Was Case Against AIPAC Lobbyists Anti-Semitic?

By Michelle Boorstein

Two weeks after the U.S. government dropped its case against two pro-Israel lobbyists, a group of more than 150 American rabbis is asking the attorney general to investigate how the prosecution happened and whether anti-Semitism or anti-Israel attitudes played a role.

A federal judge May 4 dropped the case against Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, who had been charged under the 1917 Espionage Act with conspiring to obtain classified information -- about topics including al-Qaeda and U.S. forces in Iraq -- and pass it to the Israeli government and journalists. Prosecutors had moved the week before that to drop the charges, saying it was unlikely they could win their case against the men, who worked for the lobbying powerhouse, AIPAC.

Now that the charges have been dropped, there is a major round of finger-pointing going on. Some in the Jewish community are asking how and why the government pursued the case, and are also challenging Jewish leaders who didn't come to the men's defense earlier.

(Meanwhile, a former Pentagon analyst pleaded guilty in 2005 to passing government secrets to the men and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, so the case wasn't a total loss for the government.)

The group of rabbis (which includes honchos from Reform, Conservative and Orthodox synagogues) have written a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder saying the case "was used by some to call into question the loyalty of the Jewish Community of the United States." Their letter, which will be sent tomorrow, notes that the case was the first time the Espionage Act was ever used against a civilian, and the first time it was used for information allegedly transmitted orally - vs passing documents or photos, for example.

The case, the letter reads, "has placed a cloud of suspicion on the loyalties of Jews in the United States."

The movement to sign the letter was started by two Orthodox rabbis, Avi Weiss of Riverdale, N.Y. and Shmuel Herzfeld of Washington. Among the signers are Rabbi Steven Weil, CEO of the Orthodox Union, and Rabbi Jerome M. Epstein, CEO, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism - two of the biggest American Jewish movements.

By Michelle Boorstein  |  May 18, 2009; 1:54 PM ET  | Category:  God in Government Save & Share:                 
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