A couple readers have remarked on the fact that AIPAC wouldn’t credential me this year. I’m hardly alone. A couple of other reporters whom I regard as unsusceptible to brainwashing were also not credentialed. It’s a pattern Today Politico reports that a French documentary team lost its credentials after it began filming an argument between Alan Dershowitz and Hadar Susskind, a spokesman for J Street. In that Politico report, Josh Block, who declined to credential me, tells J Street’s Amy Spitalnick to move along when she’s talking to a reporter at the conference.
At last year’s conference, Adam Horowitz chronicled the hamhanded efforts to manage his twitter feeds. And two years ago, Clayton Swisher of Al Jazeera got bounced after he did the unpardonable, and got into a conference-goers’ Q-and-A queue to ask a question.
Bottom line, there’s not a lot of transparency. AIPAC doesn’t really seek an open conversation, they seek influence, and the fewer people scrutinizing them, the better.
Oh and speaking of J Street, Susskind says after his brawl with Dersh, "We have disagreements with AIPAC that I don’t want to minimize. But we are all on the same side." Glass jaw.
