Yes, they said they did not have facilities for this. He then said he'd
write out what he would have said and hoped they'd find a way to have people
read it. But I think that this is actdually a power thing, a test of
loyalty, i.e., they invite and acceptance is mandatory. Politicians are
expected to drop everything and show up because they are a powerful lobbying
group. If Sanders means what he says about not accepting money from big
lobbying groups, then attendance would mean that his claim is questionable.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, March 21, 2016 11:15 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Forward article on Trump at AIPAC
The news this morning did say that Sanders had offered to do a remote from
Arizona, but was turned down.
Carl Jarvis
On 3/20/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The Jewish Daily Forward is an important American newspaper in themost important advisors.
Jewish community so its op ed piecces tell us what the Jewish
community is thinking. Remember, Bernie is the only candidate to have
refused AIPAC's invitation. Also remember that Hillary is a strong
supporter of AIPAC and Issrael and that Sidney Blumenthal is one of her
Many of those emails were from him. He is the father of Max BlumenthalAIPAC).
who started the petition urging Bernie to refuse AIPAC's invitation.
I've been wondering if Max and Sidney are on speaking terms.
Miriam
---The Forward March 18, 2016
Donald Trump Is Actually the Perfect Person To Speak at AIPAC
http://forward.com/opinion/336295/donald-trump-is-actually-the-perfect
-perso
n-to-speak-at-aipac/?utm_content=daily_Newsletter_MainList_Title_Posit
ion-1&
utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Daily%202016-0
3-20&u tm_term=The%20Forward%20Today%20Monday-Friday
By Simone Zimmerman
Image: Getty Images
Many AIPAC supporters are shocked that the policy conference has
invited Republican front-runner Donald Trump to be a speaker this
year. I'm not. In fact, I think Trump and AIPAC are a great shidduch.
Far from being a deviation from AIPAC's norm, this invitation is
perfectly emblematic of their strategy. Anyone who's been watching
AIPAC closely should see that.
I grew up in a Jewish community where participating in AIPAC was as
sacred a duty as going to synagogue. I attended the conferences and
leadership training. Over the years, however, it has become clear to
me that for the sake of being "pro-Israel," AIPAC has asked American
Jews and our allies to check all our other values at their door.
Hosting Trump is simply the latest and most egregious example of what
happens when a major Jewish organization puts its narrow agenda above
Jewish values like equality and freedom.
AIPAC takes pride in being a bipartisan organization whose sole
mission is to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship. But for years,
this rhetoric has masked a more complex reality: that AIPAC
consistently supports dangerous policies from an extreme right-wing
Israeli government, regardless of their moral implications.
While AIPAC claims it only promotes consensus issues, in practice the
organization has lobbied hard for hawkish positions that support the
ongoing occupation, expansion of settlements and the 2014 assault on
Gaza, which left over 2,100 Palestinians dead, including almost 500
children. Members of Congress know that speaking out against these
policies is guaranteed to jeopardize AIPAC's support.
Last March, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to
Washington to denounce the Obama administration's diplomatic
initiative with Iran, AIPAC called his message "critical" and
celebrated the "overwhelming bipartisan attendance," while ignoring
the deep insult to the White House and the fact that 58 members of
Congress skipped his speech in protest.
This
summer, AIPAC went head to head with President Obama and a diverse
progressive coalition, spending over 20 million dollars to fight the
Iran deal. They lost big as the deal passed with broad support from
Americans, American Jews and even the Israeli security establishment -
and they made clear that they are willing to side with hawkish
Netanyahu-inspired policy over their own administration's.
This year's policy conference is an attempt to resuscitate AIPAC's
lost veneer of wide support. The conference's slogan, "Come Together,"
is a clear statement of their commitment to a false unity over values.
One of this year's major lobbying asks is to make boycotting
settlements illegal, a blatant silencing of dissent and further attack
on the American administration's longstanding anti-settlement
policies.
American Jews aren't fooled. AIPAC's language of bipartisanship can no
longer conceal what is actually a hawkish partisan agenda:
anti-diplomacy, anti-human rights, anti-peace.
Enter Trump, whose racist policy proposals and fascist-style rhetoric
have earned him condemnation from across the American political
spectrum and the Jewish world, including the Reform Movement,
Reconstructionist Movement, J Street, Ameinu and the Anti-Defamation
League (though the ADL has yet to comment on the candidate's appearance at
history.
In recent weeks, Trump has called for banning all Muslims from the
country, creating a registry of religious minorities, inciting
violence against political opponents, and a policy towards refugees so
cruel that, had it been in place in the 1930s, many of our
grandparents would never have set foot on U.S. soil. Apparently none
of this troubles AIPAC enough to warrant a condemnation.
Forward columnist J.J. Goldberg may be right that AIPAC's legal
not-for-profit status mandates that they remain open to all active
candidates, and surely some feel that there should be a forum for
every potential president to state her or his position on Israel. But
AIPAC's refusal to acknowledge the moral implications of this
invitation, and their swift move (even if it was later disavowed) to
bully into silence potential protests at the conference, signals a
dangerous acquiescence to his politics.
13 Ways To React When Trump Takes the Stage at AIPAC
Jane EisnerMarch 16, 2016
Trump speaking at AIPAC is not an anomaly; it's the logical conclusion
of the systematic abandonment of values that AIPAC has propelled in
our community. The same thinking explains why, over the years, they
have hosted Islamophobes and people like Naftali Bennett, who supports
settlements and the erosion of Israeli democracy and opposes the
two-state solution. The animating ethos is "That's not our problem."
So it doesn't matter if Trump is racist and misogynistic. It doesn't
even matter if he holds base anti-Semitic ideas about Jews and our
money: AIPAC doesn't care as long as he will maintain unquestioning
U.S. political and economic support for an Israeli government that is
leading Israelis and Palestinians down an increasingly destructive
path. This is a vision of security for those with power, at the
expense of everyone else on the margins. Jews should know better.
Speakers at AIPAC consistently bring up the rise of Hitler and Nazism
in talking about threats to Israel. They warn that we must learn from
So why does AIPAC feel no responsibility at all to speak out about awalk out for good?
violent, hateful demagogue who people across the board have likened to
Hitler and who has a real chance of taking charge of this country?
American Jews of conscience who want to walk out on Trump: It's time
to recognize that the same values you abhor - the Islamophobia,
support for building big walls, indifference to human rights, bullying
of opponents - are the same values that have been given a platform for
years at AIPAC. How many missteps does the lobby have to make before you
fight to keep them.
Those who want to dump Trump should dump AIPAC along with him.
If you do, you will be greeted outside by hundreds of us who are no
longer willing to check our values at our community's door. I am
helping to organize a group of young Jews who are so passionate about
this cause that they're devoting their weekend to driving from New
York City to Washington to protest at the AIPAC conference. And even
more protesters will come from within Washington itself. Together,
we'll show how much our values mean to us - and how hard we're willing to
Simone Zimmerman is an activist and organizer based in Brooklyn. She
is a leader of IfNotNow, an emerging movement of young American Jews
working to end their community's support for the occupation. Follow
her on Twitter @simonerzim
