"Iran's nuclear program continues to march forward," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the crowd of thousands Monday night. "My friends, Israel has waited patiently for the international community to resolve this issue. We've waited for diplomacy to work. We've waited for sanctions to work. As prime minister of Israel, I will never let my people live in the shadow of annihilation."
Nine years before this month, there was a similar sense of inevitability - that "War is my last choice," often despite the urging of President George W. Bush that the Iraq war would come. Now, Israel is a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear program and the U.S. move to AIPAC this week for their blessing.
"The president has said he doesn't bluff and neither can we in Congress," said independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, a pro-Israel hawk serving his final year in the Senate. As ever, there are reports rituals of solidarity with the Jewish state, and shows the usual lobbying could ("the biggest gala ever!"). President Barack Obama, who has used his address to warn that Iran was not bluffing about the possibility of a preventive strike, has repeated his threat to sit in the Oval Office on Monday with Netanyahu.
"My policy is prevention of Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. Obama spoke of the standoff with Iran entering "a series of difficult months, I suspect, in 2012."
Whatever private misgivings Obama may have about a strike on Iran, his rhetoric this week could easily be considered a green light for Israeli action. And if he is flashing a green light, Israel's advocates in Congress are waving a starter's flag. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney, in an op-ed column written for Tuesday's Washington Post, called for expanding aircraft carrier presence in the region.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told the AIPAC gathering Monday night that Obama needs more of a "clear, declaratory policy" toward Iran. "If Iran at any time begins to enrich the uranium to weapons-grade level or decides to go forward with a weapons program, then the United States will use overwhelming force to end that program."
That's not a controversial statement at the AIPAC conference, where attendees admired an armored personnel carrier, a surface-to-air missile and a model of an Israeli drone. To those who oppose military action against Iran, Netanyahu offered a 1944 exchange of letters between the World Jewish Congress, which pleaded with the United States to bomb Auschwitz but was rebuffed.
"Never again will the Jewish people be powerless."
Lieberman, calling the Iranian threat "more serious than anything faced by the United States and Israel" during his time in office -- a claim that would include al-Qaida and Iraq -- pressed for an "iron-clad" resolution: "The United States will prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear-weapons capability, by peaceful means if we can, but with military force if we absolutely must." The AIPAC participants roared their approval.