{"id":469258,"date":"2010-03-24T17:38:41","date_gmt":"2010-03-24T21:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogs.rj.org,2010:\/rac\/\/2.2618"},"modified":"2010-03-24T17:53:42","modified_gmt":"2010-03-24T21:53:42","slug":"bibi-at-aipac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/469258","title":{"rendered":"Bibi at AIPAC"},"content":{"rendered":"

If, as I suggested yesterday<\/a>, the
\nannual AIPAC Policy Conference is political theatre, then the Banquet is the
\nreal show-stopper. It is the emotional high point, especially when, as this
\nyear, the keynote speaker is the Prime Minister of Israel.<\/p>\n

\"BibiAIPAC.jpg\"<\/span>Last
\nnight, just under 8,000 people sat down for dinner at the Washington Convention
\nCenter to celebrate U.S.\/Israel relations and, not coincidently, AIPAC itself. Full
\ndisclosure: For the first time in years, I skipped the dinner and watched the
\nspeeches from the comfort of my couch. I know that I missed some of the impact,
\nbut I did not have stand in line for security or to sit in a dark corner of the
\nhall, and I’m pretty sure the food was better at my house! Watching at home
\nalso meant that I paid far more attention to the speeches than is normally the
\ncase, and, I think it’s fair to say, than is the true for most in the room.<\/p>\n

<\/span>
\n Before the
\nspeeches, though, came the “roll call.” AIPAC’s welcoming of the elected
\nofficials and other VIP’s in attendance at the Policy Conference. There is
\nsomething impressive, exciting, and a bit comical about the “roll call,” in
\nwhich AIPAC Executive Director Howard Kohr and two board members sprint through
\nhundreds of names, that, according to this great
\nreport<\/a> by Eric Fingerhut for JTA, included 59 Senators (just one short of the
\nelusive super-majority!) and 269 Representatives. <\/p>\n

The major
\nspeech was that of Prime Minister Netanyahu. It was, I thought, a bit of a
\nstrange speech. (AIPAC<\/a>
\noffers both a transcript and a video of the speech; I’d recommend the video, embedded
\nat the bottom of this post!)<\/p>\n

The
\nsection on Jerusalem got the most coverage, and it was powerful:<\/p>\n

The connection between the Jewish
\npeople and the Land of Israel cannot be denied. <\/p>\n

The connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem cannot be denied. <\/p>\n

The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 year ago and the Jewish people
\nare building Jerusalem today. <\/p>\n

Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is our capital. In Jerusalem, my government
\nhas maintained the policies of all Israeli governments since 1967, including
\nthose led by Golda Meir, Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Rabin.
<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This
\nsection of his speech received the loudest applause, as was the case when
\nHoward Kohr used a similar line earlier that day. But much of the speech was
\nrambling, and uncomfortably formal for the Prime Minister’s speaking style.<\/p>\n

Although
\nhe made no explicit mention of the current tensions, toward the end of his
\nremarks the Prime Minister focused on the nature of the U.S.\/Israel relationship:<\/p>\n

For decades, Israel served as a
\nbulwark against Soviet expansionism. Today it is helping America stem the tide
\nof militant Islam. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Israel shares with America everything we know about fighting a new kind of
\nenemy. <\/i><\/p>\n


\nWe share intelligence. We cooperate in countless other ways that I am not at
\nliberty to divulge. This cooperation is important for Israel and is helping
\nsave American lives. <\/i><\/p>\n


\nOur soldiers and your soldiers fight against fanatic enemies that loathe our
\ncommon values. <\/i><\/p>\n


\nIn the eyes of these fanatics, we are you and you are us. <\/i><\/p>\n


\nTo them, the only difference is that you are big and we are small. You are the
\nGreat Satan and we are the Little Satan. <\/i><\/p>\n


\nThis fanaticism’s hatred of Western civilization predates Israel’s
\nestablishment by over one thousand years. <\/i><\/p>\n


\nMilitant Islam does not hate the West because of Israel. It hates Israel
\nbecause of the West – <\/i><\/p>\n


\nBecause it sees Israel as an outpost of freedom and democracy that prevents
\nthem from overrunning the Middle East. <\/i><\/p>\n


\nThat is why when Israel stands against its enemies; it stands against America’s
\nenemies. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is
\nmuch more to say about the 2010 AIPAC Policy conference, but fortunately, much
\nof it has already been said. JTA has great coverage on its Capital J blog<\/a>, and I liked
\nthis<\/a> Jeffrey Goldberg critique of the narrowness of the AIPAC program, and NPR’s
\ncoverage<\/a> of Secretary Clinton’s speech. I also enjoyed Natasha Mozgovaya<\/span><\/a>‘s
\nreports in Haaertz<\/i> (here<\/a>
\nand here<\/a>),
\nand Allison Hoffman and Marc Tracy’s coverag<\/a>e
\nin Tablet<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If, as I suggested yesterday, the annual AIPAC Policy Conference is political theatre, then the Banquet is the real show-stopper. It is the emotional high point, especially when, as this year, the keynote speaker is the Prime Minister of Israel. Last night, just under 8,000 people sat down for dinner at the Washington Convention Center […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4316,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-469258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}