KINGS OF CAPITAL HILL/ HALOBBY

Israel, 2020, 90 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Mor Loushy.

AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) is the subject of this engrossing documentary.

The committee was established in the 1960s, a liberal grass roots movement in the United States, promoting Israel but also concern about the fate of the Palestinians. And this continued until the 1990s when there was an ideological change, a move towards the right, wariness of the Oslo agreement, critique of Benjamin Netanyahu and, with the film devoting a lot of attention in the latter part to the Trump era, the moving of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the admiration for Trump, and the action of the Committee and its lobbying with politicians on each side.

The range of talking heads is most interesting, past president, Tom Dine, who was eventually ousted, providing insights into the pre-1990s conduct of the Committee, its personalities, its influence. Most of the other speakers held positions in the Committee but were ousted or resigned. Their comments are insightfully critical – and, now, rather passionate but somewhat resigned.

This film can be seen along with another contemporary documentary ‘Til Kingdom Come, focusing on evangelical Christians, bonds with an Israeli organisation, fund-raising, dialogue, with visits to Israel by the Christians and the presence of organisation members in Kentucky at religious gatherings. (However, at the end, there is a very candid sequence of one of the Baptists speaking of his beliefs, the coming of the apocalypse, the tribulation, and the Jews having to convert.)

When this film was released, 2020 was the year of the US presidential elections. Watching the film if Trump had one would have been to enthuse about all that Trump had achieved, of Netanyahu’s bond with Trump, the hostility towards Iran, withdrawing from the nuclear pact, the transfer of the embassy…

However, watching the documentary in 2021, after Joe Biden’s victory, the perspective seems quite different. Trump has gone. While Biden supports Israel, there is not the jingoistic atmosphere of the Trump era. In fact, this documentary shows that a number of American politicians were reluctant to identify with AIPAC from 2018 (and one of those noted was future vice president, Kammala Harris). The statements by the current leaders of the Committee tend to be rather thundering, putting Trump on a pedestal.

While this documentary is interesting to contemporary audiences, it will be most interesting in the years ahead, assessing the Trump era and relationships between the US and Israel.

The director also made top documentaries, Censored Voices, about the Six-Day? War, the experience of the young soldiers, the retrospect, as well is The Oslo Diaries about the working for the peace accord in the 1990s.