An oblique email sent to AIPAC conference delegates reminded those set to attend the group's annual policy conference how one behaves when “Welcoming Guests Into our Home.”
U.S. President Barack Obama and Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu are both expected to speak at the event, scheduled for May 22-24 in Washington, D.C. Netanyahu, who is set to arrive Thursday in the U.S., is scheduled to meet with the president on Friday at the White House.
The conference, expected to be the largest in the history of the American-Israeli lobbyist organization, will include more than 10,000 delegates from all 50 states. Except for the State of the Union address, the AIPAC Policy Conference is arguably the largest annual bipartisan gathering of U.S. senators, representatives, administration officials, diplomats and foreign ambassadors, according to a statement on the group's website.
But as Politico's Ben Smith commented wryly in his May 18 column, he didn't think “anyone over there is worried the crowd will heckle Bibi.”
The email, sent by AIPAC President Lee Rosenberg, stated that the goal of the conference is to have every speaker “feel that we have done everything we can to extend our hand in friendship. They must walk away from the conference knowing that we look forward to working together, with them, to make America and Israel stronger.”
Rosenberg went on to admonish the delegates, “We have always had the perspective that these speakers and guests have been invited into our home and we will treat them with the warmth, deference, respect and appreciation that anyone would be accorded as such.”
He added a special request that the delegates “act and react to every speech, address, and briefing... in only the most positive manner.” Smith noted in a brief update that he was later told “they've sent similar emails for the last three years.”
Obama is already beginning to gear up for what may be a tough re-election campaign when he runs again for the presidency in the fall of 2012.