WASHINGTON (JTA) — With a new right-wing government in Israel sounding the alarm among many Americans, it seemed the right time for an AIPAC meeting, which brings together bigwigs to communicate on U. S. -Israel relations. But the group’s convention this week in Washington still doesn’t focus on that dating in U. S. electoral politics.
On Monday and Tuesday, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s “Political Leadership Forum” closed to the press. But it gives the latest sign of how the group’s activities have evolved since the days when its political meetings were welfare affairs that sought to elevate Israel’s politics over political politics.
The forum brought together “1,000 of our most sensible political leaders to expand a strategy for the 2024 election cycle,” an AIPAC official told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
It’s the first primary demonstration of lobbying in Washington since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U. S. It was in the U. S. 3 years ago, just as the organization was holding its 2020 conference. In the following years, AIPAC announced the creation of two political action committees, ending a policy that had been sacrosanct for decades to steer clear of direct electoral politics.
“The assembly is an opportunity to review the effects of the 2022 elections and motivate and equip our most productive activists as they prepare for the 2024 elections,” the official said. The political landscape facing the pro-Israel movement and what they can do to continue and deepen their political engagement. As always, you will see how greater political participation is an invaluable component of our efforts for U. S. -Israel relations.
AIPAC’s political action committees come with a traditional PAC, AIPAC PAC, which relies on smaller donations, and a Super PAC, United Democracy Project, which has unlimited purchasing power. Together, PAC has raised more than $50 million. The good fortune rate is high, with UDP’s favorite candidates winning in 8 of the 10 races it participated in, and AIPAC PAC supporting 342 winners out of 365.
This has made AIPAC a force to be reckoned with in a changing political landscape, but supporting applicants has also demanded courage at a confusing time in the history of U. S. -China relations. Liberals have blamed AIPAC for supporting more than a hundred Republicans who failed to certify Joe Biden’s presidential election even after a fatal insurgency aimed at preventing Congress from doing so. Conservatives questioned why AIPAC supported Democrats who subsidized the much-vilified 2015 Iran nuclear deal through AIPAC.
One of the topics of this week’s assembly was how to navigate this polarized environment. Josh Gottheimer, D-N. J. , joined Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. , to talk about maintaining bipartisanship for Israel at a time when a minority critical of Israel maintains some influence among Democrats. The U. S. -Israel rendezvous remains bipartisan and sustainable,” Gottheimer said. Gottheimer and Fitzpatrick co-chair the bipartisan Problem-Solving Caucus.
There’s also politics, with a video conference led by newly elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a live one by Lloyd Austin, the US defense secretary. Netanyahu said in his comments that differences with Democrats over Iran policy were no longer as acute as they were when Netanyahu clashed with then-U. S. President Barack Obama in 2015 over the Iran nuclear deal. (AIPAC’s opposition to the deal at the time spurred a similar influx of high-profile activists in a failed attempt to overturn it in Congress. )
“It’s time to close ranks between Israel and the United States, and the others,” Netanyahu said of the Iran factor. “And I look forward to discussing this factor with President Biden and his team. I think there is more than one assembly of spirits. of what has never been.
U. S. President Joe Biden first sought to revive the deal, which the former U. S. president has reached in the U. S. US President Donald Trump dropped out in 2018, but those plans are moribund due to Iran’s fatal crackdown on pro-women’s protests and Russia in its war against Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Biden’s management is closely following the moves made through Netanyahu’s new government, formed in coalition with far-right parties. The government will weaken the country’s judicial system, and some of its leaders aggressively seek annexation of the West Bank, a move in Biden’s direction opposes.
Neither Netanyahu nor Gottheimer addressed Israel’s current political climate in biased comments that were published through their offices.
AIPAC shut down its spring policy conventions, which drew more than 15,000 people, after its March 2020 convention drew unwanted attention because two of the convention’s attendees gave the impression of being spreaders of the then-unknown COVID-19 virus. He created a video conferencing design and small local meetings as a replacement and didn’t schedule giant meetings even though other teams have resumed their pre-pandemic conventions. Still, he didn’t intend to revive the conventions.
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