IRmep

Last update: 9:29 a.m. EDT Sept. 5, 2008

WASHINGTON, Sep 05, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden publicly chastised the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Wednesday. Accused of not backing AIPAC sponsored legislation, Biden told reporters, "They think they know the Senate better than I do. They don't know the Senate better than I do...AIPAC does not speak for the State of Israel."

The outspoken Senator Biden, often compared to president John F. Kennedy, is wrong. Newly declassified documents reveal that before his death, JFK's most pressing concerns were registering the Israel lobby as foreign government agents and inspections of the Israeli nuclear weapons program.

Isaiah L. Kenen worked as the registered foreign agent of the Israeli Ministry of Affairs in New York until he established what would become AIPAC in 1951. In his words, Kenen left because "Israelis began looking for a lobbyist to promote the necessary legislation...would I leave the Israeli delegation for six months to lobby for aid on Capitol Hill?"

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