MJ RosenbergSenior Fellow Media Matters Action Network
Posted: March 26, 2010 07:21 PM
I know what former President Bush would say if he had to comment on the results of AIPAC's conference this week. He would turn to Howard Kohr, its long time director, and say "heckuva job, Howie."
AIPAC supposedly exists to promote US-Israel relations or, more precisely, to promote them to the point where Israeli policies are never challenged by the United States. Most important to AIPAC is that the $3 billion aid package sails to Israel unimpeded, no matter what budgets cuts are inflicted here at home and no matter what the current president thinks.
AIPAC wants to put on a nice Washington show of power but without egregious poking of American eyes. For instance, the 7,800 delegates were warned in advance not to boo or hiss Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she discussed achieving peace with the Palestinians -- and they didn't. They allowed their feelings to show only when they stood and applauded her requisite criticisms of Palestinians while giving scattered applause to her calls for Israeli concessions.
But then came the most massive miscalculation in AIPAC's history. Just days earlier, a crisis erupted between the United States and Israel after the Israeli government announced that it would build 1,600 new settler units in the heart of Arab East Jerusalem while Vice President Biden was in Israel.
snip** The Americans...were not impressed or scared off by the loud applause Netanyahu received at the AIPAC Conference. It may have worked the other way around: The loud cheers may have encouraged White House officials to show the Israeli delegation and its US supporters who's the boss in America.
But now AIPAC has another plan to win the game for Netanyahu.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/heckuva-job-aipac_b_515506.html