Lobbying 2016: Palestine lobbies to win battle over peace talks
The Palestinians have been ramping up their lobbying efforts as the battle for public opinion over stalled peace talks with Israel heats up.
Palestinian organizations spent $1.8 million influencing US policymakers last year, a 50% increase over 2014, according to lobbying disclosures. While far less than the $6.9 million spent by Israel and its main lobby, the campaign has had some success amid increasing US frustration with Israeli settlement construction.
Even as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has made defeating "imposed solutions" a top priority, some 62 House Democrats have signed on to a resolution calling on Obama to articulate a "nonbinding vision" of what a two-state solution "might entail." And Secretary of State John Kerry in June attended a summit in Paris aimed at reviving peace negotiations, despite Israeli resistance to outside pressure.
“Certainly I would say on the Democratic side, you see growing support for strong American action to preserve the viability of the two-state solution," Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the liberal Israel policy group J Street, told Al-Monitor. "We are supportive of greater international engagement. We'd like to see the United States take a leadership role in working with the French to shape the French initiative into something productive."
