The AIPAC Roll Call

2008: “A highlight of the yearly gathering included the highly anticipated ‘roll call‘* of the nearly 350 elected officials and special dignitaries in attendance.”

2006: “AIPAC’s executive director spent twenty-seven minutes reading the “roll call” of dignitaries present at the gala dinner…”

To the tune of “When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder”

When the Roll Is Called by AIPAC

When they send the invitations out for all they want on board,
For everyone important to their lair.
Politicos and “dignitaries” line up for reward:
When the roll is called by AIPAC, they’ll be there.

When the roll is called by AIPAC,
When the roll is called by AIPAC,
When the roll is called by AIPAC,
When the roll is called by AIPAC, they’ll be there.

Not to be invited there would be a warning sign
For what might be a promising career.
So all the most ambitious ones work hard to be in line:
When the roll is called by AIPAC, they’ll be there.

When the roll is called by AIPAC,
When the roll is called by AIPAC,
When the roll is called by AIPAC,
When the roll is called by AIPAC, they’ll be there.

Are they so many pipers for whom AIPAC calls the tune?
Does The Lobby truly have such power?
If they don’t then cheese is really all that’s on the moon.
When the roll is called by AIPAC, they’ll be there.

(con brio)

When the roll is called by AIPAC,
When the roll is called by AIPAC,
When the roll is called by AIPAC,
When the roll is called by AIPAC, they’ll be there.

David Martin

Watch the video on 153News.

* On June 25, 2008, the author checked the AIPAC web site connected to this link and discovered that, although they were still boasting about the numerous high muckamucks who attended their annual “policy conference” that year, they had dropped all mention of their intimidating and tasteless roll call. They are beginning to make me feel like Alexander Pope:

Fr. You’re strangely proud.

P. So proud, I am no Slave:
So impudent, I own myself no Knave:
So odd, my Country’s Ruin makes me grave.
Yes, I am proud; I must be proud to see
Men not afraid of God, afraid of me:
Safe from the Bar, the Pulpit, and the Throne,
Yet touch’d and sham’d by Ridicule alone.

UPDATE: “AIPAC since 2015 has stopped its roll call, when executives and lay leaders would read out the names of the politicians in attendance.” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, March 22, 2019. If you search “The AIPAC Roll Call” using DuckDuckGo, the third thing that comes up is the YouTube video of “When the Roll Is Called by AIPAC.” I feel more like Alexander Pope every day.

Interestingly, searching that term using Google I could not find the video at all. Another interesting, and probably very telling fact can be discovered by comparing the viewer count of the video on 153 News, linked to above, and the viewer count you see for it at YouTube. The YouTube count is suspciously very much lower, even though it was posted there many years earlier and YouTube’s general audience compares to that of 153 News like the U.S. population might compare to that of the nation’s smallest county. The video could have gone viral on YouTube, which is owned by Google, but they’ll never let us know. Why would they?

David Martin
March 29, 2019