Withdrawal Tango

In a major policy shift, AIPAC offers strong backing for Gaza withdrawal plan.

RON KAMPEAS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Washington
rid Sharon has received what he
came to Washington for — the
American Israel Public Affairs
Committee's wholehearted endorsement
of his plan to withdraw from the Gaza
Strip and part of the West Bank.
AIPAC's endorsement, delivered
Tuesday when Sharon earned ovations
and cheers at AIPAC'ws annual confer-
ence, puts the pro-Israel lobby squarely
in line with the American and Israeli
governments, in favor of a policy that
still is engendering tremendous dissent
at home and abroad.
There never was any doubt that
AIPAC would offer some measure of
support for the Gaza withdrawal, since
the lobby is committed to backing the
policies of the Israeli government. The
only question was the degree of support:
Sharon needs all the backign he can get.
Settlers continue to snipe at Sharon at
home and have stirred up considerable
backing in the United States. Hecklers
booed the Israeli prime minister at a
speech in New York on Sunday, and
demonstrators outside the building
where Sharon spoke wore orange T-
shirts in solidarity with settlers who will
be evacuated from Gaza.
Sharon already has won the endorse-
ment of an array of national Jewish
groups — a full-page ad in Sunday's
New York Times praised his "courageous
disengagement plan" — but AIPAC's
endorsement is the plum.
"Let there be no doubt, the disengage-
ment plan will be implemented accord-
ing to the timetable and decisions
authorized by the government," Sharon
said.
Withdrawal is slated to start in mid-
August.
Sharon needn't have worried: It was
clear from the launch of this year's annu-
al policy conference on Sunday that
AIPAC was undertaking a dramatic poli-
cy shift. For the first time since the col-
lapse of the Oslo accords, AIPAC was
envisioning Israel's pullout not just from
Gaya, but from the West Bank as well
— and in terms that demanded less
than absolute stability from the
Palestinians.
"If the Palestinians transform Gaza
into a reasonably well-functioning, rea-

A

sonably peaceful place — not necessarily
Sweden — then the world won't have to
pressure Israel to do this in the West
Bank," Howard Kohr, AIPAC's executive
director, said at the conference.
It was enough to make one of
AIPAC's most persistent critics,
Americans for Peace Now, swoon with
delight. "We're very pleased that AIPAC
has given its formal endorsement to the
U.S. government's support for the disen-
gagement initiative," said Debra DeLee,
APN's president.
But the policy shift from AIPAC's
leadership didn't necessarily trickle down
to members at the conference: There
were shouted arguments in the corridors
between opponents of disengagement,
distinguished by their orange buttons,
and supporters of Sharon.
Judging by the applause, the two other
lobbying points on AIPAC's agenda this
year — for continued financial assistance
to Israel and for tightenened sanctions
on Iran — were much more popular
than support for disengagement.
In its opening video montage, AIPAC
acknowledged the ambivalence many of
its delegates must have felt over the Gaza
withdrawal. Wrenching video footage
showed settlers weeping as they contem-
plated leaving their homes. Both sides of
the story were thoroughly presented. But
in the end, there was never any doubt
about where AIPAC stood.
The Israelis appearing in the video,
and then live on the AIPAC stage,
included a husband and wife who had
made up their minds that the possibility
of peace was worth leaving Gala.
A mother and daughter who had bit-
terly resented their evacuation from the
Sinai settlement of Yamit in 1982, but
who now acknowledged the peace with
Egypt that it brought, spoke as well.
More stunningly, the video, touting
the "reduction in friction" that disen-
gagement would bring, featured footage
of Israeli troops lording it over
Palestinians at a roadblock. The few sec-
onds of footage were unprecedented
from Israel's foremost defender.
Significant as well was the conference's
first keynote speaker, Tsipi Livni, one of
the strongest advocates of withdrawal in
Sharon's Likud Party. 'As a Jewish and
democratic state, we have no choice but
to give up some of the Land of Israel,"
she said. "This is an understanding of
the vast majority of Israelis."

❑

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon calls for Jewish unity during a New York rally
on Sunday.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sits next to incoming AIPAC
President Howard Friedman at the AIPAC policy confere

(TN

5/26

2005

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