I wrote this after attending the AIPAC Policy Conference in 2012, when the organization was at its peak of power, but signs of atrophy were there to be seen as Netanyahu assumed center stage and prepared to break the bipartisan mythos with his all-but-endorsement of Mitt Romney.

“The conference was extraordinarily staged, right down to the last detail. They served Chinese food at our clergy luncheon, and my fortune cookie informed me, “You will attend AIPAC Policy Conference 2013.”  But in fact one got the sense that that the appearance of control was a grand illusion. I’m not talking about the fact that there were mess ups with the food or some sessions went long, or Liz Cheney setting the tone by beginning the opening session with a most inflammatory attack on the President. No, I’m talking about the rumble and the roar.  Every so often I heard a rumble under our feet and a roar overhead.  Most likely the rumble was the Metro and the roar just a hovering helicopter.  But given the extraordinary degree of power concentrated in this hall at any given time, it gave me pause to imagine how easily all this could come crashing down.  There is nothing in the Jewish world so controlled as an AIPAC Policy Conference.  But not even that is immune to a world that perplexes us and confounds us daily. That said, for the moment, the skies are clearing and the cherry blossoms are beginning to bud.  Washington looks as lovely as ever.  And the US-Israel relationship has never looked better.”

Here we are, 2026, AIPAC’s name is mud and it has lost nearly the entire Jewish community.