Former Congressman Matt Gaetz described recently on a podcast his experiences with AIPAC and the Israel lobby that he described as being “weird.”
“Initially, I resented the fact that there was no appreciation for nuance. If you asked any questions about any decision of the Israeli government in any place regarding settlements, regarding Gaza, whatever, you had deviated from the script, and I just, in any policy area, I had resentment over that,” Gaetz said during an appearance on the Timcast after being asked about the state of Israel.
“I saw the way AIPAC worked, and that was weird… I remember my first AIPAC reception, and your fundraiser tells you you have to go, and your chief of staff tells you you have to go, your committee chairman will tell you you have to go,” Gaetz explained.
“You get there and you wear this name badge. And I remember there is a QR code on it, and what we were supposed to do is go talk to donors, and if they liked you, they scanned your QR code to make a donation, like, on the spot,” Gaetz continued.
“Can you imagine how demoralizing that is to be told that your job for the next several hours to chat people up, hoping that they would scan you like a can of tomato soup out of the meeting?” Gaetz asked.
Gaetz also described how his hotel room was violated during one of his trips to the state of Israel when he believes someone may have been trying to plant listening devices on his personal belongings.
“I did not like the fact that I found someone in my room rooting around in my stuff that should not have been there at the King David Hotel when I came back to my room when nobody was expecting me to be back in my room… I don’t know who it was. I just thought this was weird. All of these things combined are odd, and then the policy outgrowth seems to be an obsession about the Middle East that has not served by generation well,” Gaetz said.
The full clip can be seen here:
Rep. Thomas Massie once stated that every Congressman has an AIPAC handler who basically gives them orders on how to vote regarding the state of Israel. This does not seem like a particularly America First system. Perhaps Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is correct in her assertion that AIPAC should be forced to register as a foreign lobbyist group.
