of disagreement," said the House letter,
initiated by House leaders and pro-Israel
stalwarts Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the
majority leader, and Rep. Eric Cantor, R-
Va., the minority whip.
AIPAC's readiness to deal did not occur
in a vacuum. Netanyahu, in a satellite mes-
sage delivered May 4, backed away from
his earlier suggestions that he wanted
to focus at first on Palestinian economic
development and to place talk of state-
hood on the back burner.
"We are prepared to resume nego-
tiations without any preconditions:'
Netanyahu said, describing a "triple-track"
approach covering political, security and
economic considerations. While he did
not make it explicit, "political" talks neces-
sarily would encompass discussions of
statehood.
The pledge helped clear the way for
Netanyahu to meet with Obama next
week. The Israeli prime minister originally
was to have appeared live at the AIPAC
conference, but those plans were scrapped
in part because the American and Israeli
sides were still working out a way to dis-
cuss the two-state issue.
In another concession, Netanyahu repeat-
ed Israel's demand that Palestinians should
recognize Israel's Jewish character, but said
that could be part of a "final peace settle-
ment" and was not a precondition.
The Obama administration, too, showed
some flexibility. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.,
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
chairman who has emerged as an Obama
it and imports roughly 40 percent of its
fuel, AIPAC estimates.
The Detroiters also mustered support
for the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act
of 2009 (H.R. 1327), which authorizes
state and local governments to divest
from companies investing in Iran's
petroleum and natural gas sector. If
passed, the bill would protect fund
managers who divest from such compa-
nies from potential lawsuits.
The other pieces of AIPAC's four-
point action platform for this year
(maintaining security aid and reaf-
firming the principles of peace with
Palestinians, including a two-state solu-
tion) were on the backburner, attendees
said.
The consistent theme gave Bert Stein
of West Bloomfield the impression Iran
is on a short leash.
"It's a problem that will take a King
Solomon to solve; but I think after two
or three months, we'll do what we have
to do in order to show Iran their econo-
my is going to suffer," Stein said.
administration proxy on Middle East
issues, threw in an unscripted "non-mili-
tarized" when he called for Palestinian
statehood; a demilitarized Palestinian
entity is on Netanyahu's wish list of final-
status conditions.
More substantially, the speeches by
Biden and other leading Democrats
emphasized Obama's determination to
couple his recent outreach to Iran with
tough threats of isolation if it does not end
its nuclear weapons program.
Iran Policy
"We will approach Iran initially in the spirit
of respect;' Biden said, but should Iran not
meet U.N. requirements to stop enrich-
ing uranium, it would face international
isolation "in which nothing is taken off the
table" — an allusion to the military option
Israel insists on keeping on the table.
Kerry said confronting Iran's expansion-
ist ambitions was a cornerstone of the new
administration's strategy, describing three
noes that unite Israel, its Arab neighbors
and the United States: "No Iranian med-
dling, no Iranian dominance and, above
all, no Iranian nukes:'
That would allow Obama to impose
tough sanctions on third parties that deal
with Iran's energy sector. Obama has yet
to announce his sanctions strategy, and it's
not clear whether he supports proposed
bills with far-reaching measures that
would cut off U.S. markets to any entity
that trades gasoline with Iran.
It was significant, then, that Sen. Dick
Back To Relationships
Activism aside, attendees said the confer-
ence was a time to celebrate the Israeli-
American connection for Jews and non-
Jews alike.
That was clearly exemplified by inspir-
ing remarks from the Rev. Kenneth J.
Flowers, pastor at Greater New Mount
Moriah Baptist Church in Detroit.
During his primetime speech to the
entire conference, the native Detroiter
spoke about the appreciation and respect
he developed for Israel and the Jewish
people under the guidance of Coretta
Scott King, late widow of the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr.
"Whenever she organized an event to
honor Dr. King or promote the civil rights
movement, she insisted, always insisted,
there be Jewish representation:' Flowers
said.
"She shared with me that the Jews were
a friend to Martin and the Civil Rights
Movement, and she would never, ever
forget the
Given that example, Flowers said
Durbin D-Ill., a mentor to the president,
told the AIPAC conference he was signing
on as a co-sponsor to the Senate sanctions
bill.
In the House, where AIPAC exercises its
strongest influence, Rep. Howard Berman,
D-Calif., the chairman of the Foreign
Affairs Committee, has said that he will
use his prerogative to keep the sanctions
bill on hold — for now. Hoyer said the
Obama administration did not have a
blank check.
"The administration is pursuing efforts
to change behavior',' he said, referring to
the bill. "We want to make sure that Iran is
not misled that talk is a signal that action
will not be taken."
Biden and other Democrats gently prod-
ded AIPAC with reminders that its eight-
year lockstep love affair with the Bush
administration was over.
"The path we have been on in recent
years will not result in security and pros-
perity for Israelis or Palestinians," Biden
said.
There seemed to be some nostalgia at
the conference for the Bush era, during
which many felt the White House was an
uncritical friend of Israel.
Cheering Newt
Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker
and a possible Republican candidate for
president in 2012, earned huge applause
when he called for regime change in Iran
— a major Obama administration no-no
— as well as for military strikes to take
he knew he could turn to a local rabbi
when his congregation needed a place to
worship on Sundays following the cata-
strophic earthquake in Los Angeles in
2004. He said the connection continues
in Metro Detroit; he mentioned his close
relationship with Rabbi Daniel Syme of
Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Township.
"When I look back over my life and
at my own spiritual journey, I can't help
but love Israel and my Jewish brothers
and sisters:' he said, drawing a standing
ovation.
"Blacks and Jews are connected togeth-
er by an eternal garment of destiny. We
have both been oppressed, ridiculed and
ostracized by society. But God continues
to lift us up."
At 76, Bert Stein planned on making
this his third and final policy conference.
But he said he felt differently after this
experience.
"I met like-minded Jews from Denver,
Corpus Christi, Dallas and Miami — all
there because we love Israel and love
America and we love the relationship." 7_
out Iran's missiles.
Gingrich also heard cheers when he said
that because "the leading finder of Sunni
extremism on the planet is Saudi Arabia,"
that "rather than bow to the king, we need a
national energy policy to liberate the United
States:' It was a reference to right-wing blog-
gers who claim that Obama bowed when he
met Saudi King Abdullah recently; the White
House says the president was bending over
to shake the king's hand.
Whatever the political preference of
AIPAC's grass-roots, the organization's
leadership understood that there was a
new game in town.
The AIPAC board announced that a
Chicago-based businessman who has
become close to Obama, Lee "Rosie"
Rosenberg, would be its president-elect.
Another Obama funder who recently
became the chairman of the Conference
of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations, Alan Solow, appealed to the
crowd to embrace a vision of Israel that
"can live in peace with its neighbors!"
And appearing in Netanyahu's stead,
Israeli President Shimon Peres cast a
poetic sheen on Obama's election.
"A tsunami of hope is rolling across the
globe; its center is right here in America','
Peres said.
"Six months ago you elected a new
president of the United States. President
Barack Obama assumed his duties in a
period of deep crises in the world. I am
convinced he has the capacity to turn the
crises into opportunity."
Answering
Israel's Critics
The Charge
A sometimes news analyst for a major
American television network who also
teaches at an East Coast university has
called American supporters of Israel,"a
fifth column."
The Answer
Michael Scheuer is an apologist for
the Palestinian cause who either
confuses sedition with democratic
political activism or is simply being
disingenuous.
— Allan Gale, Jewish Community
Relations Council
of Metropolitan Detroit
Jewish Renaissance Media May 14, 2009
May 14 • 2009
A21