If there were any doubts about the propriety of the invitation extended to Donald Trump to address the annual Washington policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the results of the March 15 presidential primaries should have laid those doubts to rest.
The core mission of the powerhouse pro-Israel lobby is to ensure good relations between the American and Israeli governments. Those relations begin at the top, with the White House and its occupant. And the voting on Super Tuesday greatly increased the odds that Trump will be one of the two candidates contending to win the presidency next fall, like it or not. Now is the time for the lobby to start, well, lobbying.
It’s a safe bet that most readers won’t like it. Twitter and the blogosphere are filled with condemnations of the AIPAC invitation. Some come from critics who say the lobby — or Israel — has shown its true colors. Others come from anguished citizens who believe AIPAC has implicated the Jewish community and Israel in Trump’s bigotry. Rob Eshman, editor in chief of the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, wrote in a stern column that the lobby made a “core moral mistake” by inviting the billionaire candidate, thereby lending its “imprimatur” to his bigotry and offending key constituencies whose support we need, particularly Muslims and Latinos.