AIPAC turns on Israel

Who knew that Bilam's prediction: "עם לבדד ישכון" the Jewish people "dwell alone," apply to Jewish people also. Now our own brethren in the US have abandoned us ........the very people that we in Israel count on to advocate for us have now stabbed us in the back....

This will not end well for Jews living in the diaspora, if we in Israel cannot count on our own to watch our back.... then the time will come very soon when the USA turns their back on Jewish citizens as well!

Leading pro-Israel lobby privately telling officials it’s okay to condemn planned controversial West Bank move as long as they don’t push to limit US aid to Jewish state

The leading pro-Israel lobby in the United States is telling US lawmakers that they are free to criticize Israel’s looming annexation plans — just as long as the criticism stops there.

Two sources — a congressional aide and a donor — say the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, is delivering that guidance in Zoom meetings and phone calls with lawmakers. The message is unusual because the group assiduously discourages public criticism of Israel.

But these are unusual times: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has set a July 1 deadline to annex parts of the West Bank, over the criticism of people abroad who say the move would set back any efforts to bring peace to the region.

With anxiety pervading the US Jewish community ahead of that deadline, AIPAC faces a thorny question: Does it support Israel’s leadership at all costs, or does it draw a line on actions it believes endangers the Jewish state’s future?

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So far, the group has remained publicly silent. But in private, AIPAC is telling lawmakers that as long as they don’t push to limit the United States’ aid to Israel, they can criticize the annexation plan without risking future support from the lobby group.

How far AIPAC is urging lawmakers to go is unclear. A spokesman would not comment except to point to a May 11 statement warning against proposals to reduce ties with Israel should annexation take place. “Doing anything to weaken this vital relationship would be a mistake,” AIPAC said then.

Buried in the same statement, however, is explicit support for a two-state solution, which annexation would inhibit, and a suggestion that criticizing Israel is valid. “It is inevitable that there will be areas of political or policy disagreement between leaders on both sides — as there are between America and all our allies,” the statement said.

But AIPAC’s lobbyists are famously fastidious: No conversations would be taking place without express approval from the group, which recently called off its 2021 conference because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The donor, who is deeply involved in lobbying Congress, said AIPAC was making it clear that it would not object should lawmakers choose to criticize annexation. “We are telling the senators ‘feel free to criticize annexation, but don’t cut off aid to Israel,’” said the donor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The congressional staffer, a Democrat who is the target of AIPAC’s lobbying, described the message from AIPAC as tacit encouragement. “They want to make sure members of Congress understand this is the time to warn Israel but not to threaten the Memorandum of Understanding,” the deal signed in 2016 between the Netanyahu and Barack Obama governments guaranteeing Israel $3.8 billion annually in defense aid for a decade, the staffer said, “not to threaten assistance.”

What was clear, the donor said, was that AIPAC had shifted its tactics 

The White House and the State Department have said that annexation should, at least within the next four years, come only as part of a deal with the Palestinians. But the US embassy in Jerusalem has signaled that annexation could precede a deal.

Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, is invested in regional stability in the Middle East, especially as the United States intensifies its pressure on Iran and appears to be concerned about the broader destabilizing effects of annexation. Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son in law who authored the peace vision is preoccupied with Trump’s reelection and does not need a foreign policy distraction.

On the other hand, David Friedman, the US ambassador who has a long relationship with the settler movement’s right wing, appears to be invested in annexation; he has scheduled a meeting next week with Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, the leader of the Blue and White Party and alternate prime minister who has indicated he wants to go slow on annexation. According to Israeli media reports, Friedman wants the men to resolve their differences on annexation.