AIPAC Points to Legion of Doom in Bekaa Valley

[Purveyor]

Thursday, August 10, 2006. By Ken Silverstein.

With nearly one thousand people killed in Lebanon, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has outdone itself—spinning press releases with a mastery of the form that could bring a tear to the eye of even the most hardened and cynical flack.

Exhibit one is a July 27 memo entitled “Beirut Largely Unscathed as Israel Targets Hezbollah Strongholds,” in which AIPAC suggested that IDF forces were using state-of-the-art technology to wage a surgical bombing campaign that spared civilians. Despite large-scale destruction in Beirut and beyond, AIPAC cheerily noted that “an overwhelming majority of the city remains untouched” and lauded Israel for dropping “leaflets and taking other measures to urge civilians to leave the area.”

Exhibit two is an August 2 press release entitled “The Bekka (sic) Valley: A Terrorist Epicenter.” This release accounted for that day's “daring commando raid by Israeli Forces” into the Bekaa Valley by saying that a wide range of terrorist groups had called the region home. “The Middle East is literally the Fraternity Row for terrorist groups,” said AIPAC's own Middle East analyst Josh Block in the press release. “ similar to a university setting, terrorists from every corner of the international community have come together in the Bekaa Valley training camps to learn how to conduct lethal operations and utilize various types of weapons.”

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Which brings us to exhibit three: yesterday, as diplomats desperately tried to work out a solution to the war in Lebanon, AIPAC distributed a press release mocking the idea that a beefed-up UN force could be effective in south Lebanon, and concluding that only a “robust international force” could ensure a lasting peace—with “robust” almost surely being code for “significant American participation.” AIPAC, the release explained, opposes a ceasefire until this international force is dispatched and Hezbollah is disarmed.

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http://harpers.org/sb-aipac-point-1155233262.html

[breakaleg]

1. There is something wrong when you basically have the

equivalent of a PR firm trying to "win" a war for you. At least the war of public opinion.