I agree with JTA’s privacy policy.
By submitting the foregoing, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use of JTA. org
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.
This week, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s “Political Leadership Forum” is closed to the press. politics over politics.
The forum brings together “1,000 of our most sensible political leaders to strategize for the 2024 election cycle,” an AIPAC official told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
This is the first major lobby rally in Washington since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States 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 sacrosanct policy of staying out of direct electoral politics for decades.
“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 the applicants has also demanded courage at a confusing time in the history of US-Israel relations. Liberals have blamed AIPAC for supporting more than 100 Republicans who failed to certify Joe Biden’s presidential election even after a deadly insurgency aimed at preventing Congress from doing so. Conservatives questioned why AIPAC supported Democrats who subsidized the much-maligned 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 sharp as they were when Netanyahu clashed with 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.
President Joe Biden first sought to revive the deal, which former President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, but those plans are moribund because of Iran’s fatal crackdown on pro-women protests and Russia in its war on Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Biden’s management is closely following the moves made through Netanyahu’s new government, formed in coalition with far-right parties. The administration is going to weaken the country’s justice system, and some of its leaders are aggressively seeking annexation of the West Bank, a move opposed by Biden’s administration.
Neither Netanyahu nor Gottheimer addressed Israel’s current political climate in biased comments that were published through their offices.
AIPAC closed its spring policy conventions, which attracted more than 15,000 people, after its March 2020 convention drew unwanted attention as two of the convention’s attendees gave the impression of being spreaders of the then-unknown COVID-19 virus. He created a design for video conferencing and small local meetings as a replacement and didn’t schedule giant meetings even as other teams resumed their pre-pandemic conventions. However, he did not intend to revive the conventions.
I agree with JTA’s privacy policy.
By submitting the foregoing, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use of JTA. org