SPECIAL REPORT

 

Jewish conference draws
all Washington factions

 

Many guests at AIPAC event, but one is unwanted — Iraq
Jewish Telegraphic Agency Tuesday, 13 March 2007

By RON KAMPEAS

WASHINGTON — AIPAC's annual policy conference is truly a
come-one, come-all event, with a "roll call" at the gala dinner
announcing the hundreds of VIPs in attendance. But this year,
one uninvited guest kept turning up — the Iraq war.

No matter how hard the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
tried to keep the 6,000 activists at its conference focused on
the consensus issue of Iran's nuclear threat, Republicans and
Israeli officials kept bringing up what is likely the most divisive
issue of the day.

The equation promoted by those who support continuing the war
is simple: Israel's security requires a continued U.S. presence
in Iraq, and questioning President Bush's policy is tantamount
to undermining Israel and the United States.

Israeli prime minister addresses conference

"When America succeeds in Iraq, Israel is safer," Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert said late Monday in a live satellite address
from his Jerusalem home that capped the gala dinner. "The friends
of Israel know it, the friends who care about Israel know it. They
will keep the Americans strong, powerful and convincing."

Vice President Dick Cheney was even more blunt.

"Friends owe it to friends to be as candid as possible," he said.
"My friends, it is simply not consistent for anyone to demand
aggressive action against the menace that is posed by the
Iranian regime while at the same time acquiescing in a retreat
from Iraq that would leave Israel's best friend, the United States,
dangerously weakened."

Vice-President and former Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney
among speakers at this year's Jewish policy conference.

The equation infuriated Democrats.

The sniping on Iraq — at one point it devolved into scattered
boos for Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the speaker of the U.S.
House of Representatives — ran counter to AIPAC billing that
the event would be an unmatched show of bipartisan support
for Israel.

But a spokesman for the pro-Israel lobby powerhouse said the
Iraq issue did not detract from the conference's focus.

"Our focus is on the things we're lobbying on," Josh Block said.

The March 12 gala dinner drew half the U.S. Senate and more
than half the House. It featured addresses by Sen. Harry Reid
(D-Nev.), the Senate majority leader, and Sen. Mitch McConnell
(R-Ky.), its minority leader.

The next morning, Pelosi and Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), the
House minority leader, headlined the traditional Tuesday-morning
sendoff to the Capitol for a day of lobbying.

Calls AIPAC 'family'

McConnell and Boehner also attempted to build support for the
administration's recent deployment of more than 20,000 additional
troops to Iraq. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) made it the
centerpiece of his speech.

"There is something profoundly wrong when, in the face of attacks
by radical Islam, we think we can find safety and stability by
pulling back, by talking to and accommodating our enemies, and
abandoning our friends and allies," Lieberman said to a group that
he likes to call "family."

"Some of this wrong-headed thinking about the world is happening
because we're in a political climate where, for many people, when
George Bush says yes, their reflex reaction is to say no," he said.
"That is unacceptable."

Democrats, speaking on background, said they were unsettled by
how Iraq kept intruding into an event dedicated to securing Israel.

Some top AIPAC officials also appeared appalled by the advocacy
for Bush's plan to increase troop levels in Iraq.

Message on troop surge suppressed for 24 hours

The attempt to force the Iraq issue into the AIPAC conference
appeared coordinated in part by the White House. AIPAC closed
Lieberman's session Monday to the press, though it had been
touted as being open. That kept his message of support for the
troop surge out of the headlines — for 24 hours.

Lieberman's office distributed the remarks Tuesday, and within
minutes they were forwarded to Jewish leaders by the White House
liaison to the Jewish community with a note labeling them as
"important."

It did not help AIPAC's case for bipartisanship that the lobby this
week successfully pressed for the removal of a provision in an Iraq
war funding bill that would have required the president to get
congressional approval for war against Iran.

Many Democrats favored the provision because it reasserted
Congress' constitutional role in declaring war, which some charge
Bush has eroded in Iraq. AIPAC and some other Democrats close
to Israel feared the clause would restrain Bush as he pushes Iran
to come clean about its nuclear program.

"I don't know that you need to put in a supplemental budget bill
that you believe in the U.S. Constitution," Rep. Gary Ackerman
(D-N.Y.), a Jewish congressman who supported leaving out the
Iran provision, told JTA. "That should be obvious.

"If you're trying to get a terrorist rogue regime to give up its
weapons," he said, "you should get them to think maybe we're
as crazy as they think we are."

Israeli PM calls for Bush free hand for war on Iran

On Monday night, Olmert appeared to be making a pitch for
removing the provision.

"President George W. Bush is the only leader and the United States
is the only country that can be of enormous influence on what
the Iranians will do," he said. "They are the only ones that can
confront effectively the aggressiveness of the Iranians in their
plans to build up nuclear capacity.

"I know that all of you, friends of the State of Israel, well-wishers
of the State of Israel, all of you who are concerned about the
security and the future of the State of Israel, understand the
importance of strong American leadership addressing the Iranian
threat, and I am sure you will not hamper or restrain that strong
leadership unnecessarily."

Democrats said they were stunned by what they considered
Israeli intervention in the U.S. political process.

They weren't the only ones. Officials close to Israeli Defense
Minister Amir Peretz, who attended the event and gave a closed-
door briefing, said he felt Olmert had crossed a line.

Peretz believes Israelis "should not interfere in a democratic process, especially in a country where there is such sensitivity about the democratic process," the officials said.

Legislation would bar Iran from U.S. banking system

AIPAC was circumspect. The organization sees the Iran issue
"differently" than does Olmert, Block said.

"We're interested in ensuring that Iran does not acquire nuclear
weapons by ensuring that every sanction is used," he said.

To be sure, that was the tone set at the conference.

"Stiff sanctions and targeted divestments — these will be our focus
as we work to keep the pressure on Iran," AIPAC Executive Director
Howard Kohr said, speaking at the same session as Cheney.

The focus was a new sanctions act, co-sponsored by Rep. Tom
Lantos (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Relations
Committee, and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), its ranking
member.

"Chairman Lantos' legislation prohibits Iranian-owned state banks
from using the American banking system," Pelosi said in her remarks.

"In terms of diplomacy, it proposes that we use our influence with
Russia and China to encourage them to join the world community
in opposing Iran's nuclear program."

Pelosi delivered her own limited broadside against the Iraq war,
saying "any U.S. military engagement must be judged on three
counts — whether it makes our country safer, our military stronger
or the region more stable. The war in Iraq fails on all three scores."

That earned her light applause and a few boos.

'We lobby on Israeli issues'

In the end, however, delegates dropped whatever they felt about
Iraq as they ascended the steps of Capitol Hill.

"We lobby on U.S. and Israeli issues," said Eric Zoller, 30, of West
Orange, N.J. Touring his state's congressional offices in the Cannon
Building for House members, he said Iraq was "no issue."

Benny Schechter, 51, a wholesaler from Coral Gables, Fla., noted
Olmert's appeal to make Iraq an issue — but he rejected it.

"This is not an issue that we want to raise," Schechter said after
meeting with Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-Texas).

Stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons is the bottom line,
Schechter said.

"If that happens, the war in Iraq means nothing," he said. "We
have a limited time and we need to pick what issues are important."