washington | Ariel Sharon has received what he came here 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.
The endorsement, delivered this week when Sharon earned multiple ovations and rousing cheers at AIPAC’s annual conference, 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, and Sharon needs all the backing 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 last week, and demonstrators outside the building where Sharon spoke wore orange T-shirts in solidarity with settlers who will be evacuated from Gaza.
A couple of hecklers at the AIPAC conference were overwhelmingly shouted down by thousands of others packed into the cavernous Washington Convention Center.
“Let there be no doubt, the disengagement plan will be implemented according to the timetable and decisions authorized by the government,” Sharon said to extended applause, laying to rest rumors that his advisers were counseling a postponement of the withdrawal, now slated to begin in mid-August.
For the first time since the collapse of the Oslo accords, AIPAC was envisioning Israel’s pullout not just from Gaza, 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, reasonably 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 disengagement 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.
Sharon earned thunderous praise, but judging by the applause at earlier sessions, the two other lobbying points on AIPAC’s agenda this year — for continued financial assistance to Israel and for tightened sanctions on Iran — were much more popular than support for disengagement.
Still, the supportive rhetoric from Kohr and other AIPAC officials was unimaginable a year ago, when Sharon’s failure to win an internal Likud Party vote on withdrawal led AIPAC to drop the issue from its policy conference agenda.
Then there was the FBI investigation that came to light last August, targeting two former AIPAC employees for allegedly receiving classified Pentagon information and relaying it to Israel. The investigation has permeated the conference, with Kohr and AIPAC president Bernice Manocherian underscoring their cooperation with law enforcement.
The investigation didn’t deter members of the Bush administration and Congress from offering AIPAC their traditional show of support.
“Judging by how many students I see in the audience today, I know that AIPAC’s future is clearly going to be bright,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said to thunderous applause at the beginning of her speech.
Rice made it clear in her speech that the Bush administration was determined to support Abbas, a man whom, until recently, AIPAC seemed to trust even less than Israel’s government did.
“President Abbas is committed to both freedom and security, and President Bush has offered his hand in friendship, just as he promised he would,” Rice said. “In three days, when they meet together here in Washington, they will build a relationship that is one that is based on the good faith that only democratic leaders can bring.”
That evening, the leaders of both parties in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate made the same point in dinner speeches.
Sharon also stressed that he will support the Palestinian leader if Abbas keeps his commitments under the road map peace plan to dismantle terrorist groups.
“We are willing to help Chairman Abbas as much as we can, as long as we do not risk our security; that is the red line,” Sharon said. “I appreciate Chairman Abbas’ strategic decision to condemn violence and terrorism. With this approach, he can be a partner in implementing the road map and to move the process forward. But his statement must be translated into real actions on the ground.”