on a list of "terrorists." Hilarious. Their days are numbered. This behavior is a sign of weakness and stupidity.

[Leila Abu-Saba]

OTOH it's easier for me to swagger around claiming I don't care about the ADL's smear tactics. I am only half-Lebanese. On my mother's side we go way back in the USA. If I were 100% Arab, even though born in the USA, I would not be so self-assured.

The whole "information-gathering" business and keeping of names just offends me. These people have no class whatsoever.

[charlottemom]

Col.

I'm interested in your take on today's news:

AP - WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama fired the top U.S. general in Afghanistan on Monday, replacing him with a former special forces commander in a quest for a more agile, unconventional approach in a war that has gone quickly downhill. With the Taliban resurgent, Obama's switch from Gen. David McKiernan to Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal suggests the new commander in chief wants major changes in addition to the additional troops he's ordering into Afghanistan to shore up the war effort.

McKiernan, on the job for less than a year, has repeatedly pressed for more forces. Although Obama has approved more than 21,000 additional troops this year, he has warned that the war will not be won by military means.

(end quote)

[neorationalist]

There is a Supreme Court case, FEC v Akins, whereby voters attempted to sue the FEC on the grounds that it did not consider AIPAC a "political committee." The FEC challenged the grounds upon which the lawsuit was filed as there was no "injury of fact." The Court held that an individual could sue for a violation of a federal law pursuant to a statute enacted by the U.S. Congress which created a general right to access certain information; in this particular cases respondents were invoking FECA. The Court ultimately remanded the case to the FEC for review of definitions of "membership expenditures" and "political committees." It has remained in this state since 1998. This case, however, provides that AIPAC's non-disclosure of expenditures is grounds upon which taxpayers may sue the FEC to extend the FECA 'political committee' to AIPAC. If a favorable Court decision was handed down, then AIPAC, consequently considered a PAC could be forced to register pursuant to FARA. There is book on this general subject as well entitled "America's Defense Line: The Justice Department's Battle to Register the Israel Lobby as Agents of a Foreign Government" by Grant Smith.