Democratic leaders are miffed at AIPAC – the powerful pro-Israel Washington lobby – because it won’t punish Republicans who voted last week against the $34.2 billion foreign appropriations bill, of which $2.4 billion was earmarked for Israel. The decision to vote "nay" had nothing to do with the Jewish state or Mideast politics. The Republicans opposed provisions that would restore funding to overseas women’s health groups that use non-American funds to provide abortions. Some also felt the bill was too costly. But Democrats are not hiding their displeasure that AIPAC is not minimally publicizing the "yeas" and "nays" as the lobby had threatened to do when Democrats voted against the Bush administration’s first appropriations bill in 2001. Then, too, the issue was not Israel, but the reduction of funding to Africa. In anticipation of the Democratic response, Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) prepared a letter for his colleagues to sign "affirming Republican support for Israel funding, not withstanding final passage of this bill." [Analysis] Analysts at The Media Line point out that the current brouhaha is an inevitable outcome of a lobby’s focus on its particular concern within a bill that encompasses far more than its narrow interest. In the case of AIPAC, matters become exacerbated because of the perceived power of that lobby and the ease with which such votes become key indicators in the branding of legislators’ relationships with Israel.