Abourezk recalls the hostility he received after touring the Middle East as a senator in 1973. “After I finished with my statement a rather short person, who identified himself as Wolf Blitzer, who was then writing for the newsletter of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), rose to ask three or four hostile questions, after which he left,” he recalls. “The next issue of the AIPAC newsletter that came out had a story headlined, ‘Abourezk Sells Out to the Arabs.’”

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Abourezk overviews the many trips members of Congress take to Israel, often paid for by the pro-Israel lobby. “One wonders what policies Congress might support toward Israel and the Palestinians absent the distorting influence of these Israel trips—or if more members toured Palestinian lands,” he writes.

Name That Terrorist
July 2008 Issue

Abourezk notes that Nelson Mandela was once placed on the U.S. terrorist watch list at the behest of the apartheid government in South Africa. “Why are people who are defending their homeland with violence inevitably called terrorists?” he asks. He also questions why Israelis, such as settlers, who terrorize Palestinians are not slapped with the terrorist label.

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