I'm in my first day at AIPAC, on assignment for The American Conservative, but I think we're seeing a kinder, gentler AIPAC. Call it the Obama Effect, or the Walt and Mearsheimer effect, the J Street effect, but AIPAC seems to me to be leaning over toward the left not to offend it. The center left. Ok, the center.
I say this because of a few comments I have heard so far. At a panel this morning Ephraim Sneh, a member of Knesset and former deputy minister, said that it is key to U.S. interests in the Middle East to reach a resolution of the Palestinian situation. Now. Howard Berman, the congressman from greater Israel in Los Angeles, took exception to this. We have an interest in stopping Al Qaeda in Pakistan, in stopping Iran from getting the bomb. Sneh's point stood. This is the heart of your problem in the Middle East. I think Jeffrey Goldberg might say that's antisemitic?
Then I went to a red meat panel where they were all attacking Muslims. Supposedly. And yes Walid Phares and Martin Kramer were doing their solemn duty of Islam-bashing. But here Daniel Benjamin of the Brookings Institute was standing up for the need to make friends in the Islamic world, and get the peace process in motion, or we're all dead. For most Muslims around the world, he said, Palestine is the number one issue. (Al Qaeda is different; Pakistan's their number one issue).
Finally I'd mention a breathtaking presentation by Tal Becker, the chief negotiator for Tzipi Livni in the ongoing "peace process." I can't imagine a more presentable Israeli. Mildmannered, humorous, reeking of universalism, he also said that We have to work with the Palestinians, have to respond to their needs. When a woman got up and said, the whole land of Israel is ours, she got only a smattering of applause. More on Becker later. But the guy was well–impressive. Thoughtful. "I see more of Saeb Erekat than I do my wife and children."
I'm running to see my boyfriend. Bill Kristol. But that's the news from Washington. And no I've not gone Zionist, and I'm not drinking Koolaid. It's just interesting to see the effects of all the pounding from the left. We're having a giant effect. The people here know that our next president is Obama. They're not happy about it, but they know it. And they don't want J Street to get any air under its wings and so are promoting the two-state solution…
