AIPAC Year Flashback: Getting the "Nudge" from AIPAC
"Cometh the hour. Cometh the Man"
”On This Day…!” How many times have I posted an article with that #OnThisDay opening. In my case, it was one year ago today - “On This Day” June 6th, 2024. A day which started like any-other - which in my case, meant primarily reading how various haters of Israel were expressing their latest visceral hatred of Israel and of supporters of Israel - including of course my then-employers, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)
I had no suspicion, expectation or premonition that just a few hours later; I would be deeply-disappointed - could even say “crushed!”- to have been told that my near 40-year long career at AIPAC would shortly be coming to an end as a still-evolving AIPAC had other organizational priorities to focus on. (I left the organization near the end of September.)
As is true at every organization; so too obviously with AIPAC. People arrive and depart. Some leave after a relatively short-time at the organization (Of course my definition of a “short stint” might perhaps be a little different than that of some others!) A considerable number of staffers remain a very-lengthy time at AIPAC - although very few stayed longer than me! A staff longevity which has evolved over at AIPAC over the decades. Some who left AIPAC moved on to ostensibly even better and more prestigious jobs. I however always truly-believed - and continue to believe - how could any job be better than working for AIPAC?
As I’ve previously noted on more than one occasion - see for instance my September 2024 Times of Israel piece Saying Goodby to AIPAC…But Not to ‘The Cause’ - Working at AIPAC was the Number one place I wanted to work; focusing on Israel’s “Critics” and “Detractors” was the Number one job I wanted to do at AIPAC. And for almost 40 years; this is exactly what I did. For me I had the ideal job, where to all intents and purposes: I was paid to do what I wanted to do and on an issue I belived in - and still believe in - passionately. And I was basically left alone to do my job, which I believe I did fairly-well showing the appropriate good judgement and discretion and with the right temperament to be able to read decades of hate and not get twisted!
And then one year ago; came the personal hammer blow. Obviously I was aware that I was reaching that age when one thinks of or takes retirement. But for me that time had not yet come. Nor has it, a year later. Ironically my “decided-upon-departure” came just a couple of days after AIPAC announced that Elliot Brandt has been selected as AIPAC’s new CEO when the resigning Howard Kohr left at the end of the year. I was at AIPAC long enough to remember Elliot as an AIPAC intern in the late 1980s!
Am I unhappy that I’m no longer with AIPAC? Of course. Did I always agree with every single thing AIPAC said or did? Of course not. Nor I do now! Nor I do support everything the Government of Israel might do or say! But there was obviously a reason I stayed for so long. And it wasn’t just because I wanted to receive a salary. But I appreciate that for an organization like AIPAC, with many truly-fine, committed people working there, it’s a complex matter, with many parts to factor in. And I fully-support AIPAC’s central goal of striving to strengthen the US-Israel relationship on a bipartisan basis. That’s why I worked at AIPAC. That’s what I devoted my life to. Just as I wish for all - or almost-all - American Jewry to be more united on certain central issues. I’ve noted this before. I’ll expound further on this in the future.
So post-AIPAC, I have continued on a personal basis, with my same general focus. I do now have a slightly-different approach with far more “engagement,” responding directly to anti-Israel comments and writing about such views. G-d willing this will continue!
Of course by getting more directly engaged with haters; I have become more directly a recipient of expressions of hate (and disparagement) from some haters. I felt it appropriate to put on my X (Twitter), Substack and LinkedIn and Times of Israel Blog taglines that I was a longtime former staffer of AIPAC. Some seek to characterize my views as being those of AIPAC or seek to discredit my views because I was at AIPAC. Clearly what I post reflect just my views. It’s interesting how there are various others posters out there who don’t list their former positions (or what they’ve said previously about Israel) Take a look and see!
In just over a week it will be 40 years since my wife and I, along with our few-months-old firstborn, moved down to Washington DC. 40 years later; I’m still in the Washington DC area and still continuing to do what I do.
Hopefully my social-media following will continue to increase and people will repost and promote my postings! (That’s both a hint and an appeal to others!)
Eid Mubarak. Shabbat Shalom and of course “Am Yisrael Chai”
Feel free to follow, repost me and “promote” me on Twitter/X “Washington Views”
(My various Times of Israel Blog pieces
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