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May 27, 2005/Iyar 18 5765, Volume 57, No. 39
AIPAC offers strong backing for withdrawal plan
RON KAMPEAS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - Ariel Sharon got what he wanted - the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's wholehearted endorsement of his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank.
AIPAC's endorsement, delivered May 24 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: 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.
Sharon already has won the endorsement of an array of national Jewish groups - a full-page ad in the May 22 New York Times praised his "courageous disengagement plan" - but AIPAC's endorsement is the plum.
"Let there be no doubt, the disengagement plan will be implemented according to the timetable and decisions authorized by the government," Sharon said, laying to rest rumors that his advisers were counseling a postponement of the withdrawal, now slated to begin in mid-August.
It was clear from the launch of this year's annual policy conference on May 22 that AIPAC was undertaking a dramatic policy shift.
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.
Outside the convention center, a few dozen demonstrators protested the withdrawal, holding up signs that said, "Let our people stay."
Delegates said they noted a marked change from last year's policy conference, when Israel still faced a major terrorist threat and delegates enthusiastically embraced AIPAC's talking points for the final day of the conference - which is spent lobbying on Capitol Hill - including support for Israel's West Bank security barrier.
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.
A lot has happened in the intervening year, however: Sharon won support for the pullout in the Knesset and in his Cabinet; Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, reviled by the United States and Israel, died, and Mahmoud Abbas, a relative moderate, was elected in his place; and President Bush was re-elected and is vigorously pursuing a Pax Americana in the Middle East in his second term.
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 conference's first keynote speaker, Tsipi Livni, is one of the strongest advocates of withdrawal in Sharon's Likud Party.
"As a Jewish and democratic state, we have no choice but to give up some of the Land of Israel," she said.
"This is an understanding of the vast majority of Israelis."
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