AIPAC

In an unsettling reminder of a besieged Israel, more than 2,000 delegates to this week’s American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference met in a downtown Washington hotel transformed into a heavily fortified enclave.
Inside, the mood was unprecedented unity and commitment to the pro-Israel cause; the surge of anti-Semitic violence in Europe and the strong electoral showing by French ultra-right nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen provided an ominous undertone.

Washington will be filled to overflowing with assorted protesters over the weekend, and some promise to turn their attention to the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
More than 3,000 pro-Israel activists from around the country, a record number, are expected to gather for the AIPAC event, which traditionally sets the tone and establishes the themes for the pro-Israel movement.

Washington – The specter of the 1930s overshadowed  the Convention Center here as the pro-Israel lobby this week decried Iran as an existential threat to Israel and the West unseen since World War II.
In comparison, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s three-day annual policy conference largely played down the Jewish state’s longstanding conflict with the Palestinians.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which holds its annual policy conference in Washington next week, could face its toughest battle with an administration in more than a decade, depending on the proposals Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brings to Washington later in May.