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Is AIPAC Telling the Full Story?

The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg gets it right in his criticism of AIPAC's http://www.aipac.org/about_AIPAC/Learn_About_AIPAC/2841_32748.asp (link has expired) stacking the panels of its Policy Conference with conservatives and hawks. By not exposing its activists to a broad spectrum of views on Israel, AIPAC does a disservice not only to the 7,000-odd participants but to Israel.

One of the beauties of Israel's political culture - still, despite the efforts of Israel's ultra-nationalists to squash dissent - is the diversity of views and the relative tolerance of conflicting political views. It is a democratically-harmonious, often chaotic, cacophony of opposing views, negotiated in the public arena. Goldberg correctly points out that there seems to be little of that echoing at Washington's Convention Center this week.

The title of this year's AIPAC conference is "Israel: Tell the Story." Does the makeup of the conference's panels really reflect the Israeli narrative? Does it fairly represent the makeup of the pro-Israel community in the United States? How accurate, fair and honest is the story that AIPAC is telling its activists and Israel's supporters on Capitol Hill?