New Right party chairman Naftali Bennett on Wednesday night informed the organizers of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference that he would not attend the pro-Israel lobby’s March 24-26 event in Washington DC.
Bennett was due to speak on Sunday, the conference’s first day, at the plenum, but his spokesperson told The Jewish Press Online that due to the constraints of the election campaign in Israel the chairman was canceling his participation.
AIPAC this year will host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Blue and White Chairman Benny Gantz, Pnina Tamano-Shata (on Gantz’s slate), Labor Chairman Avi Gabbai (although we were told this one is iffy and couldn’t get confirmation from the party), MK Merav Michaeli (Labor), Foreign Minister Israel Katz (Likud), UN Ambassador Danny Danon, US Ambassador Ron Dermer, former US Ambassador Danny Ayalon, MK Amir Ohana (Likud), Efrat Mayor Oded Revivi, and MK Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud).
This might be a good place to note that Naftali Bennett is Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs. We think AIPAC’s got a whole lot of Diaspora under its belt.
For the complete list of speakers whose schedule did not interfere in their appearance click here (it was way to long for us to copy and paste it for you). Here are a few noteworthy participants:
Ambassador David Friedman
Malcolm Hoenlein
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD)
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Sen. James Risch (R-ID)
Rep. Elizabeth Cheney (R-WY)
Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN)
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX)
Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL)
Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY)
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA)
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ)
Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX)
Rep. French Hill (R-AR)
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
Rep. David Kustoff (R-TN)
Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO)
Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV)
Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA)
Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA)
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC)
Rep Grace Meng (D-NY)
Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL)
Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH)
Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA)
Rep. Max Rose (D-NY)
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL)
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA)
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA)
Rep. Darren Soto (D-FL)
Rep. Dan Sullivan (R-AK)
Rep. David Trone (D-MD)
Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL)