In the next few days, the candidates vying to defeat President Trump in 2020 will be deciding whether or not they intend to speak at the upcoming AIPAC Policy Conference.
Keynoting the conference will be Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is currently waging a desperate, overtly racist campaign to win reelection and escape prosecution for his alleged crimes.
Just this weekend, Netanyahu trampled the principles enshrined in Israel's founding documents when he declared that Israel is not a state for all its citizens, but only for the Jewish people. The disgraceful comment came on the heels of his pact to bring an ultra-racist party (dubbed by some "the Israeli KKK") into the next Knesset.
Speaking at AIPAC this year means sharing a stage with Prime Minister Netanyahu. If 2020 candidates choose to do so, they need to make it absolutely clear that they do not share his values or approve of his policies.
Join us in telling the 2020 presidential candidates: If you choose to speak at AIPAC, you must speak out against Netanyahu's bigotry, his enabling of right-wing extremism and his entrenchment of the occupation.
Such statements may be met coldly in that venue -- but they are, in fact, strong validations of the principles at the heart of the US-Israel relationship: a commitment to democracy, tolerance and peace.
Over the past two years, Trump and Netanyahu have each chipped away at those values, leveling remarkably similar attacks against immigrants, minorities, democratic institutions and those investigating their potential crimes.
There's little doubt that the candidates will be hammering Trump on these issues out on the campaign trail.
If their moral arguments against Trump's bigoted rhetoric and fueling of extremism are to carry any weight, they cannot attend AIPAC and remain silent when Netanyahu is spouting the same hate and enabling the same dark forces.
We call on any 2020 candidate who chooses to attend AIPAC to:
- Condemn Netanyahu's elevation of ultra-racist politicians
- Talk about the need to end the occupation and achieve a two-state solution to secure Israel's future
- Denounce racist rhetoric and incitement against Israel's Arab minority
