Taking the Pulse at AIPAC 2018
“Choose to Lead” is the AIPAC motto for 2018. There are 18,000 attendees, a figure slightly up from last year’s, including 3,600 students.
05
Mar
30
Jan
The New Israeli Americans
The days of shame about living in America are over. But can this diverse group of immigrants hold onto their culture? And is there a chance that they can become a unified political voice?
05
Nov
Opinion // Agreeing to Disagree
There is no reason for the Jewish community to be monolithic in our opinions.
29
Aug
Nathan Guttman on AIPAC: A Waning Superpower?
Is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the pro-Israel lobbying group, facing an imminent crisis of power?
05
May
Opinion // Bans, Blacklists and Flyers, Oh My!
Letty Cottin Pogrebin
As usual, the thought police are trying to silence diversity of opinion about Israel.
I’m not usually prone to hysteria or hyperbole, but lately there’s a strong whiff of Jewish McCarthyism in the air—by which I mean attempts by powerful members of our community to scare, silence, ruin or excommunicate anyone who disagrees with them on Israel. Three examples:
1. Recently, a stranger came up to me at a meeting and accused me of “destroying the Jewish people” because I had signed an open letter to New York’s Mayor Bill de Blasio faulting him for secretly meeting with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and virtually declaring himself its lackey.
In fact, I was one of 58 Jewish New Yorkers—among them such notable destroyers of the Jewish people as playwright Eve Ensler, pianist Emanuel Ax...
27
Mar
The AIPAC/J Street Color War
by Charles Kopel
A new spring ritual has taken form for American Jews concerned with Israel activism. The AIPAC Policy Conference, a mainstay in the American Zionist establishment for 53 years, is attracting larger and larger groups of delegates to Washington, DC each year. These delegates gather from around the country to address the importance of strengthening the “U.S.-Israel relationship.” The third annual conference of AIPAC’s self-proclaimed rival, J Street--aimed at fostering a network of supporters to advance its "pro-Israel, pro-peace" agenda--is wrapping up today in the nation’s capital. This division of the Israel lobby into two separate camps proves to be a comfortable accommodation for the increasingly polarized spectrum of American Jewish views regarding both the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the potential nuclear threat from Iran.
An added dimension of this division, however, is that the...
20
Mar
March Comes In with AIPAC and Goes Out with J Street
March is bookended by two Israel-related conferences in Washington this year: the annual AIPAC Policy Conference, attended by about 13,000 people, was held the first weekend in March, and the coming weekend marks J Street's third national conference. So, what does it mean to be pro-Israel? Moment asked 24 writers and thinkers--including Israeli novelist Amos Oz and journalist Peter Beinart, both of whom will be at the J Street conference--to tell us what they think it means to be pro-Israel today.
08
Mar
Twenty (Jewish) Questions
by Kelley Kidd
Monday night, I sat in traffic in a taxi outside the Washington Convention Center as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) gala (addressed by Benjamin Netanyahu) went on inside. Protest groups shouted out against a potential war in Iran. My taxi driver, an Iranian himself, mumbled to me that “these people do not want their tax money funding another war.” The sentiment seemed consistent with the shouts and signage of the people gathered outside the conference who called for “diplomacy, not bombs.” They, and other anti-AIPAC groups, have expressed fears that AIPAC wants war on Iran, a road they do not want to see America go down. Even President Obama cautioned that we must not disregard “the stakes involved for Israel, for America, and for the world” before jumping into war. For...
18
Jul
Glenn Beck’s Wet Hot Israeli Summer
By Adina Rosenthal
Glenn Beck is making quite a splash in the Jewish state this summer. This August, Beck will host “Restoring Courage,” a three-part event that Beck’s website describes as “an opportunity to demonstrate to the world that Israel does not stand alone.” The first event will be for American Christians “to get the Christian community in America to wake up and start standing up .” The second will be more explicitly political in nature, purportedly including Senator Joe Lieberman, GOP presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Herman Cain, and two other presidential candidates yet to be revealed. The final August 24 event that, according to the Jerusalem Post, “would be attended by more than 30 American national political figures, 70 international politicians and citizen delegations from 100 countries around the world, including Bahrain” will be...
03
Jun
Back to the Future: Obama’s Peace Plan
by Amanda Walgrove
In 1967, the 25th amendment to the constitution was ratified, the U.S. was in the thick of the Vietnam War, Benjamin Netanyahu first joined the Israeli army and the Six-Day war ended with a U.N.-mediate ceasefire established between Syria and Israel. The year 1967 brought the release of The Doors' self-titled debut album, Elvis Presley's marriage to Priscilla Beaulieu, the inaugural Superbowl game on network television, and the birth of Julia Roberts. What a different world it was. Tweeting was still something that only birds could do and revolutions were not started on Facebook, because back then a facebook was a company photo album.
In late May, President Obama delivered a speech that sparked a wealth of controversy and a barrage of criticism after he insisted that Israel and Palestine return to their 1967...