Final_Judgment

96 No Love Lost [35]
PROBLEMS WITH THE ISRAELI LOBBY
During this same period JFK was also engaged with critical negotiations
with another important power bloc in American political affairs: the pro-
Israel lobby. For obvious reasons, as we have seen, there was indeed no
love lost between JFK, his father, Ambassador Kennedy, and the American
Jewish community.
Writing in his book, The Lobby: Jewish Political Power and American
Foreign Policy, Edward Tivnan comments: "Senator Kennedy's record on
Israel was vague, certainly not as staunchly supportive as Hubert
Humphrey's. And unlike Lyndon Johnson, Kennedy did not rush to Israel's
defense during the Suez affair.
"He was also a Catholic. Many Jews associated American Catholics
with right-wing, pro-McCarthy, and anti-Semitic causes. Worse, there was
the touchy issue of the candidate's father, Joseph P. Kennedy, who, as
ambassador to Great Britain in the late 1930's, had been a supporter of
Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasing the Nazis." 65
Kennedy's 1957 speech calling for Algerian independence, as we have
seen, had not gone over well with Israel's American supporters. Angering
the Israeli lobby further, Senator Kennedy had once offered an amendment
that would have slashed economic assistance to Africa and the Middle East
from $175 to $140 million, this despite the fact that pro-Israel senators said
that this was harmful to Israel. 66
ABRAHAM FEINBERG
However, John F. Kennedy was ready to deal, and he made moves to
appease the pro-Israel lobby. JFK, according to Edward Tivnan, "turned out
to be a better diplomat than his father." 67
Kennedy's contact with the Israeli lobby was New York apparel
manufacturer and financier, Abraham Feinberg. Feinberg was president of
the Israel Bond Organization and was helping raise private money to finance
Israel's secret nuclear development program.
(The financing was done through private, covert means and outside the
normal Israeli budget process because the nuclear development program was
controversial, in the eyes of not only the Eisenhower administration in
Washington but also in the eyes of many Israelis.)
Referring to Kennedy, Feinberg later said, "My path to power was
cooperation in terms of what they needed—campaign money." 68 (Feinberg,
himself had previously supported JFK's fellow Senator Stuart Symington, a
rival for the 1960 Democratic nomination.)
Recognizing the need for not only critical Jewish money, but also
Jewish votes, Kennedy arranged to meet with Feinberg and a host of other
wealthy Jewish Americans in Feinberg's New York apartment. Following a
discussion with Kennedy, Feinberg and his associates agreed to come up