Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

AIPAC Grasps At Bipartisanship In Trump Era

American supporters of Israel struggled to strike a balance between elation at the possibilities under President Donald Trump and worry over support for Israel becoming a partisan issue at the first AIPAC conference since the election.

“Americans across the country are retreating to ideological corners,” said Lillian Pinkus, president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. She would know. A year ago, Pinkus apologized on behalf of the organization after members cheered on then-candidate Trump when he called former President Barack Obama “the worst thing to ever happen to Israel.” Now, Pinkus is on a mission to stress the bipartisan nature of pro-Israel support in a time of increasing polarization in American politics.

“We cannot allow support for Israel to fall victim to the same divisiveness,” Pinkus said. “The only way to be effective is to build relationships with each and every elected leader.”

By contrast, Israel’s ambassador to Washington Ron Dermer celebrated the Trump era with a barely veiled dig at the Obama administration. “For the first time in many years, there’s no daylight between our two governments,” Dermer said. “Our alliance will get stronger in the years ahead.”

Dermer also praised Trump’s United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley for standing up for Israel, stating that America has “finally found its moral voice” in the UN.

Still, AIPAC appears to be trying to maintain broad appeal. Its roster of speakers ranges from the hard right to moderates like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, former U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro and opposition Israeli lawmakers Nachman Shai and Tzipi Livni of the Zionist Union party.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected]

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.