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All Republicans in Congress have “own babysitters” from the Israel lobby

Published 12 June 2024 at 13.21

Foreign. In the House of Representatives in the US Congress, all members from the Republicans have their own representative from the Israel lobby Aipac who tells them how to vote. So says Thomas Massie, himself a Republican in the House of Representatives, in an interview with Tucker Carlson.

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Thomas Massie, who is a libertarian and against aid, has made a name for himself as one of the very few American politicians who questions America's unconditional support for Israel.

Because of his erratic voting behavior during the ongoing war in Gaza, the Israeli lobbying organization Aipac spent millions to smear him ahead of a May 21 primary in his home state of Kentucky. In election ads, he was portrayed as a pure Hamas supporter.

Despite that, Massie managed to win with 76 percent of the vote, which is described as a sensation. “Meet the man who defeated Aipac”, writes The Nation magazine about Massie, for example.

In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Massie now talks about what it looks like on the inside of the House of Representatives. And what he says suggests that the Israel lobby's grip on Congress may actually be even stronger than one might think.

Thomas Massie says, among other things, that his party colleagues usually come up to him and complain that they themselves “can't” vote like him because it would create so many problems for them.

– And there are Republicans who come to me and says, “What Aipac is putting you through is not right. I can talk to my Aipac person.” By the way, everyone but me has an Aipac person.

When asked what an “Aipac person” is, Massie replies:

– It's like a babysitter, your Aipac babysitter who always talks to you on Aipac's behalf. They probably live in your electoral district, but they are firmly rooted in Aipac.

How it looks with the Democrats, Thomas Massie says he cannot answer.

– But it is so it works on the republican side. And when they come to Washington, you have lunch with them. And they even have cell phone numbers and you talk to them.

Tucker Carlson exclaims “it's absolutely insane” and asks why this isn't common knowledge. Massie replies:

– It benefits no one. Why would they want to tell their constituents that they basically have a buddy system with someone representing a foreign country? It does the congressman no favors that people know about it. So they don't tell you.

Vacation-like invitation trips to Israel are also something that Aipac makes extensive use of.

– They pay for trips to Israel for members of Congress and their spouses. I'm not the only Republican who hasn't made the Aipac trip to Israel, but I'm probably only one of a dozen or so who haven't. The others simply haven't had time.

Thomas Massie says he first came into conflict with the Israel lobby in 2012 when he ran for Congress for the first time in his home state of Kentucky. When the lobby realized late in the campaign that he was about to win, they approached him to ask him to write a white paper on Israel as a form of “homework” to test whether he could be bought. When he refused, they used, among other things, evangelical churches in Kentucky that they control to smear him in front of the population there, says Massie, who gives an insight into how lobbying works in practice.

That he was never really very critical to Israel but only opposed the US's support of foreign states for reasons of principle has not prevented Aipac from portraying him as a dangerous anti-Semite, says Thomas Massie.

He states that for years he used to invite Israel lobbyists to his office to explain his position, but that the negative campaigns against him continued. Now Aipac is ported from his office, says Massie.

Aipac has promised before the elections in the United States in November to spend the equivalent of one billion kroner on opposing candidates who are considered bad for Israel.

p>Tucker Carlson states in the interview that it is “absolutely insane” that the Israel lobby can behave as they do, and says that Aipac should be registered as a foreign agent.

In 1962, then US President John F Kennedy forced the Jewish lobby group American Zionist Council to register as a foreign agent, but soon after he was assassinated and then the whole thing went down the drain.

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