Here is one source covering lobby $ spent on congressional election campaign.
Funny, I couldn’t find anything specific to AIPAC (didn’t spent too much time though). However, they may channel their funding thru various sources.

thanks for the explanation. but my question was exactly the one you said. why should those Jews, born and raised in the U.S, put Israel’s interests before America’s with their money? well, I have a Jew Iranian friend who just does that. but I thought his case would be different; mostly shaped by the suffering of the first few years of the revolution, and he was there for a dozen of years only. it’s hard to imagine someone who lived his/her entire life in the U.S wholeheartedly lend the soul for Israel.

The answer to your implied question, as to why the Jewish point of view in American holds such sway with national politicians, so that the interests promoted by the government of Israel take precedence over the national interests of the US, lies in campaign funding. The majority of political funds obtained by Democrats, are given by Jews. Even if most US Jews do not like the war-mongering of the right-wing, they largely remain quiet as the Israeli tail wags the American dog, year after year after year.

Kooshy, I have no objection to your rearranging of my sentences.

kooshy:

following your latest response to my post. it’s undeniable that CSR guys were wrong, indecisive, and Ahmadinejad’s gov. committed suicide on the nuclear front. contrary to what you say, the reformists were not all in a very bad positions. Khatami received almost the same votes in the second term, and they were unable to make a solid progress, nor did they need to fear an American aggression with more than 20 million votes on their disposal. indeed, reformists negligence of national security, which at some point was the result of their overemphasize on the internal struggle and Supreme leader’s stubbornness in not making a more open society, severely damaged public trust. as a result, internally it’s looked like a joke to focus on the nuclear issue in 2005. it might be true to accept your idea in 2006, but it’s hard to accept such a big changes based on the events of 2005. Ahmadinejad’s is absolutely right not to give credit to the supreme leader, as he noted recently. supreme leader is such an opportunist in the internal struggles. he had tried hard to kill the spirit of a great reform, specially in the first few years, primarily because of his lack of credential, charisma and his deep insecurity, and now is trying to take advantage of Ahmadinejad’s gains on foreign policies, e.g, the nuclear issue. it seems, he makes decisions occasionally based on consensus, as you say, when he is in a very weak position like a typical Akhond. otherwise, it’s all about his mandate.

actually, Majmae Tashkhish Maslehate Nezam itself is getting really irrelevant in Iranian society, if it’s not already reached there. the name itself shows a great discontinuity with the public will. if CSR is doing a vital job, it has to be under the office of president or at least the supreme leader’s based on the current situation. with what we see now, as it’s obvious from their publications, it’s a sort of rival to Ahmadinejad’s policies. that is not what it supposed to be as the name also says so. anyway, Mr.Rohani is not worth defending by any means.