AIPAC conference -- the first primary?

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AIPAC conference -- the first primary?
Ron Kampeas
Ten months before New Hampshire voters render their tone-setting verdicts, candidates from both parties and their proxies will wander the halls of next week’s AIPAC conference assessing their PIQ -- pro-Israel quotient.

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Call it the first primary.

Ten months before New Hampshire voters render their tone-setting verdicts in the race for the next president of the United States, candidates from both parties and their proxies will wander the halls of next week’s American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference assessing their PIQ — pro-Israel quotient.

The conference of the powerful pro-Israel lobby addresses an array of challenges facing Israel, but dealing with Iran carries a special urgency as its nuclear program continues apace.

AIPAC’s executive committee is expected to outline its tough pro-sanctions line in a resolution, and delegates will endorse bills outlining further sanctions — including against third parties that deal with Iran — when they visit Capitol Hill to lobby on Tuesday, the conference's final day.

Iran also is the pro-Israel issue where Democrats and Republicans differ — on the degree of permissible engagement with the Islamic Republic — and conference-goers will closely watch how top representatives of both parties frame the issue.

The annual policy conference is AIPAC’s benchmark event and the one opportunity to reach major givers in the pro-Israel community gathered under a single roof, albeit the huge, multi-raftered roof of Washington’s convention center....>

http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/print/20070306aipaccurtainraiser.html