MJ Rosenberg's Foreign Policy Matters

Is AIPAC Targeting Obama?

The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin is a right-winger, a predictable neocon, and about as aggressive a defender of Binyamin Netanyahu as exists anywhere in the mainstream media. In fact, her entire political worldview seems to be dictated by her devotion to the concept of Greater Israel. Nonetheless, she is provocative and worth reading.

In fact, it is precisely those attributes that make her worthy of attention. Reading Rubin provides insight into what the Israel-first crowd is thinking because she is one of the first people her ideological allies call when they want to influence the media narrative. Now that the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg has sharply deviated from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's line, Rubin is one of our best sources of insight into what the lobby (and people to its right) are up to.

This week AIPAC issued a rare press release ostensibly to criticize the Palestinian Authority for not responding positively to Netanyahu's "commitment to direct negotiations and peace" nor to the "painful decisions" it says he is making to accommodate the Palestinians.

In a sense, the press release was pure boilerplate. It can hardly be considered news when AIPAC offers a litany of Palestinian actions it views as designed to subvert peace combined with a list of sacrifices the Israelis are prepared to make. AIPAC is attacking the Palestinians. So what?

Bu the AIPAC criticism contained in the press release was not directed at the Palestinian Authority at all, but at President Obama.

Here is Rubin's explanation of what AIPAC is up to (emphasis mine):