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.