Shoham Nicolet, CEO of the Israeli-American Council (IAC), summed up in a conversation with Arutz Sheva the IAC Conference which was held in Miami over the weekend.
“The high energy is the biggest sentiment,” he said. “The feeling that 3,100 people came here to something that wasn’t a conference. It was a community gathering, a reunion, and you can feel that togetherness, you can feel that everyone here feels like one big family. So that was the number one goal and I think that we achieved that.”
Nicolet welcomed the fact that both Republican and Democratic lawmakers took part in the conference, noting, “If you want to make an impact on things we care about, such as anti-Semitism, Israel, etc., you need to talk with decision makers. Our goal is to make Israel not even a bipartisan issue, but an apartisan issue – a non-political issue.”
He made particular note of Vice President Mike Pence’s speech at the conference.
“Even though we knew that he’s very pro-Israel, seeing it, feeling it, seeing the excitement in his eyes is something you cannot take for granted,” said Nicolet.
“I think that one of his strongest statements was that attacking Jews and anti-Semitism in America is an attack on America, and this is a very strong statement. It’s not about the Jews. It’s about America. It’s about us living here as free people. This is what America stands for, and if you hate a group or discriminate against or attack a group – you attack us,” he added.