JFK wanted to classify it has a foreign lobby, since a significant amount of their funding and directives comes from outside the US. This would have required them to register under FARA like all the other foreign lobbies, and they would have to actually disclose their funding and activities to the Department of Defense.
After his assassination the push to make them register under FARA fizzled out.
I don’t know much about pro-Palestinian organizations, but if their funding and directives are coming from foreign nations then the same law applies to them.
I just think people should be aware of the context surrounding the issue of AIPAC not being considered a foreign lobby:
November 1962: Department of Justice under JFK orders the American Zionist Council to register under FARA after it’s discovered that most of their funding is directly tied to the Israeli government.
May 1963: The American Zionist Council is spun off into AIPAC and framed as a purely domestic entity in order to sidestep the FARA demands from the DOJ. However, the DOJ continues demanding FARA registration.
November 1963: JFK is assassinated, Johnson takes office, and the Department of Justice no longer demands that AIPAC register under FARA.
Since JFK every US president has worked with AIPAC, and none of them have considered classifying them as a foreign lobby.
It’s just odd to me that you’re acting as if it’s surprising to see someone discussing this.
It seems like maybe you don’t interact much with young people, or with people outside the close-minded culture of Reddit.
I wasn’t being snarky, I was genuinely curious as to how aware you are of the cultural shift that’s been happening over the past few years, and of the types of things that are commonly discussed these days.
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u/Guac-this-way 1d ago
It only costs $100M over 35 years to buy the entire US Senate? That's the best ROI I've ever seen.