Pro-Active for Israel

I just returned from the American Israel Public Affairs (AIPAC) Policy Conference in Washington, DC. Like many AIPAC conferences, most of the attention focused on the issues of the day. Today the issues are crippling sanctions against Iran to entice it to stop its efforts to attain a nuclear weapons capability; recommitment to a strong US – Israel Alliance; and passing the foreign aid bill with its 3 billion dollars in aid to Israel. These issues are the same as in the past many years with some different nuances. We have many friends in both houses of Congress on both sides of the aisle but the support of local constituents lobbying on these issues has a great impact.

Most of the speeches over the 3 day conference focused on these important topics or on the miracle of Israel. The most important speech to me was delivered by Howard Kohr, Executive Director of AIPAC. While covering the importance of these issues and our need to lobby on them, he began a discussion on being pro-active for Israel.

Here is the link to both the video and the transcript of his speech.

http://www.aipac.org/PC2010/webPlayer/mon_kohr10.asp

About half-way through the speech, you will find this paragraph which segues into the pro-active ideas.

“In the language of doctors that doctors use to diagnose dangerous conditions; these challenges are acute asserting an urgency we deny only at our peril. But doctors also know that there are conditions equally dangerous—not acute, but chronic. The damage they do is slower, toxic; in the end deeply damaging—even deadly. Make no mistake; we will maintain our focus on Iran as the number one item on our agenda. [Applause] We will continue to help Israel pursue her quest for peace and security with her neighbors. And we will work to continue to strengthen the bonds between the United States and Israel. But these acute challenges exist in a broader context. And it is the chronic problems that I also want to talk about this morning.”

We need a public relations campaign. We can no longer allow our detractors the open field. We must challenge their lies and half-truths with the light of truth. We must not allow ourselves the reflexive response of self-doubt. If our opponents’ arguments have a small element of truth, we must not allow that to be a wedge to stop us from providing the entire story.

Howard does not talk specifically about the story of the Muhammad Dura but I believe it to be they type of journalism we want to prevent. A French television network filmed a video in which they show this young boy being killed in a cross-fire exchange between Israel and the Palestinians. The film leads you to believe that the Israelis murdered him. Shortly after this video came out, the world was outraged at Israel. In response the Israelis showed that it was impossible due to the angle of where Muhammad was to have been hit by Israeli bullets. 5 years later after a lawsuit in France forced the French television network release the entire video footage we get to see what really happened. Not only was Muhammad Dura not killed by Israeli cross-fire, he was not killed at all. At the end of the video he just gets up and walks away. Where is the outrage to being lied to? To be pro-active, we must remind the world that our detractors have lied before. When we hear the next outrage, will we demand conclusive evidence before we believe the event or not?

Howard you are absolutely correct. We be pro-active. We need to tell Israel’s story for the entire world to marvel at. We must demand the truth from our detractors and have them explain any fallacies from the past. Other groups have talked about being pro-active for Israel, but I believe that AIPAC will get the job done.