Middle East Peace and the So-called 'Israeli Lobby'

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in the Middle East this week, meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. That is something Israel has said it will not do, since Abbas' Fatah faction formed a unity government with the more radical Hamas, which refuses to recognize the Jewish state. Meantime in the US, there's heated debate over the so-called "Israel Lobby," epitomized by the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee. Some influential Jewish Americans contend that AIPAC and its allies are too conservative, but say that AIPAC and its allies are so powerful they have squelched debate about American policy in the Middle East. They say that's bad for both the US and Israel itself where, ironically, debate is much more open.