The AIPAC Policy Conference ended this morning, after an evening gala where the 13,000 delegates were joined by 63 percent of the Congress: 65 senators and 274 House members. The conference has nearly doubled in size from the 7,000 delegates who attended in 2008. The plenary hall extended almost two football fields wide. But the hall was not large enough to hide what Shmuel Rosner called, after the first day of the conference, “the elephant in the room”:
[The] elephant is American policy in the region. In one session after another one hears criticism of American inaction, American hesitation, American lack of coherence. The criticism is at times subtler, and at times more direct, but it’s almost always there. You hear it from the experts on the different panels, from Americans and Israelis. You get less of it, but still some, even in the larger gatherings where the politicians and the leaders speak, where the politicians attempt to make it seem as if there are no problems and no daylight between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government. Americans and Israelis are now all walking on eggshells, making sure not to interfere with the “reset” of relations, not to add new tensions into the delicate relations between the second Obama administration and the second Netanyahu government. The elephant is there though … There’s surely doubt in Israel, and there’s concern in pro-Israel circles in the US (“we need a national security team that is pro-Israel”, Senator McCain said Monday morning).
In an extraordinary address to the gala, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said that throughout his lifetime he had “never questioned America’s resolve and support for Israel … until now.” The video is here, and the transcript is here.
On Monday morning, Vice President Biden asserted that President Obama is “not bluffing” about Iran, but his speech stuck to the now-familiar administration phrase: “acquiring a nuclear weapon,” rather than acquiring “nuclear capability,” which is the Israeli red line. In his own comments Sunday morning, Israeli ambassador Michael Oren made it clear that for Israel the important date is not the one on which Iran may acquire a nuclear weapon, but the date on which it will no longer be possible to stop it from acquiring one. He called the window for diplomacy “small.”
AIPAC produced its most successful conference yet; the speeches, panels, breakout sessions, and videos were outstanding, and the congressional support for Israel was remarkable. But the conference also served to demonstrate that, as the president prepares to visit the region in two weeks, Israel is more nervous than Iran. When the president chooses two famously anti-war senators as his new secretaries of state and defense; when he stands by month after month doing nothing in Syria, while Iran and Russia act; when he keeps an aircraft carrier and other military forces out of the region for budgetary reasons; and when six months after an American ambassador is murdered he is still searching for the real killers, the actions (and inactions) speak louder than words. At the end of the conference, the elephant was still there.
The elephant has a name: Barack Obama, President of the United States. American policy comes from the president and while there are many within, say, the State Department who have favored daylight between America and Israel, no president has opened the space for the light to escape as has Mr. Obama. n nIt used to be said that America and Israel were inseparable. Even our enemies viewed us as such. For example, Iran's leaders called Israel "little Satan" and America "big Satan. That's still what Iran calls us, but we don't seem to see it that way. n nWhat's so unfortunate and disturbing about this is that America and Israel are, in fact, tied together. As much as Mr. Obama may think that America is different, perhaps severable from Israel, that is not so. The problems that Israel faced 20-years ago with terrorism, urban combat, and Muslim extremist, we in America now face those same issues. And we will soon face the same problems Israel faces today. n nAmericans must confront terrorism in our cities. American soldiers now fight in urban settings and, what is more, our brave soldiers have to work with (and at times against) local populations such as we are doing now Afghanistan and did in Iraq. At home, we face hostile citizens who murder our citizens in the name of Allah, for example, Maj. Nidal Hasan who murdered thirteen at Fort Hood. There are plots for car bombs that, thank God, our FBI foils, but the plotters are there and have to be stopped. n nWhen America turns from Israel and comes to think that what ails Israel is only Israel's problem, we miss the fact that these attacks, these problems in the middle east, will soon be our problem. We can learn from Israel. The elephant is forgetting these lessons and failing to learn future ones.
AIPAC is like the character in the old joke about the cattle car en route to Auschwitz who tells another "passenger" who asks for water, "Quiet! You don't want to make trouble!"
This anology is not only crude, but could not be more wrong: Aipac is hardly "quiet." Today, thousands of Aipac activists fanned out over Capitol Hill, visiting every single Senator and Representative, conveying a clear, resolute message on preventing a nuclear capable Iran, supporting Israel as a strategic American partner and maintaining foreign aid and iron dome funding commitments. n nHagel was a no win situation for Aipac-not because of Aipac, but because of Dems like Chuck Schumer. Aipac is going after the must win agenda and issues of our day. In spite of this President, Aipac's bipartisan activists are saying loud and clear–and a good many members of Congress agree –"not on our watch."
You can dress up any convention with pretty bows and whistles but AIPAC failed. Not that they would have stopped Hagel or even Brennan (despite what some cowardly, self-promoting, ass-saving Democratic senators said), but by not speaking out they showed their uselessness. Not wanting to burn bridges is a sad excuse when you are already dealing with an administration that has no respect for your position in the first place. In truth AIPAC and other Jewish organizations really had nothing to loose by speaking out, except maybe donations by ardent pro-Obama Jews who are more interested in creating their own powerbase then the survival of the Jewish State. (How could anyone who is interested in the survival of the Jewish people actually support Obama is beyond any rational thinking reality. Sad that there are actually AIPAC members who bought Biden's lies as well.) n nFurthermore, Hagel isn't simply anti-Israel he is a virulent antisemite and so is Brennan. The fact that major Jewish organizations, AIPAC included, refused to voice their objection and demand respect for the Jewish community in this country shows not only a lack of true resolved in their mission but an absolute lack of backbone. The fact that any self-respecting Senator Jewish or gentile would support this anti-Semite shows that these people not only do not care about fighting Jew-hatred but don't even care about the health of this nation's self-defense capabilities. n nAIPAC used to be a great organization. I remember it as a nascent group dedicated to fighting the good fight in support of Israel, morality and ethics. I remember when they fought tooth and nail, whether it was Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton and even Bush 43. That they have turned into a group of shashtill Jews is an embarrassment to their progenitors and a waste of time and effort on the part of pro-Israel Americans. All AIPAC has become is the senior citizen version of JStreet. It's revolting.
I was thinking along the same lines until I read a recent column by Barry Rubin. Here's where the "Quiet! You don't want to make trouble!" joke breaks down: Obama and his administration may be a lost cause, but enough of Congress, including plenty of Democrats (as opposed to Democratic Party delegates) still value the US-Israel relatonship. Too many of them may be willing to fool themselves when it comes to presidential appointees, but the deference to the president goes only so far. AIPAC is betting on its continued ability to show Congress why it is in the US interest to stand with Israel. As one example, a number of Democratic Senators, including J-Street endorsed Sherrod Brown, signed onto Senate Resolution 65, urging the US to back Israel if it comes to a military confrontation with Iran. AIPAC needs to preserve its ability to talk with whichever party is in power at any given time.
As Bibi well understood and demonstrated in his 2011 address before Congress, it is the single most powerful pro-Israel democratically elected body on the planet (hats off to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Foreign Minister John Baird — two of the most unequivocally pro-Israel leaders in history). n nCongress' bi-partisan pro-Israel leadership is consistently out in front and prods the Elephant Obama. Some may complain, denigrate, whine and wish for the "good old days" at Aipac but Aipac's strategy of employing activists (Jews and Christians) and staff who consistently engage Congress, cultivating long-term relationships, staying on message and promoting pro-Israel legislation that actually PASSES and makes a tangible difference when faced with a less than friendly administration. Just ask Bibi. n nThough it may require a willing suspension of disbelief, even Obama-voting-Aipac-Jewish-Dems, who have the right to be wrong about the President, can understand that Congress is the first and last line of defense. Go figure.