David Steiner was President of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and later was a New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

 real-estate developer.

Controversy and resignation from AIPAC

He resigned his AIPAC Presidency in November 1992 after Haim Katz, a New York real estate developer, secretly recorded a telephone conversation with him and released it to the Washington Times. Steiner told Katz he had significant influence over American foreign policy and the selection of US political leaders.

Among the things Steiner told Katz:

"I got, besides the $3 billion, you know they're looking for the Jewish votes, and I'll tell him whatever he wants to hear. . . Besides the $10 billion in loan guarantees which was a fabulous thing, $3 billion in foreign, in military aid, and I got almost a billion dollars in other goodies that people don't even know about. . . I have friends on the Clinton campaign, close associates. . . . I've known Bill for seven, eight years from the National Governors Association. I know him on a personal basis. . . One of my friends is Hillary Clinton's scheduler, one of my officer's daughters works there. We gave two employees from AIPAC leave of absence to work on the campaign. I mean, we have a dozen people in the campaign, in the headquarters, in Little Rock, and they're all going to get big jobs. . . I also work with a think tank, the Washington Institute. I have Michael Mandelbaum

Michael Mandelbaum

Michael Mandelbaum is the Christian A. Herter Professor and Director of the American Foreign Policy program at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. He is also Director of the SAIS American Foreign Policy program. He has written 10 books on American foreign policy...

 and Martin Indyk

Martin Indyk

Martin Sean Indyk is Vice President and Director for Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Indyk served as United States ambassador to Israel and Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs during the Clinton Administration. He is known as the framer of the U.S...

 being foreign policy advisers. . . Steve Spiegel. . . We have Bill Clinton's ear. I talked to Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

. He's going to be very good for us. . . A girl who worked for me at AIPAC stood up for them at their wedding. Hillary lived with her. I mean we have those relationships. . . Susan Thomases

Susan Thomases

Susan P. Thomases is a New York-based attorney. She served as personal counsel and an informal adviser to Hillary Clinton during the presidency of Bill Clinton. She was a prominent witness during the Senate Whitewater Hearings in 1995...

, who's in there, worked with me on the Bradley

Bill Bradley

William Warren "Bill" Bradley is an American hall of fame basketball player, Rhodes scholar, and former three-term Democratic U.S. Senator from New Jersey. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party's nomination for President in the 2000 election.Bradley was born and raised in a suburb of St....

 campaign. We worked together for 13 years. She's in there with the family. They stay with her when they come to New York. One of my officers, Monte Friedkin, is one of the biggest fund-raisers for them. I mean, I have people like that all over the country. . . He's said he's going to help us. He's got something in his heart for the Jews, he has Jewish friends. . . Clinton is the best guy for us. . . We're just negotiating. We're more interested right now in the secretary of state and the secretary of National Security Agency. . . I've got a list. But I really can't go through it. I'm not allowed to talk about it. . . We'll have access.

After the transcript of the recording was made public, Steiner and AIPAC claimed he had exaggerated. "In an effort to encourage and impress what I thought was a potential political activist calling on the telephone," Steiner said, "I made statements which went beyond over-zealousness and exaggeration and were simply and totally untrue. I apologize to Governor Clinton, Chief of Staff Baker, and AIPAC for these actions."

Steiner was replaced as President of AIPAC by Steve Grossman

Steven Grossman (political operative)

Steve Grossman is the Treasurer and Receiver-General of Massachusetts.-Education:Grossman received his Bachelor's from Princeton University, and his MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.-Political career:...

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