Delaney’s campaign told The Hill that he wanted to attend – he was “very disappointed” – but had a scheduling conflict. Harris, for example, teased her presidential candidacy at AIPAC two years ago and again last year – there are no definitive signs she is turning on the lobby. So MoveOn’s “victory” list appears a little disingenuous. (AIPAC since 2015 has stopped its roll call, when executives and lay leaders would read out the names of the politicians in attendance.) In 2007, the buzz at Obama’s salon was, well, buzzier than at Hillary Clinton’s, a harbinger of what was to be.ĪIPAC has ceased the practice, which means just stopping by the convention is wasted time for an eager campaigner. Until 2007, AIPAC allowed candidates to hold salons on the convention campus – no fundraising allowed, but an opportunity to meet and greet folks who might want to give once they get away from the convention. So why aren’t the other Democrats attending, if only just to schmooze? JTA asked a number of them, and is awaiting their responses, but one plausible reason is that they are campaigning. By the time March of an election year rolls around, it’s down to three or four, which makes the logistics easier. A best guess is that when there are more than a dozen candidates in play, it’s too unwieldy.
An AIPAC official confirmed the policy to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, but would not explain it. The truth is, AIPAC does not welcome candidates as speakers in non-election years. MoveOn’s reasons included AIPAC’s opposition to the Iran deal its inclusion of speakers who the group says peddle Islamophobic rhetoric alleged war crimes condoned by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a deal struck by Netanyahu that could bring a far-right party into the Knesset and AIPAC’s supposed refusal to condemn white nationalists in President Donald Trump’s orbit.īut the conference won’t be a showcase for Democratic contenders for a perhaps more prosaic reason: AIPAC hasn’t rolled out the welcome mat. “He’s concerned about the platform AIPAC is providing for leaders who have expressed bigotry and oppose a two-state solution,” his policy director, Josh Orton, told The Huffington Post. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who said in 2016 that he “would very much have enjoyed speaking at the AIPAC conference,” explained why he wasn’t going this year in language that closely hews to MoveOn’s arguments for snubbing the event. (Howard Schultz, the Starbucks mogul considering an independent run, also is not attending.) Jay Inslee South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg former Housing Secretary Julian Castro former Maryland Rep. Kamala Harris of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts Washington Gov. This week MoveOn, the progressive advocacy group, asked candidates not to attend the conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and has been keeping a list of the no-shows: Sens. WASHINGTON (JTA) – The Democratic candidates are steering clear of AIPAC’s big policy conference, but celebrations by the pro-Israel lobby’s critics on the left may be premature.
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