At the AIPAC conference earlier this week, even panels featuring Jewish journalists were "closed to the press." (Photo/Twitter-@AllisonKSommer)
At the AIPAC conference earlier this week, even panels featuring Jewish journalists were "closed to the press." (Photo/Twitter-@AllisonKSommer)

The 2018 AIPAC policy conference, held earlier this week in Washington, D.C., opened with an appeal to pro-Israel progressives. Come back to the fold, speaker after speaker proclaimed from the podium. It’s time to reclaim support for Israel as a bipartisan cause.

The plenary speakers themselves reflected that hoped-for diversity. Everyone from liberal House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to conservative U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley brought the crowd to its feet.

Pelosi is no stranger to AIPAC. The San Francisco resident has been a staunch supporter of Israel going back to the days when that support was a given among all political persuasions.

Those days may be over.

A Pew poll from January revealed a shocking disparity in support for Israel between Democrats and Republicans, with 79 percent of the latter holding positive views of Israel versus just 27 percent of Democrats. That gap has been widening for years, threatening to make support for Israel part and parcel of a conservative agenda.

AIPAC noticed, and made a concerted effort this year to reach out to disaffected Jews and Democrats. Thus, from the plenary stage came strong backing for a two-state solution and a trumpeting of Israel’s liberal values, such as women’s equality and LGBTQ rights. Will it work? It’s worth a try, and we applaud AIPAC for the effort.

However, we were dismayed to learn that AIPAC still hasn’t shed its longstanding suspicion of the media. The New York Jewish Week was one of several Jewish publications that boycotted the conference because of AIPAC’s policy of blocking reporters from virtually all breakout sessions — including this year, with laughable irony, a session on freedom of the press in Israel, where all the panelists were journalists.

If AIPAC wants to appeal to younger and more progressive Jews, it needs to counter its prevailing image as a secretive organization with monolithic political views. That won’t happen so long as the press is unable to report on its proceedings. Reporters are used to navigating closed sessions and respecting off-the-record interviews, but there has to be some give-and-take. When every door is closed, one wonders what’s going on behind them.

So while we are heartened by the organization’s recent bipartisan outreach, we cannot help but view it as one step forward, one step back. AIPAC should keep trying to be inclusive, and that means including the press.

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4 replies on “AIPAC efforts toward inclusion should extend to the press”

  1. Hm… Only 27% of Democrats support Israel. Hm.. The real question is how many democrats support Louis Farrakhan(covertly and openly). Keith Ellison does. Progressive women leaders of women’s march do. Maxine Waters does. Barbara Lee does. J Street does. Where is the J Weekly on that statistics?

  2. This article oversimplifies the results of the Pew poll, distorting the conclusion. The poll concluded that “As was the case last year, Democrats are divided in views of the Middle East conflict: Currently, 27% of Democrats say they sympathize more with Israel, while 25% say they sympathize more with the Palestinians;
    another 23% say they sympathize with neither or both sides and one-quarter (25%) say they don’t know.” (from the Pew website at: https://www.jweekly.com/2018/03/08/aipac-efforts-toward-inclusion-extend-press/?utm_source=J.+The+Jewish+News+of+Northern+California&utm_campaign=2efb68a67d-J-Jan5_2018&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_93a945700b-2efb68a67d-216376497.) With Netanyahu currently under investigation for corruption, I think many Democratic voters in the US see parallels between Trump and Netanyahu, and I wonder if this perhaps colors some peoples’ perceptions as of this particular time.

  3. Do other pacs open up their planning sessions to press? Does the dnc or the rnc? If all the conference sessions are in effect open to all what’s the benefit of belonging to aipac?

    And since there is a strong anti aipac bias among the left leaning media why would aipac who engages in poltical lobbying advocating pro Israel position directly to political leaders , not popularity contests among the disinvolved and irrelevant care to open itself up to attack?

    And you guys do know that Israel is a real place full if actual humans besieged by hundreds of millions of Arabs daily threatening to murder us all? Is there any room to say that long issues or making American revisionist “judiasm” popular in Israel or whether it not the tiny minority of Israeli women who want to pray like men at the wall might should take a backseat to life and death security issues?

    Do the lefty enemies of Israel potting bds and funding terrorists invite the press into their New and Israel hating anti Semitic fests?

    And why would aipac which is a fairly conservative pro Israel lobby change its position to appeal to people who don’t agree with its aims and goals? Isn’t representing its current members positions what pacs are all about?

    Why don’t “progressive” Jews get in line with aipac?

    Is it sadder that aipac doesn’t appeal to lefty Jews or that lefty Jews seem to hate Israel?

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