These were not the best of times for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the influential pro-Israel lobby group, as it opened its annual conference in Washington although US President Barack Obama, Israeli President Shimon Peres, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as several prominent congressmen were among the key participants. Other front-running Republican presidential candidates were also scheduled to address the meeting through video link.
Much as the conference has attracted national attention, other competitive voices sounded equally consequential.
A full-page advertisement addressed to Obama and signed by several high-ranking former top military officers and national intelligence officials appeared in The Washington Post on the second day of the conference under the headline, ‘Mr President: Say No to War of Choice with Iran'.
The advertisement stressed: "Military action at this stage is not only unnecessary, it is dangerous — for the United States and for Israel."
The president was asked to "resist the [Israeli] pressure for a war of choice with Iran," pointing out that the "war should be the option of last resort [but] fortunately, diplomacy has not been exhausted and peaceful solutions are still possible".
Among the signatories of the advertisement, sponsored by the National Iranian American Council, were retired Maj Gen Paul D. Eaton, most known for his command of operations to train Iraqi troops, Tom Fingar, former deputy director of National Intelligence for Analysis, and Paul Pillar, former National Intelligence Officer for Near East and South Asia.
The Jewish Voice for Peace told its supporters in an email message that "after signing contracts and paying in full for a mobile ad to carry your message" outside the building where the Aipac conference was held, the owner of the truck "changed his mind at the last minute and decided not to let our ad run".
Dissenting voices
The group added that the company that owned the truck "let slip that they have other business with Aipac, and didn't want to upset them." Cecilie Surasky, deputy director of Jewish Voice for Peace, commented, "I do know this is pretty much business as usual when dealing with matters related to Aipac."
Confessing anger, she continued: "In fact, now we are committed to doing something even bigger to make sure our critical message gets out — so that our elected [American] officials know that Aipac doesn't speak for us, and they don't speak for millions of American Jews."
Liza Behrendt, a 22-year-old member of Jewish Voice for Peace, drew attention during a session at the three-day Aipac conference discussing ‘The struggle to secure Israel on campus' to the ‘silencing of Palestinians and young Jews', who support their organisation on various US campuses. Adam Horowitz reported on Mondoweiss, that Liza hoisted a banner that read, ‘Settlements [colonies] Betray Jewish Values' and ‘Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof', the Jewish text from Deuteronomy meaning ‘Justice, Justice, You Shall Pursue'.
Horowitz added: "This effort to draw attention to the silencing of Palestinians and young Jewish activists is part of a weekend-long series of activities to highlight destructive practices of Aipac.
A separate group of Jewish activists from ‘Jews Say No' and ‘Just Foreign Policy' went to the Aipac conference and gave interviews to journalists, in which they stressed that Aipac doesn't represent the majority of American Jews who oppose war with Iran and who want the US to oppose [illegal Israeli] settlement [colony] expansion in the West Bank."
Other activists held day-long protests outside the conference.
Occupy Aipac, timed to coincide with the Aipac conference, has been endorsed by Occupy Wall Street and over 130 organisations, including US Palestinian Community Network and the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation for the purpose of urging Obama "to reject the Israeli administration's push for war on Iran. They called for respecting Palestinian rights, and drawing attention to the role of Aipac as a special interest lobby that maintains a stranglehold over US policies".
This is the other side of the coin that American audiences hardly noticed, in part, because the media has neglected to focus on these activists who in the near future may critically challenge the prevalent hackneyed perceptions here. For a start, Netanyahu is returning home without much success in Washington since Obama did not give him the green light to undertake any misguided adventure against Iran, which is bound to be very costly for all concerned in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Although their ninth meeting did not yield any significant steps, it was eye-catching that the Israeli leader seemed unhappy, according to a pool of journalists who were invited to the meeting at the White House while Obama appeared more confident.
This contrasted significantly with their last meeting when the American president was reportedly "humiliated" by his visitor. Obama did manage to belatedly raise the Palestinian issue but the focus continued to shift overwhelmingly towards the crisis over Iran's nuclear potential.
A headline of a column by Gideon Levy in Haaretz on March 3 lit a spark: ‘It's Just a Matter of Time before US Tires of Israel'.
George S. Hishmeh is a Washington-based columnist. He can be contacted at ghishmeh@gulfnews.com
