AIPAC pummels Obama

A slide projected onto the wall at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee gathering Monday contained a warning to delegates: “AIPAC is Bipartisan,” it said, next to an image of a Democratic donkey and Republican elephant in boxing gear. “Check your gloves at the door.”

They checked their gloves, all right — but less to practice bipartisanship than to pummel the Obama administration with bare knuckles. In the brawl between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Iran nuclear negotiations, AIPAC has joined congressional Republicans in siding wholeheartedly with the Israeli hard-liner.

The rift with Obama is nothing new; four years ago, AIPAC delegates were urged not to boo Obama when he spoke to the group (most obeyed). But this situation is worse, because Netanyahu, by accepting House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation to address Congress Tuesday — snubbing Obama, who wasn’t consulted — is exploiting a partisan rift in American politics and driving a wedge through the American Jewish community. And congressional Republicans, by giving Netanyahu their pulpit 14 days before Israel’s elections, are brazenly taking sides in that country’s politics. This all is likely to backfire by firming Democratic resistance to more Iran sanctions — and, in the long run, by politicizing U.S.-Israeli relations.

The AIPAC delegates left no doubt where they stood as they listened to speeches at the Washington convention center Monday morning by Netanyahu and by an Obama administration representative, U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power. The transcript will show that they applauded Netanyahu 59 times in his 22-minute speech, compared with 34 times during Power’s 30-minute address. But that doesn’t reflect the rapturous nature of the reception for Netanyahu (who got an 80-second standing ovation, with thousands of phones raised to take photos, on either end of his speech) and the polite but tepid response to Power (who received a perfunctory 18 seconds).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/aipac-pummels-obama/2015/03/02/e05ee4c2-c10d-11e4-9ec2-b418f57a4a99_story.html