by B. R. GOWANI
Capitol Hill or the Congress building in Washington DC is the legislative branch of the US government. PHOTO/CHPP
The United States Congress is on a break from August 8 to September 5. Every other year, a certain percentage of the members of the Congress are offered a free trip to the Holy Land. The trip includes business class airline ticket, hotel accommodation, food, sight seeing, meeting Israeli leaders and people who can make these Congresspersons understand how they are coping with the Palestinian “terrorism.” The group responsible for this generosity is the American Israel Education Foundation, a charity group connected with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
This year 81 members or about one fifth of the Congress got lucky to win the trip (there are altogether 435 representatives and 100 senators), 55 of them are Republicans and 26 are Democrats–over half of them are newly elected.
Fresh and tender minds are the best targets for molding the AIPAC way.
The trips have not elicited much media coverage or scrutiny. It is understandable; it respects the privacy of Congresspersons and the AIPAC.
Wouldn’t it be advantageous for Israel to become the 51st state of the US rather than the Israel Lobby spending so much money? An old joke explains the disadvantage:
“… Because then it would only have two senators.”
The things the beneficiaries of this junkets are required to pretend are:
that they are neutral observers; and
they are not taking Israel’s side.
The thing they are required to do:
to support the continuation of $3 billion US aid to Israel.
The thing they did it on their own:
took cartons and cartons of a certain item with them;
to show their gratitude and to perform a little gesture.
This year’s lucky batch was overjoyed and packed up their things and boarded their planes.
All of them were not on the same plane.
On one of the planes, one of the Congresspersons panicked and screamed: “Where are the toilet papers?”
The Congressperson seating next to him replied: “It’s in the toilet.”
“I know that. I’m talking about the ones we’re taking to Israel.”
You should see the faces of the rest of the Congresspersons. Their joy-emitting faces turned pale.
They all screamed in unison:
“How are we going to clean their …”
One of them came up with an idea:
“In some societies they use water instead of toilet paper.
We can use water.”
Another one joined in:
“It will bring us more closer to them;
our bonding will get stronger.”
Third one cautioned:
“We’ll have to be very careful that
none of our fingers slip in;
because “Bibi” and Party is very sensitive.”
B. R. GOWANI can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com