AIPAC aligns itself with Netanyahu: Iran is the issue, forget for now about a Palestinian state

The big question about AIPAC in the wake of the formation of the Netanyahu government was: Israel has shifted right even as the US has shifted left; would AIPAC, which famously wants no daylight between the United States and the Israeli government, move right with Netanyahu? The answer is Yes. The AIPAC line on display at the policy conference is in line with the Netanyahu government: Iran is the priority, and don’t worry about the two-state solution.

From Shimon Peres to Congresswoman Jane Harman to the policy analysts who are gathered here, to the AIPAC executives, to Congressman Eliot Engel to Ken (Iraq/Iran) Pollack to a senior Netanyahu aide, the sense is that Israel faces an existential threat from a modern Hitler that it must respond to and the U.S. must do so too, and Obama must heed the urgency. And the two-state solution? It is not a priority. Yes of course Israel wants a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians can’t deliver on a two-state solution and are hopelessly divided politically, so there is no point in putting time into it.
Netanyahu senior adviser Ron Dermer said at a breakout session Sunday that Netanyahu was elected to “lead Israel down a different path”–away from the "path of weakness, and capitulation and concession, hoping, hoping that somehow the Palestinians will respond in kind is over.”

And what about the international pressure for the political self-determination of the Palestinian people? Of course we are for that, Dermer said. But all the energies in the last Israeli administration went into reaching an elusive agreement when there was no way on the Palestinians side to reach a deal on the core issues. The last government negotiated and negotiated and negotiated and it banged its head against the wall. Netanyahu doesn’t want to continue that focus. Yes we want them to have economic growth, but you cannot negotiate with militias and terrorists.
"Land for war," Engel called the peace process. 

I am told that Shimon Peres said nothing about the two state solution in his speech this morning; I heard only about Iran, and vague statements about peace with neighbors. General Eival Gilady, who played an important role in previous governments, said at a breakout session today that he wished that the country had not turned right, but it has, and this means an abandonment of the peace process of the last two years. Netanyahu’s plan is to make life easier for the Palestinians by easing some checkpoints and allowing greater freedom of movement, so there will be economic improvements in the West Bank. But not time for a state now.
I would add that some speakers here have expressed a different line. Aaron David Miller gave a great speech yesterday on the urgency of the two-state solution that I will get to in days to come. David Makovsky of Washington Institute for Near East Policy also emphasized the importance of getting a Palestinian state. These men seem attuned to what Obama wants. But my impression is that the larger organization is more attuned to Netanyahu.