Washington, DC—More than 14,000 people, the largest group ever to participate in an AIPAC conference, descended on the city to prepare for their trips to Capitol Hill, where they would spend hours convincing members of Congress to continue to support Israel, and to find a way to let Iran know that the U.S. and her allies were serious about sanctions. The conference followed on the heels of a White House meeting between Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama.
The meeting between the two leaders, which followed a blunt interview the President gave to Jeffrey Goldberg, a reporter for Bloomberg, raised tensions before the confab. On the Sunday before the AIPAC conference, the President told him that “time was running out” for Israel and said, “There comes a point where you can’t manage this anymore, and then you start having to make very difficult choices. …Do you resign yourself to what amounts to a permanent occupation of the West Bank? Is that the character of Israel as a state for a long period of time? … If Palestinians come to believe that the possibility of a contiguous sovereign Palestinian state is no longer within reach, then our ability to manage the international fallout is going to be limited.”
In the Goldberg interview, Obama also described the Israeli government’s settlement policy as “aggressive” and urged Netanyahu to take the next step. “If not now, when? And if not you, Mr. Prime Minister, then who?” Obama asked rhetorically.
Among those at the conference were AIPAC members from Bergen County and Riverdale, as well as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, who warmly welcomed the 500 members of AIPAC’s New Jersey delegation. When he sent out the text to his speech, he also sent out a Purim message to the Jewish community nationwide. He wrote:
“The timing of the speech seems fitting because too often the past is, truly, prologue, and next week—March 15th—is the start of Purim, a holiday that marks the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient empire of Persia—now Iran. As the story goes, a plot had been hatched to destroy all Jews in the Persian empire, but Mordecai and his adopted daughter, Esther, foiled the plot and the day of deliverance became a day of celebration and feasting: Purim.
The parallel is all too obvious when it comes to the situation today in the Middle East, and the protection of the Israeli people from the threat posed by a nuclear Iran. Let us pray that—if the time should come—together we will be like Mordecai and Esther, we shall foil Iran’s nuclear plot, and deliver the Jewish people again as well as protect the world from a nuclear threat.
In his speech, Menendez mentioned Obama’s upcoming trip to Israel, and said he was hopeful that with, “we will not only re-engage and re-connect but we will make real progress towards a two-state solution. …But let’s be clear. If we are to get there, it is critical that the Palestinians come back to the negotiating table and stop the stunts, the distractions, and the grandstanding at the United Nations.”
One of the hottest issues on the agenda was Iran and as the sponsor of the sanctions bill and three other bills that would act to convince Iran to give up its nuclear weapons development. “The greatest threat to Israel’s security is Iran,” said Menendez. “It is clear to everyone in this room that there can never be any daylight between the United States and Israel. Not ever. But certainly not when it comes to Iran’s drive to achieve nuclear weapons capability. We cannot, we must not, and we will not stand for a nuclear Iran. Period.”
The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement was also high on the agenda. Bob Cohen, AIPAC’s new president-elect, called up AIPAC members to “fight exclusion with inclusion.” Nathan Guttman of The Forward thinks the “emphasis on BDS suggests that AIPAC may be shifting its focus to issues where it can score some easy wins. Unlike President Obama’s fiercely-defended Iran policies, the anti-Israel movement has few fans among the American people or its elected government, making it a tempting target.”
In his speech to the enthusiastic crowd, Netanyahu characterized BDS as another form of antisemitism. Its proponents he said, “openly admit that it they the dissolution of the State of Israel,” and he added that BDS sets back peace by hardening the Palestinian position. He asked “How could anyone fall for the BS in BDS?”
He said that “Beyond our traditional trading partners, countries throughout Asia, Africa, Latin America, these countries are flocking to Israel” wanting Israeli technology. “The BDS boycott movement is not going to stop that, any more than the Arab movement could stop Israel from becoming a global technological power. They are going to fail.”
At the heart of the conference however, was the special emphasis this year on promoting bi-partisanship—always an AIPAC policy mainstay. Michael Kassen, AIPAC’s chairman of the board, opened the convention by making it clear: “We must affirm bipartisanship in our own ranks if we want support for Israel to be championed by Democrats and Republicans alike,” The Forward’s Guttman noted that the message was repeated time and again. In a closed-door meeting of AIPAC’s National Council, Yossi Siegel, its chairman said that it is important to “create an atmosphere in which everyone can feel at home,” and that political diversity is the key to AIPAC’s strength. He advised those who go up to the hill and find folks on opposite sides of the aisle going at it, to intervene and make sure bipartisan spirit is maintained.
By Maxine Dovere and Combined Services
