AIPAC Conference Rejects Tough Love from Susan Rice, by Applauding

National Security Advisor Susan Rice was never going to get the warmest reception from AIPAC's policy conference. That was not why she came; that was why, incidentally, a video slideshow that filled time before her speech featured warnings for partisan to leave "your gloves at the door." Another slide portrayed Casper, the Friendly Ghost, next to the slogan "Don’t Boo! Be Friendly." The message to an estimated 16,000 AIPAC delegates, all encouraged to lobby their members of Congress in favor of tough and immediate Iran sanctions, was not to embarrass themselves by heckling Rice.

They did one better: They cheered at the wrong moments. Rice spoke for nearly an hour, noting at the start that her last AIPAC appearance came in front of a smaller crowd. After a lengthy preamble of praise for Israel, mixing Hebrew aphorisms and English translations, Rice asked the crowd not to let "an unachievable goal stand in the way of a good deal." As she explained just what was unachievable, the crowd applauded.