AIPAC to Hear Netanyahu and Gantz

Exactly four years ago in March 2015, attendees at the AIPAC conference found themselves in an awkward position. The Democratic Obama administration was conducting an all-out PR offensive to shepherd the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, better known as the Iran nuclear deal) through a skeptical Republican-controlled Congress.

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, came to Washington to address the AIPAC conference, and also a joint session of Congress, at the GOP leadership’s invitation, to declare his opposition to the Iran deal — in the middle of an Israeli election campaign.

So AIPAC conference attendees found themselves placed squarely in between a popular visiting Israeli leader and a sitting US president who were at loggerheads over a critically important issue. Some administration officials were darkly hinting that Congress should ignore AIPAC advice on the issue, charging that the group did not have US interests at heart. Not the most comfortable position to be in.

Now, four years later, again in March, again two weeks before Knesset elections, Netanyahu will be flying to Washington to speak at the AIPAC conference, which again finds itself at the heart of a political debate. Some tables have turned this time around: Netanyahu will be warmly greeted by the current occupant of the Oval Office, President Trump. Meanwhile, the Democrats, who now control the US House of Representatives, are trying to put to rest a controversy over anti-Semitism sparked by three of their newest members. That brouhaha was ignited by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who criticized AIPAC’s influence in the halls of the Capitol.