Just as a savannah waterhole attracts lions and zebras, so, too, do AIPAC conferences invariably draw noisy street protesters.
That held true at this week’s AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., but this time, with a twist: A vast majority of the several hundred protesters were Jewish.
The left-wing group IfNotNow took command of the anti-AIPAC protests this year. Demonstrators not only banged drums and shouted slogans, they also wore kippahs, chanted shacharit prayers and sang Hebrew songs, aiming to put a Jewish stamp on their opposition to what they view as AIPAC’s “Israel, right or wrong” mentality.
As Americans they had every right to protest. Too bad they didn’t register for the conference and take part. They might have learned that AIPAC is a much bigger tent than they believe.
Though opponents see AIPAC as a right-wing rubber stamp of Israeli intransigence, the truth is the organization’s members hold a wide spectrum of opinions on many issues: Zionism, Israel’s presence in the West Bank, religious pluralism in Israel, and more.
On the main stage this week, AIPAC presented speeches from Vice President Mike Pence as well as his political opposite in Congress, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, who read from the podium the text of a letter supporting a two-state solution. That letter included language drafted by the left-wing pro-Israel group J Street, an organization that openly opposes Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.
Other speakers included not only reliable right-wingers such as Israel’s U.N. representative Danny Danon and Weekly Standard columnist William Kristol, but unabashed liberals and outspoken critics of Israeli settlement policy, such as Democratic pundit Paul Begala, California Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, and former U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro.
AIPAC is nonpartisan. Its membership includes lefty Democrats, hard-right Republicans, and everything in between. They may disagree on a vast number of issues, but they do agree on one thing: The interests of America and the world are best served when Israel remains strong and secure, thriving economically and moving ever closer to its democratic ideals.
We respect the IfNotNow protesters for reminding the world that Jews do not march in lockstep, and that we care deeply about our collective Jewish future.
We would urge them to take another look at AIPAC and perhaps consider working with them, not against them, to effect change.
“left-wing group IfNotNow”? Not exactly.
Rather, “IfNotNow” is an anti-Israel stealth BDS hate group whose members claim to be Jewish.
Great quote from Rabbi Gordis on this
“When the group protested at the Anti-Defamation League’s New York national headquarters last year, Jonathan A. Greenblatt, the ADL’s chief executive, told them that his organization also supports both an end to the occupation and a two-state solution — and he invited them in to discuss their mutual work. The If Not Now protesters, however, refused the invitation. They preferred to stay in the lobby until they were arrested. That is not how serious people shape policy.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-04-04/american-protesters-cause-isn-t-clear-to-israel
He is one of my favorites. I watched him on JBS last week.
It is very important to point out, as you did, that AIPAC indeed includes a very wide tent of pro-Israel activists. Sadly, the “pro-Israel” part is most likely the reason that IfNotNow refuses to participate. It paints AIPAC as a right wing organization to cover its own anti-Israel mission.
While some of its members will no doubt respond that they support Israel as the state of the Jewish people, the organization itself states (https://ifnotnowmovement.org/about-us/our-principles/) “We do not take a unified stance on BDS, Zionism or the question of statehood.”. It’s not possible to act in the interests of preserving Israel when you stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those who are using you to help leverage their “river-to-the-sea-Palestine” one state (final) solution.
18,000 attended AIPAC, including 4,000 students. All viewpoints, from the far left to the far right were represented.
In the meanwhile, If Not Now stood shoulder to shoulder with some of the most extremist groups out there, including Al Awda. Westboro baptist church was also protesting AIPAC, along with Code Pink. Strange bedfellows, indeed. One of the more shocking aspects of the weekend of protest was the targeting of the US Holocaust Museum. If you find common cause with these extremists, it should give you pause.
If not now appears to be the latest incarnation of “As a Jew” group who target Jewish institutions for real and imagined slights. Several members of the If Not Now prequel were arrested several years ago for disrupting classes at the SFJCC. Others were arrested at Temple Sherith Israel for interrupting a solidarity vigil. This particular group hijacked our local anti-Trump rallies by targeting the Israel consulate. (Hello! Hello! If this were really about Trump, the Russian consulate was just a few blocks away)
This phenomenon has been characterized as Jew-washing, and I see no evidence that If Not Now is any different than any of the previous organizations that targeted Jewish institutions. It might even be a sock puppet of another organization- could it be a coincidence that one of the local If Not Now organizers is a paid staff member of “Jew-ish” Voice for Peace?