AIPAC, Day 3: Schumer Wow, but Where Were Trump's People—Tillerson, Mattis, or Kushner?
Cast against the ominously polarized state of the country’s political and civic life, AIPAC’s achievement over the past few days is almost miraculous. The message of Policy Conference in the age of Trump is that the pro-Israel world doesn’t need to look like the rest of American’s benighted political scene: There’s a better way and the pro-Israel community has made it a reality. The conference’s good feelings provide a chance to reflect on how menacing the alternatives now look. “It is a little more bipartisan,” one Democratic political consultant told me, contrasting this year to recent Policy Conferences. “Everyone understands the stakes. Everyone understands how fucked up things have been the past couple of months. Does anyone want to go over the brink?… The Jewish community in most cities is a tinderbox. We need a place where we can have these conversations about policy issues.”
AIPAC is still something close to a consensus organization for most of the Jewish and American political spectrum, and that’s no small accomplishment these days.