Editing AIPAC (section)

=== Rise (1970s to 1980s) ===
By the 1970s, the [[Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations]] and AIPAC had assumed overall responsibility for Israel-related lobbying within the [[Jewish lobby|Jewish communal landscape]]. The Conference of Presidents was responsible for speaking to the [[Federal government of the United States#Executive branch|Executive Branch]] of the U.S. government, while AIPAC dealt mainly with the [[United States Congress|Legislative Branch]]. Although it had worked effectively behind the scenes since its founding in 1953, AIPAC only became a powerful organization in the 15 years after the [[Yom Kippur War]] in 1973.<ref name="Wertheimer95" />

By the mid-70s, AIPAC had achieved the financial and political clout necessary to sway congressional opinion, according to former [[List of ambassadors of Israel to the United States|Israeli Diplomat to the United States]] [[Michael Oren]].<ref name = MO /> During this period, AIPAC's budget soared from $300,000 in 1973 to over $7 million during its peak years of influence in the late 1980s. Whereas Kenen had come out of the [[Zionist movement]], with early staff pulled from the longtime activists among the Jewish community, AIPAC had evolved into a prototypical Washington-based lobbying and consulting firm. Leaders and staffers were recruited from legislative staff and lobbyists with direct experience with the federal bureaucracy.<ref name="Wertheimer95" /> Confronted with opposition from both houses of Congress, [[President of the United States|United States President]] [[Gerald Ford]] rescinded his '[[Gerald Ford#Middle East|reassessment]].'"<ref name = MO>[[Michael Oren]] (2007). ''Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present'' (New York: W.W. Norton & Company) p. 536. "The infelicitous combination of Ford and Rabin produced the direst crisis in US-Israeli relations since Suez, with Ford pronouncing a "reassessment" of American support for the Jewish state. Rabin responded by mobilizing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee --- AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby --- against the president. Though founded in 1953, AIPAC had only now in the mid-70s, achieved the financial and political clout necessary to sway congressional opinion. Confronted with opposition from both houses of Congress, Ford rescinded his 'reassessment'."</ref> [[George Lenczowski]] notes a similar, mid-1970s timeframe for the rise of AIPAC power: "It [the [[Jimmy Carter]] presidency] also coincides with the militant emergence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as a major force in shaping American policy toward the Middle East."<ref>{{cite book | last=Lenczowski | first=George | author-link=George Lenczowski | year=1990 | title=American Presidents and the Middle East | publisher=[[Duke University Press]] | isbn=978-0-8223-0972-7 | page=157 }}</ref>

In 1980, [[Thomas Dine]] became the executive director of AIPAC, and developed its grassroots campaign. By the late 1980s, AIPAC's board of directors was "dominated" by four successful businessmen—Mayer (Bubba) Mitchell, Edward Levy, Robert Asher, and [[Larry Weinberg]].<ref name=bruck-54>{{cite magazine|last1=Bruck|first1=Connie|title=Friends of Israel|magazine=The New Yorker|date=September 1, 2014|pages=53–4|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/01/friends-israel|access-date=September 9, 2014}}</ref>

AIPAC scored two major victories in the early 1980s that established its image among political candidates as an organization "not to be trifled with" and set the pace for "a staunchly pro-Israel" Congress over the next three decades.<ref name="Stolberg-too-powerful-4-3-2019"/>  In 1982, activists affiliated with AIPAC in [[Skokie, Illinois]], backed [[Richard J. Durbin]] to oust U.S. representative [[Paul Findley]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|R]]-[[Illinois]]), who had shown enthusiasm for [[PLO]] leader [[Yasir Arafat]]. In 1984, Senator [[Charles H. Percy]] (R-Illinois), then-chairman of the [[United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations|Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] and a supporter of a deal to allow [[Saudi Arabia]] to buy sophisticated [[airborne early warning and control]] (AWAC) military planes was defeated by Democrat [[Paul Simon (politician)|Paul Simon]]. Simon was asked by Robert Asher, an AIPAC board member in Chicago, to run against Percy.<ref name="Stolberg-too-powerful-4-3-2019"/>