I’m attending President Obama’s speech this morning as a member of the media. If I think I have anything to add beyond what readers can get from standard sources, I’ll let you know.
One comment on the conference itself, though: it’s HUGE. I last attended an AIPAC conference twenty-four years ago, when I was a student. It was a relatively intimate gathering, very easy to spot friends and acquaintances. I don’t know the attendance figures from those days, but I’d guess we were talking about hundreds. By contrast, AIPAC is expecting ten thousand attendees to this weekend’s conference, Instead of a hotel ballroom, they’ve taken over the enormous Washington Convention Center.
I recently read a pro-Israel activist bemoan the difficulty of encouraging grass-roots pro-Israel activism, as American Jews have grown weary of the conflict. Apparently, this ennui has not affected AIPAC’s constituency.