The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has ranked thwarting the Iranian nuclear program as its top priority. Even though the Obama and Netanyahu administrations have disagreed of late, you wouldn’t have guessed any tension during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech today to the pro-Israel group at its annual convention. In her speech, Clinton focused on the Iranian nuclear program and how the implementation of tough sanctions could prevent the regime from obtaining weapons of mass destruction. Clinton said:
“We are now working with our partners in the United Nations on new Security Council sanctions that will show Iran’s leaders that there are real consequences for their intransigence, that their choice is to live up to their international obligations. Our aim is not incremental sanctions, but sanctions that will bite. It is taking time to produce these sanctions, and we believe that time is a worthwhile investment for winning the broadest possible support for our efforts. But we will not compromise our commitment to preventing Iran from acquiring these nuclear weapons.”
Those comments seem remarkably in line with AIPAC’s top priority. Moreover, the Netanyahu administration would much rather discuss the Iran nuclear threat as opposed to the far more controversial and uncomfortable settlement issue and peace process.
Granted, Clinton’s speech addressed the peace process and settlements, but the AIPAC audience raucously applauded to Clinton’s comments on Iran, which spoke to the heart of conference attendees.
In fact, the greatest point of disagreement seems to have come between pro-Israel author Alan Dershowitz and J Street representative Hadar Susskind. It’s worth a watch below:
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