How Influential Is AIPAC On US Foreign Policy?

It is often assumed that US policy in the Middle East would be far more "even handed" and less tied to Israeli interests if a lobby in Washington called the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC) didn't exist. The lobby group in Washington DC, founded in 1963 and which today boasts a nearly $70 million annual budget is said to rule US policy toward Israel with an iron hand unseating long time Congressional representatives (like Paul Findley in 1982) who "dare to speak out." A closer examination gives a very different picture.