I just returned from my second AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) conference in DC. AIPAC is a lobbying group promoting a strong American Israel relationship.

It is clear that this group has real political clout. 7,500 advocates attended including 1200 college students. The conference is a collection of some of the best political, economic, scientific, academic, and business minds from both countries and the quality of the programs and information is absolutely unmatched.

I sat in the crowd and heard addresses from John McCain, Condoleeza Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Ehud Olmert, Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama (the day after his delegate victory), Dennis Ross, Natan Sharansky, Michael Oren, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and a host of others who though less well known were often even more fascinating.

Break out sessions gave incredible insights into the regional politics, missile defense technology, and incredible new information on technology to lessen oil dependence. In fact there was very little new information coming from the political celebrities. They all seemed to agree that Israel is an important ally, that terrorism must be stopped, that Iran must not be allowed to create a nuclear weapon, that the captured Israeli soldiers must be returned. In spite of a few well mannered political swipes the Republicans and Democrats seemed to totally agree on the strength and importance of their commitment to Israel.

In fact I began to get a little frustrated, that in the face of such overwhelming support for Israel and against terrorism, that Hezbollah has tripled the number of missiles they had after their last attack against Israel, that 60 missiles a week from Gaza still fall on Sderot and Ashkelon, and that Iran is still denying one holocaust and threatening a second while moving closer to a nuclear bomb.

Yet in this climate Israel’s economic growth is staggering and their technology development is second only to the United States. As the head of Israel’s IBM office said, “In Israel, if you do not believe in miracles, then you are not being realistic.”

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