WASHINGTON, 16 March 2007 — Just last week they were competing for African-American votes in the Deep South. But earlier this week Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama went head to head for another key demographic group: Jewish voters.
More than 6,000 delegates to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, made their policy conference the latest battleground in the Democratic presidential campaign.
The two leading contenders for the nomination, as well as underdog Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), staged dueling dessert receptions for delegates after the AIPAC banquet.
Obama, in a hurry, wrapped up his remarks in a room in the Washington Convention Center while a good group of the massive crowd was still filing out of the banquet hall after listening to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
One observer of Obama’s speech was disappointed by his use of the words “cycle of violence” — a phrase disliked by many pro-Israel activists for its intimations of moral equality between the two sides — and that he talked more about the danger of “cynicism” than of terrorism.
Several Jewish conference-goers said they were concerned by Obama’s recent remarks — that they view as pro-Palestinian.
On Sunday, according to the Des Moines Register, Obama told a small group of Democrats in Muscatine, Iowa, that “nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also endorsed relaxing restrictions on aid to the Palestinians if the Hamas-controlled government renounces terrorism and recognizes Israel.
“If we could get some movement among Palestinian leadership, what I’d like to see is a loosening up of some of the restrictions on providing aid directly to the Palestinian people,” he said in response to a question, according to the paper.
Clinton, who sported a sticker with her name written in Hebrew, said “Israel’s freedom and democracy must be protected,” and that she would like to see even tougher economic sanctions on Iran than are being considered.
Biden drew a considerably smaller crowd than his rivals, but made up for it by sticking around much longer. At 11:30 p.m., when Clinton and Obama were long gone, the senator from Delaware was still shaking hands and chatting with delegates.
Earlier in the evening, Biden attacked those who question the close ties between the United States and the Jewish state.
“The next time somebody makes a [negative] comment about the relationship between the United States and Israel, remind them that if there were no Israel, for US security’s sake, we’d have to invent one,” he said. “It’s not a one-way relationship, we need Israel as much as Israel needs us.”
Vice President Dick Cheney also put in an appearance. And his message to AIPAC was typically blunt.
“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,” Cheney said.
His appeal is part of the Bush administration’s efforts in recent months to shore up support for the Iraq war in quarters it once took for granted: Republicans in Congress, the Christian right and now the pro-Israel community.
His message was not received enthusiastically: Only about one-third to one-half of the audience applauded politely.
Behind Cheney, some AIPAC board members sat stone-faced, including Amy Friedkin, a past AIPAC president who is close to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the speaker of the US House of Representatives and a fierce critic of the administration’s handling of the war.
Speaking at the session Cheney opened, AIPAC executive director Howard Kohr told delegates that the next day they would be lobbying for new legislation, the Iran Counterproliferation Act of 2007, proposed by Reps. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the top Democrat and Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The bill would expand existing sanctions against third parties that deal with Iran and restrict the president’s ability to waive the sanctions by citing national-security considerations. Kohr also outlined plans to get state-employee pension funds in 10 states to divest from companies that deal with Iran. Three-quarters of American Jews — more than any other religious group — now think the Iraq war was a mistake. Observers say this is partly due to perceptions that the war’s failure has emboldened Iran and its nuclear ambitions, which AIPAC considers the gravest challenge to Israel.
