“AIPAC legislated restrictions on US businesses and workers already cost 100,000 American jobs per year. New AIPAC legislation targeting Iran could lead to further jobs loss.”
An AIPAC effort in Congress seeks to cut off U.S. loans to some American companies doing business with India and Iran. US exports to Iran have boomed from $85 million in 2004 to $683 million last year as US grain and other foodstuffs find eager Persian buyers. AIPAC sponsored amendments to the draft fiscal 2010 State and foreign operations appropriations bill will give members their first chance to vote on Iran sanctions since that country’s presidential election on June 12.
Rep. Mark Steven Kirk , R-Ill. said the AIPAC legislation targeted Reliance Industries, a large energy company based in India that reportedly has provided Iran with as much as a third of its refined petroleum. Kirk will offer the measure when the House Appropriations Committee takes up the draft bill. Kirk is the top 2008 recipient of Israel stealth political action committee (PAC) contributions according to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. He received $91,200 during the 2008 election cycle and more than $221,000 over his career. The Superior Court of the District of Columbia is still debating whether to regulate AIPAC as a political action committee after it was shown secretly directing such funding in violation of US campaign finance laws in the 1980s and 1990s.
Grant Smith, the director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep) was critical of Kirk’s move and the legislation’s sponsor. “AIPAC has a history of pushing policies that ultimately harm US workers and the American economy. The flawed US-Israel bilateral trade agreement has cost the US 100,000 jobs per year over the last decade. Other legislative initiatives pushed by the Israel lobby have negatively impacted the US share in the Arab market, which dropped from 12.77% in 1997 to 8.55% in 2008. American workers don’t want to become innocent victims of AIPAC’s trade and foreign policy adventures.” More