By Joel Magalnick, JTNews Correspondent
In late March, nearly 4,000 Jews from around the country descended upon Washington, D.C. Forty-five of them came from Washington State. As participants in the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee, this gathering demonstrated the organization’s lobbying power and its reason for existence: to speak to members of Congress about the importance of positive relations with Israel.
“The impact of bringing 4,000 people to [Capitol] Hill with one united voice has really strong implications and a really strong impact,” said Mindee Nodvin, a relative newcomer to AIPAC and first-time conference participant from West Seattle.
This year’s conference focused on three priorities: to promote an emergency aid package, which has since passed legislation; to ask members of Congress to push through a bill for ongoing aid to Israel in the 2004 fiscal budget; and three, to circulate a letter through both branches of Congress asking members to urge President Bush to stick to his June 24, 2002 speech that outlined a progressive “road map” to Israeli-Palestinian peace. Two of those steps, designation of Mahmoud Abbas as prime minister and appointment of a new cabinet have moved forward, but still await resolution by the Palestinian legislature.
As of April 23, 82 Senators and more than half the House had signed the letter to be delivered to the president next week.
Ron Liebsohn of Mercer Island is former director of the Pacific Northwest region of the Anti-Defamation League and currently serves as vice chair of the Washington State AIPAC board. He said Congress’ continued support of Israel and its government holds weight with the Jewish state, but stressed that it’s not AIPAC’s job to set Israeli policy.
“Our support is for the Israeli government and the Israeli people. They have to make the decisions,” he said, but added that “you can’t have peace with only one person at the table.”
AIPAC’s tacit support of Ariel Sharon and the Israeli government has brought it a lot of criticism, however. Several organizations have criticized Sharon’s use of force on Palestinians while contending that AIPAC is a single voice in a sea of many. One organization founded in the past year, B’rit Tzedek V’Shalom, models itself after AIPAC by speaking with legislators one-on-one about supporting Israel; one crucial difference, however, is that group does not condone the Israeli government’s use of violence to achieve its objectives. In early April, over 100 people came to hear Rep. Jim McDermott speak at an introductory meeting at Temple Beth Am in Seattle.
Yet Liebsohn said the spectrum of ideologies at the AIPAC conference went from the far right to the far left, with everything in between. One of the reasons for the large turnout — the largest in AIPAC’s history — is that many participants saw this year, with the war going on in Iraq and constant violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories, as a crucial point in Israel’s existence.
“I would say on balance, people are cautiously optimistic. In spite of the violence being so bad and the terrorism, we really were approaching a point where there would be some breakthroughs,” Liebsohn said. He defended the Israeli army’s hard line with a statistic given at the conference.
“In the last two years,” Liebsohn said, “the results of Israel’s more aggressive pursuing of the terrorists in the territories and the aggressive military action in the territories have resulted not in a decrease in the attempts of suicide bombings, but an 80 percent reduction in the success of suicide bombings.”
The war in Iraq was a constant topic of conversation at the conference as well. Even with a wide range of opinions on whether the U.S. should be fighting the war, one question was constantly repeated: “What will the implications be for Israel down the road?” Nodvin said.
All of the participants were struck by how involved and knowledgeable members of Congress were on the Israel issue.
“They’re listening, and it’s a dialogue, it’s not as if they’re paying lip service. It really makes you realize they’re using their brains, they’re not just showing up,” Nodvin said.
“The highlight for me continues to be that ability to go into Congress and sit down with congresspeople,” Liebsohn said. He appreciated the opportunity to listen as well, “and hear them from their heart and from their brains, because most of them are well informed on this.”
“It was the first time I realized that my voice does count,” said Lauren Deneka, a newcomer both to Seattle and Israel advocacy. She said her participation helped her understand the importance of getting a point across to her elected representatives. “What’s critical is getting that one yes vote from your congressman and senators,” she said.
Eric Hasson, a student at the University of Washington and an active member of Huskies for Israel (formerly HUSKIPAC) said he enjoyed the direct contact with legislators. With the many congresspeople and members of the Bush administration’s cabinet “coming to speak to us all about Israel,” he said, “we actually have an influence on American policy.”
As a student, Hasson served a different function at this conference. With anti-Israel — and in some cases anti-Semitic — protests on the rise on college campuses over the past few years, AIPAC has worked hard to engage students.
“They try to build relationships with future members of Congress and future leaders of America,” Hasson said. “It’s definitely important to us to get together with other universities and find out what they’re doing on campus.”
Anti-Israel sentiments have settled down a bit at the UW, Hasson added.
The participants hope to take their experiences on Capitol Hill to the community through political action.
“The responsibility to bring back to this community here,” Liebsohn said, “especially the Jews of this community, is that they take similar action…they get involved in the political process. We can be far more involved. Our responsibility is nine congressmen and two senators. That’s not a lot of people.”
Four thousand people, however, are a lot. For that many to pay from their own pockets to attend this conference — including airfare, hotels, and food— Nodvin said, was a tribute to their dedication. But said she understands the reasoning behind supporting a Jewish state: “It is a haven for all Jews,” she said. “Even with rising tides of anti-Semitism, I think that Israel’s existence is key to the existence of the Jewish people.”