CHENEY GETS 48 ROUNDS OF APPLAUSE FROM RIGHTWING JEWISH LOBBY
EJ KESSLER, FORWARD - Even as President Bush's popularity dropped to
record lows, his administration was embraced warmly this week by the
thousands of delegates at the most influential annual gathering of
American Jewish activists. . . At the annual policy conference of the
main pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee,
several of the most hard-line administration officials, including Vice
President Dick Cheney and Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton,
drew a resounding response. . .
Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who, like the two other candidates for
prime minister in Israel's coming election, spoke on a video link from
Jerusalem, was cheered enthusiastically when he called for building "an
iron wall" around Hamas. Labor leader Amir Peretz and Kadima's
candidate, Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, were not as warmly
received, as they talked about a two-state solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. . . .
The enthusiastic support for Netanyahu and Bush administration hawks
underscores what appears to be a widening gap between pro-Israel
activists in Washington on the one hand and the Israeli and American
publics on the other. Polls show Netanyahu trailing Olmert and Peretz in
Israel at the same time that support for Bush and the Iraq War are
plummeting in America. . .
AIPAC also appears to be out of step with the American Jewish community
on Iraq. Like many other American Jewish organizations, it supported the
Iraq war. But 70% of American Jews oppose the Iraq war, according to a
poll commission by the American Jewish Committee at the end of 2005.
Jewish organizations, most of which have a liberal political
orientation, recently have taken a unified hard line against Iran and
Hamas. . .
Cheney's personal approval ratings have dropped to below 20%. But the
vice president was received enthusiastically at the AIPAC conference,
drawing 48 rounds of applause from the 4,500 assembled delegates --
including eight standing ovations. When he took the podium, the crowd
stood and cheered for almost a minute. It displayed similar warmth
toward Bolton, a leading administration hawk on Iraq and Iran, who spoke
Sunday morning. . .
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