A pro-Israel foundation paid for House members' fact-finding visit

[Classical_Liberal]

A pro-Israel foundation paid for House members' fact-finding visit. Critics say they got a biased view.
By SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN, Times Senior Correspondent
Published November 11, 2003


Last month, nine members of Congress stood on the House floor and expressed strong support for Israel, including its recent bombing of Syria and the construction of a controversial security fence.

The lawmakers had something in common besides their pro-Israel remarks: All had traveled to the Jewish state this summer as guests of the American Israel Education Foundation. They were among an unusually large number of House members - 49, or 11 percent of the total - who visited Israel on trips paid for by the foundation, an arm of the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

The weeklong trips, which included at least 26 spouses and other guests, cost more than $363,000. The purpose was to give lawmakers "first-hand experience in the complex issues" of the Middle East, said Rebecca Dinar, spokeswoman for AIPAC, the leading pro-Israel lobbying organization.

Critics, though, say such visits give a less than balanced view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Instead, they say, the trips increase the already massive congressional support for Israel and make it even harder to hold constructive dialogue on U.S.-Israeli relations or the Mideast conflict.

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/11/11/Worldandnation/Trip_to_Israel__facts.shtml

[edzontar]

1. I am SHOCKED, SHOCKED....

NOT!

Now If we could only get a "pro-US group" to fund a little trip for them across THIS nation to see the devastation wrought by the Bushies.

[bluesoul]

2. Wow

now that's surprising...or?

[Resistance]

3. I wonder

if the "complex issues" that the AIPAC spokeswoman mentions were things like: Which bulldozer to use on a 2 story Palestinian home? Which helicopter delivers the maximum blow to a crowd of civilians? How much land can be stolen with the Apartheid Wall while Israel still gets billions of American money?

Yeah, plenty of complex issues, I am sure.

[Muddleoftheroad]

4. Interest groups fund trips

Film at 11:00.

Duh.

[Violet_Crumble]

5. Which return biased findings...

Which is why it's important to at least some of us to know who's funding the 'fact-finding' trips in the first place...


Duh.


Violet...

[Resistance]

6. I am sure

Nobody would mind if one day a pro-Hamas group took American legislators on a "fact-finding" mission to the Occupied Territories?

[Muddleoftheroad]

7. Interest groups

Of both sides of every issue buttonhole Congress and send them on trips. The net result is like the anecdote from Eddie Murphy's movie "Distinguished Gentleman." Murphy asks a lobbyist with all this money on both sides of every issue, how does anything ever get done? "It doesn't," the lobbyist replies.

[Resistance]

8. good to know

you're educating yourself with Eddie Murphy movies

[Muddleoftheroad]

9. Actually

I consider that movie one of the more accurate portrayals of the money quest in D.C. It wasn't a great movie, but it was spot on about how the congressmen get caught in the money quest and worry less about their constituents.

[Violet_Crumble]

10. These trips...

They're little more than junkets, aren't they? That's pretty much how they work here...

I haven't seen that movie, but I'm not a fan of Eddie Murphy so I'll probably avoid it just for that reason alone...

Violet...

[bluesoul]

11. Eddie Murphy's early standup stuff

is brilliant. Unfortunately not the Hollywood comedies that are mostly mediocre anyway (not just the one's he plays in) ;)