Last week, the leftist organization MoveOn declared victory over several Democratic presidential candidates as they did not attend the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual bipartisan Policy Conference. But the truth is more prosaic; many of the candidates were simply not invited or had scheduling conflicts.
The process started on March 20, when MoveOn, a prominent progressive pressure group, demanded that the Democratic presidential hopefuls boycott the 2019 AIPAC Policy Conference, citing that 74.3% of their members believed the candidates should skip the event.
“MoveOn is calling on 2020 presidential candidates to not attend the AIPAC conference,” the group tweeted in a thread citing four reasons for doing so, including AIPAC’s opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, supposedly peddling “anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rhetoric while giving platforms to those involved in human rights abuses,” allowing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to headline the event, and refusing “to condemn the anti-Semitism of Republicans.”
On March 22, MoveOn declared victory on its website.
“After MoveOn members asked candidates to skip the AIPAC conference, no 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are yet publicly committed to attend the AIPAC conference in DC this weekend!” the group wrote, listing seven candidates who were reported to be skipping the conference, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, San Antonio, Texas Mayor Julián Castro, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
But in reality, AIPAC has a policy of not inviting presidential candidates in non-election years, The Washington Post reported.
Harris cited a busy schedule but still met with AIPAC California leaders in her Senate office; Elizabeth Warren’s policy team spoke to AIPAC activists from Massachusetts in her office, reported Jewish Insider.
O’Rourke also cited a scheduling conflict and the preference to campaign, but claimed it was not “anything to the negative.”
Buttigieg said he was not invited to speak, but hasn’t ruled it out for the future, reported The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel.
Castro and Inslee, who are both polling around 1%, did not explain why they did not attend.
The only candidate who expressed that he was not attending due to concerns with AIPAC was Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), whose spokesman said he was “concerned about the platform AIPAC is providing for leaders who have expressed bigotry and oppose a two-state solution.”
Two other candidates not named by MoveOn spoke during side events at the conference venue, Jewish Insider reported: Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
Gillibrand told the audience that “if you want to find criticism of Israel, just look at Haaretz,” a left-leaning Israeli publication. “But those who want to criticize Israel’s government or raised issues with its policies should not be expressing their views by using anti-Semitic language. And that’s why I will always, and always have spoke out loudly and clearly whenever I heard such hurtful, bigoted tropes, whether they come from my own party or whether they come from across the aisle. Because the truth is enough was enough, and we can never allow anti-Semitism to become normalized.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who is also running for president, did not attend the conference but met with AIPAC members from Minnesota. Presidential hopeful Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HW) did not attend the conference either but said it was not for political reasons.