World
Carrot And Stick
Clinton, AIPAC leaders: Making the hurt plain but the love, too.
Ron Kampeas
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Washington
I
t was like one of those "good" family
fights the shrinks on TV urge in mari-
tal spats: Make the hurt plain, but
make the love plain, too.
The leaders of the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee and U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
did not back down from their bottom
lines when Clinton spoke Monday morn-
ing at the annual AIPAC policy conference:
The Obama administration will make
its unhappiness clear and public when it
regards an Israeli action as undermining
the peace process; AIPAC would prefer
such talks take place behind closed doors.
For AIPAC, Jerusalem is off the table; for
Clinton its very much part of the discus-
sion.
Yet Clinton and the speakers before her
— AIPAC President Lee Rosenberg and
Executive Director Howard Kohr — made
it emphatically clear that they not only
remembered the "good times:' they are
trying to bridge the gaps as well.
Clinton's speech culminated two
weeks of tensions sparked when Israel
announced a major housing start in east-
ern Jerusalem during a visit to Israel by
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. His visit
had been aimed at underscoring the
close U.S.-Israel friendship and restarting
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
"It is our devotion to this outcome
— two states for two peoples, secure
and at peace — that led us to condemn
the announcement of plans for new con-
struction in east Jerusalem," Clinton said
Monday. "This was not about wounded
pride. Nor is it a judgment on the final
status of Jerusalem, which is an issue to
be settled at the negotiating table. This
is about getting to the table, creating and
protecting an atmosphere of trust around
it, and staying there until the job is finally
done?'
Clinton's mild rebuke brought surpris-
ing, if light, applause. It was a mark of the
success of repeated pleas from AIPAC's
leadership to the 7,500 activists in atten-
dance to keep things civil. Clinton earned
standing ovations coming in and out, and
there was no audible booing.
24
March 25 2010
Kohr and Rosenberg were equally as
activists pushed hard for enhanced Iran
determined to make Israel's point.
sanctions when they lobbied Tuesday
"Jerusalem is not a settlement:' Kohr
afternoon on Capitol Hill, while the
said in the line of the morning that
administration wants time to exhaust the
brought the greatest cheeringlerusalem
prospect of multilateral sanctions.
is the capital of Israel."
Here, though, Clinton was able to throw
Kohr also made the case for keeping
the crowd some meat, saying that what-
such disputes out of public view.
ever sanctions emerged, they would not be
"When disagreements inevitably arise,
glancing.
they must be resolved privately as is befit-
"Our aim is not incremental sanctions
ting close allies," he said.
but sanctions that will bite,' she said. "It
That's been the mantra of AIPAC, along
is taking time to produce these sanctions,
with the center and right in the pro-Israel
and we believe that time is a worthwhile
community — and Clinton turned it
investment for winning the broadest pos-
around.
sible support for our efforts. But we will
The announcement of new construction not compromise our commitment to pre-
in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem,
venting Iran from acquiring these nuclear
she said, "exposes daylight between Israel
weapons?'
and the United States
Rosenberg, just
that others in the
inaugurated as AIPAC's
region hope to exploit.
president — succeeding
And it undermines
Detroiter David Victor
America's unique
— and a key fundraiser
ability to play a role
in Barack Obama's presi-
— an essential role, I
dential run, also made
might add — in the
sure to hit affectionate
peace process. Our
notes, noting Clinton's
credibility in this
pronounced pro-Israel
process depends in
record in her eight years
part on our willing-
- Howard Kohr, AIPAC as a U.S. senator from
ness to praise both
New York. Among other
sides when they are
things, she led the suc-
courageous, and
cessful effort to force the
when we don't agree, to say so, and say so
International Committee of the Red Cross
unequivocally"
to recognize Israel's Magen David Adom.
It was clear, though, that Clinton was sen-
Kohr, the longtime AIPAC director, used
sitive to Israeli and pro-Israel complaints
the policy conference to outline the group's
that the opprobrium she had heaped onto
priorities. He focused on gaining Israel
Israel — she called the housing announce-
its deserved entry into the international
ment an "insult" — was one-sided and that
community through membership in the
she had ignored Palestinian violations.
Organization for Economic Cooperation
In fact, her spokesmen have condemned and Development, which coordinates
Palestinian incitement. And Monday,
economic policy in the developed world;
Clinton picked up the two signal issues
getting Israel a seat on the U.N. Security
that have exercised Israel's advocates: the
Council; and forging a closer relation-
naming of a public square in Ramallah for ship between Israel and NATO, the North
a terrorist who led a deadly 1978 attack,
Atlantic Treaty Organization.
and Palestinian rioting greeting the reded-
All have been Israeli priorities for years,
ication of an Old City synagogue destroyed but throughout the Bush administration
during the 1948 Independence War.
and the prevalence of neoconservatism
"These provocations are wrong and
in its foreign policy, AIPAC's embrace of
must be condemned for needlessly inflam- these issues was low-key. In fact, in making
ing tensions and imperiling prospects for
the case for advancing Israel in the United
a comprehensive peace Clinton said to
Nations, Kohr even asked: "Now, some of
applause.
you may be asking, why does it matter?"
AIPAC and the Obama administration
He ran through an explanation of the
have differences on Iran as well: AIPAC
U.N. Security Council's powers, but left
"Jerusalem is
not a settlement.
Jerusalem is the
capital of Israel."
Secretary of State Clinton
unsaid why else it matters: The Obama
administration's emphasis on multilat-
eralism and on working out differences
in international forums. Kohr was telling
his activists that this was the new Obama
order.
Perhaps most telling was where Clinton
ad-libbed away from her prepared
remarks and revealed a soft affection for
Israel and its friends.
She delivered a prepared line about
"pioneers who found a desert and made it
bloom:' then paused and said, "There were
people who were thinking, 'How could that
ever happen?' Ahh, but it did."
She amended a line about warriors offer-
ing peace to describe them as "so gallant
in battle Clinton asked the crowd if they
thought she thought it necessary to speak
"because AIPAC can get 7,500 people in a
convention center? I don't think so?"
In her lengthiest unscripted passage,
Clinton recalled traveling the world during
the 1990s, the heyday of Arab-Israeli peace
talks, and never hearing anyone mention
the conflict outside the confines of the
Middle East. These days, she said, its peri-
odic explosions into war is often the first
item, however far-flung her travels.
It was a gentle unsettling of the belief
that the Israel-U.S. relationship exists in a
bubble unaffected by outside realities.
"We cannot escape the impact of mass
communications:' Clinton said. "We can
only change the facts on the ground."
President Obama and Israeli prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were sched-
uled to meet Tuesday around the AIPAC
sessions.