Image and Issues and the AIPAC Conference, 21–23 May 1989

Abstract

Certainly the most newsworthy event of the 30th Annual Policy Conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) held in Washington, D.C., was U.S. secretary of state James Baker's much-publicized speech* * on 22 May calling on Israel to lay aside a vision of greater Israel . . . stop settlement activity. Allow schools to open. Foreswear annexation. Although the speech, stressing the land for peace formula and exhorting both Arabs and Israelis to make concessions, marked no new departures in U.S. policy, it appeared to startle some members by its directness. More important, its focus on substance and issues contrasted sharply with AIPAC's preoccupation with image-a theme that was pervasive throughout the three-day gathering of 2,000 members of the pro-Israel lobbying group. The question of image and the need to carry the truth about Israel to the political molders in the world we live in-to use the phrase of president Edward Levy in his opening remarks to the conference-took on particular importance at a time when the PLO was seen as having made important inroads in American opinion. As executive director Thomas Dine noted in his State of AIPAC address, Since the last time