Iran Deal Puts Aipac at Risk of Losing Its Biggest Fight

(Bloomberg) The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has long had an outsized reputation for clout and effectiveness. Lawmakers jockey to speak at its events, seek its backing and woo its members for campaign contributions.

Now Aipac, the most prominent pro-Israel lobby in the U.S., is rapidly losing ground in its biggest test as it mounts an all-out campaign to kill President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.

The effort to stop the Iran agreement pits it not only against the president but also a swath of the American Jewish community. While Aipac is on the same side as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Republicans who are taking on the Democratic president, American Jews voted more than 2-to-1 for Obama over Mitt Romney in 2012.

This debate “is treacherous because it exposes too much of the leadership of the Jewish community as being out of step” with the majority of Jews, Robert Wexler, a Jewish former Democratic congressman from Florida, said in an interview. ..............(more)

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-08-21/iran-deal-puts-aipac-at-risk-of-losing-to-obama-in-biggest-fight