Senators on both sides of the sanctions debate said they’d heard little from AIPAC. AIPAC keeps low profile on Iran bill

Despite growing support in the Senate for Iran sanctions legislation, Democratic leaders have yet to feel insurmountable pressure to bring the measure to the floor.

One major reason: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is mostly keeping quiet.


The powerful pro-Israel lobby has not engaged in a shoe-leather lobbying campaign to woo wayward senators and push Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to schedule a vote on the bill, according to several key senators and aides. While the group supports the bill — authored by Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) — it is not yet putting its political muscle behind a push for an immediate vote.

“I don’t know where AIPAC is. I haven’t talked to anybody,” said Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who opposes any vote for additional sanctions at this time.

As of now, the Menendez-Kirk bill has 59 public supporters, including 43 of 45 Senate Republicans. But dozens of Democrats remain publicly undecided on the bill and seem unlikely to cross the Obama administration and openly back the legislation at this time. And AIPAC isn’t yet twisting Democratic arms.

A number of senators on both sides of the sanctions debate said they’d heard little from AIPAC on the issue, suggesting that wavering lawmakers are feeling little pressure from the group. With its clout on Capitol Hill and ties to deep-pocketed Jewish donors, the group’s muscle could be enough to change the political calculation over how to proceed on the contentious issue.

“I don’t know what they’re doing,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a leading defense hawk and strong supporter of getting a vote on the bill.

An AIPAC spokesman insisted that the group is backing the Kirk-Menendez legislation and wants to see it enacted.

“Our top priority is stopping Iran’s nuclear program, and we strongly support the Menendez-Kirk bill,” said AIPAC spokesman Marshall Wittmann. “We are working closely with senators and their staffs and are encouraged that a bipartisan group of senators thus far totaling 59 have already cosponsored the legislation.”

Indeed, over the last several weeks, AIPAC has quietly called for a bipartisan sanctions plan, telling senators that any plan should have significant support from both parties, according to senators involved in the talks.

Still, the group’s positioning has privately frustrated some senators, who argue that AIPAC could push Reid to schedule a vote but is instead trying to curry favor with a White House opposed to new sanctions. The White House says that further sanctions legislation could upset a rare six-month window to negotiate a diplomatic solution to end the country’s alleged attempts to develop a nuclear weapon.

Iran and six world powers, including the United States, announced over the weekend the first phase of their deal aimed at curbing the country’s nuclear push and opening up some of its frozen assets.

The bipartisan bill would impose further penalties on Iran’s petroleum industry and segments of Iran’s economy like mining and construction. And though the sanctions would only go into effect if diplomatic talks fall apart or implementation of an interim deal falters, Iran has warned that such legislation would kill ongoing diplomatic talks.

But hawkish senators who are deeply skeptical of the negotiations are closely monitoring the diplomatic talks and are weighing whether to begin a more aggressive push for a vote as soon as next month.

Despite AIPAC’s political muscle, it does not always engage when Congress is weighing action in the Middle East.

But in September, when the president was weighing military strikes against Syria, AIPAC pursued what officials called “a major mobilization” effort to push Congress into action, arguing that it was “imperative to adopt the resolution to authorize the use of force.”

At the time, some 250 Jewish leaders, activists and donors were urging lawmakers to support a use-of-force-resolution, arguing it would deter the Iranian nuclear threat. Congress never voted on the resolution as the focus turned to diplomacy and scuttling Syria’s chemical stockpiles — but had the vote come up in September, it appeared sure to fail even given AIPAC’s hawkish public stance.

In an interview Monday evening, Kirk said AIPAC so far is “doing a good job” on the sanctions bill. But he added: “My worry is that partisanship rules everything here…. The question we’re asking is that with the first couple billion the president gives the Iranians, what are they going to spend it on?”

California Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Jewish Democrat, said she’s met with AIPAC “many times” on the issue of Iran. But asked if the group had been pressing her to support the Iran sanctions measure, she replied “not at all.”

“They respect my position, which is that sanctions are totally appropriate if this fails,” she said, referring to the diplomatic talks.

But other senators have not yet heard from the group and indicated they were entirely unaware of AIPAC’s activities on the Hill.

“I really have not talked to AIPAC about it,” said Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, a Jewish liberal and one of the few Senate Democrats publicly backing the Kirk-Menendez legislation.

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