Reporting by Leah
An impressive AIPAC Policy Conference 2010 came to a close on Tuesday, March 23, after a full three-day Conference of speakers, seminars and networking. This Conference was unique from previous conferences because of its size, with more than 7,500 attendees, and keynote speakers such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Quartet Representative and Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Additional speakers included Professor Alan Dershowitz, Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Evan Bayh (D-IN), Pastor DeeDee Coleman and Colonel Richard Kemp, the former Commander of British forces in Afghanistan. AIPAC Club members also heard from Governors Martin O’Malley (D-MD) and Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Kadima Party Chair and Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni. The Conference officially began on Sunday morning, March 21, and ended late Tuesday morning, with many attendees then heading to Capital Hill to lobby Congress.
Delegates and those watching at home viewed an inspiring video featuring Israeli soldier Roy Levy and a rousing speech from student activists working to secure the Jewish state’s future. AIPAC posted many speeches, photos, and transcripts from the Conference online, www.aipac.org, and links to two major speeches are below.
Over 1,300 students attended the Conference, representing the largest campus delegation in AIPAC’s history. The 213 student government presidents participated in the conference as well. The presidents hailed from nearly 200 campuses and from all 50 states. Students participated in every aspect of the Conference program and had their own additional programming as well.
In addition, 50 pastors and church leaders attended the Conference, which for the fourth year in a row featured programming specifically designed for Christian supporters of the Jewish state. Synagogue clergy were at the Conference as 225 rabbis and 15 cantors from across the United States participated in special Conference programs and sessions.
Conference delegates not only participated in breakout sessions and plenary sessions, but were able to directly interact via Twitter, Facebook, texts and emails. Tweets, texts and Facebook comments were shown throughout the conference. Viewers at home were able to watch all the plenary sessions through a live streaming feed on AIPAC’s website and videos and photos were constantly updated to AIPAC’s facebook page, facebook.com/aipac, and through AIPAC’s twitter feed, twitter.com/aipac.
Key highlights of the Conference included the Afternoon Plenary on Sunday evening featuring Professor Alan Dershowitz and Member of Knesset Shlomo Molia, Monday morning Plenary keynote speaker Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Gala Banquet Monday evening with keynote speakers Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Senators Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham, and Tuesday morning’s Closing Plenary keynote speaker Quartet Representative and Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Gala Banquet Monday evening was attended by half of Congress from both the Democratic and Republican parties, diplomats, ambassadors and attendees of the Conference. A National Leadership reception preceeded the Gala Banquet where a select number of attendees met and some took photos with members of Congress, ambassadors and diplomats.
On Tuesday, delegates conducted over 500 lobbying appointments, bringing a powerful pro-Israel message to Congress. AIPAC activists encouraged their representatives to call on their leadership to finalize work on important Iran sanctions legislation that has overwhelmingly passed the House and Senate. They also urged their members of Congress to sign letters to President Obama calling on him to impose “crippling sanctions” on Iran. While in their Capitol Hill meetings, AIPAC activists also asked their members of Congress to sign letters to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that urge her to reaffirm the strength of the U.S.-Israel relationship and call for any differences to be resolved amicably as befits longstanding strategic allies. Finally, the AIPAC citizen-lobbyists asked their representatives to support $3 billion in security assistance to Israel as part of the fiscal year 2011 budget.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at the AIPAC Conference and links to their speeches are below:
http://www.aipac.org/PC2010/webPlayer/mon_netanyahu10.asp
http://www.aipac.org/pc2010_Secretary_of_State_Hillary_Clinton.asp
Registration for the AIPAC Policy Conference 2011 is now open and save $200 if you register by Sunday, March 28, by visiting http://www.aipac.org
