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Forward – March 13, 2007
Defense for AIPAC duo says groups refuse to testify
Sources cite policy of distancing community from ex-lobbyists
Nathan Guttman
Several Jewish organizations are refusing to cooperate with the defense in the case against two men accused of passing classified information while working for the main pro-Israel lobby.
According to sources close to the defense team, three major Jewish organizations are telling their employees not to testify on behalf of Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The defense sources expressed disappointment over the alleged refusal to cooperate, describing it as yet another example of the organized Jewish community turning its back on Rosen, Aipac's former policy director, and Weissman, its top Iran specialist.
Sources with the three Jewish groups, however, argue that it would be "premature" to characterize their answer as an outright refusal.
The Forward has learned that the appeal to the Jewish groups relates to a dinner meeting that took place three years ago. During the meeting, which was arranged by Rosen, he and officials at the three other Jewish organizations were briefed by a senior administration official on issues relating to the Middle East.
Sources said that testimony from the other officials who attended the dinner meeting would help make the case that the passing of information - even classified information - from government officials to Jewish organizations, as well as to other interest groups, was common practice in Washington. Such testimony, the defense team hopes, would convince a jury that Rosen and Weissman had no way of knowing they were engaged in any kind of illegal activity.
The identities of the administration official and the Jewish organizational representatives who participated in the meeting could not be confirmed for the record by the Forward.
Rosen, who was under FBI surveillance at the time, briefed his colleagues at Aipac the next day about the meeting and about the information - presumably, some of it classified - that was shared by the government official…..
http://www.forward.com/articles/defense-for-aipac-duo-says-groups-refuse-to-testif/
Jewish Week – March 9, 2007
Pro-Israel Pastor gets prime AIPAC spot
James D. Besser
Growing ties between pro-Israel forces and a controversial, hardline "Christian Zionist" movement will move into the national spotlight at next week's policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the pro-Israel lobby.
One keynoter at the event, which annually draws hundreds of lawmakers, administration officials, diplomats and political hopefuls, will be Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), author of several books about biblical prophecy and an opponent of new territorial concessions to the Palestinians on biblical grounds.
Rev. Hagee, who will speak at a Sunday plenary, was also a leading backer of a controversial Christian broadcast venture in Israel that critics charge sought to convert Jews.
And a time when pro-Israel forces are being accused of beating the drums for war with Iran, Rev. Hagee seems to believe such a conflict is both inevitable and necessary. In his apocalypse-oriented book "Jerusalem Countdown," he predicted a nuclear showdown with Iran and said, "The end of the world as we know it is rapidly approaching ... rejoice and be exceedingly glad, the best is yet to be," according to a Wall Street Journal report posted on the CUFI Web site.
Last year, Rev. Hagee told the Jerusalem Post that "I would hope the United States would join Israel in a military pre-emptive strike to take out the nuclear capability of Iran for the salvation of Western civilization." ……
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=13765
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