More than 3,000 people gathered in Florida this past weekend for the Israeli-American Council’s conference, an annual affair where pro-Trump forces that celebrated so enthusiastically at the group’s last convention were either absent or notably subdued.
That 2019 conference (the group did not meet in 2020 due to COVID-19) felt much like a campaign rally for former president Donald Trump. This year’s meeting in Hollywood, Florida, the seventh annual, marked the first time a major Israeli or Jewish American group has come together since the pandemic began, and re-introduced the more bipartisan tone that had characterized most past IAC conferences.
“Every president, every U.S. administration, has supported and continues to support Israel to this day, and for this we are very grateful,” said Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who attended the conference after visiting U.S. cabinet officials in Washington. “Israel’s leadership, and myself within it, will never stop working to protect ongoing, bipartisan support for Israel.”
The Israeli-American Council, founded in 2007 in Los Angeles as a non-political Jewish association for Israelis living in the U.S., has turned more political in recent years, and attracted the highest-ranking elected officials from the U.S. and Israel to its summits.
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In 2019 Trump showed up and was greeted by chants of “four more years.” In his remarks to the crowd, he bemoaned the American Jewish community’s continued support for the Democratic party. That same year, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Florida, was jeered when she defended her party’s record on Israel. A year earlier, former Vice President Mike Pence drew cheers as he ticked off a list of Trump administration Israel-related initiatives. Also that year, top Democrats took the podium: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
This year’s conference featured measured remarks from featured speakers including Gantz, who was in the U.S. for meetings with Biden administration officials, and U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat who received several rounds of standing ovations for his strong support of Israel.
Upbeat Israeli music pervaded the conference hotel, the Diplomat Beach Resort, where pricey pastrami sandwiches were cooked up in the makeshift “shuk.” But the absence of Trump and other speakers who enjoy riling up a crowd, in addition to pandemic safety protocols, ensured a less…
Read More: At the first major Israeli-American conference since Trump’s loss, less