Last Thursday Senator Kamala Harris accepted the challenge from progressive groups and said she was skipping the AIPAC conference. Jewish Voice for Peace had slammed Benjamin Netanyahu’s racism, Israeli war crimes, the killings of Palestinian protesters– and MoveOn brought in AIPAC’s opposition to the Iran deal– in making the demand of US politicians especially those running for president.

Well, Harris is a very pragmatic politician, and the conference came to her yesterday! She met leading AIPAC officials at her office and then tweeted her devoted support to Israel.

And AIPAC promptly took credit for her coming to the conference!

We are delighted that as part of AIPAC Policy Conference our leadership met with @ SenKamalaHarris who reiterated her support for the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship. # AIPAC2019

Here’s Harris’s tweet:

Great to meet today in my office with California AIPAC leaders to discuss the need for a strong U.S.-Israel alliance, the right of Israel to defend itself, and my commitment to combat anti-Semitism in our country and around the world. pic.twitter.com/83Yrrbw4Q8 — Kamala Harris (@SenKamalaHarris) March 25, 2019

The meeting drew sharp criticism on twitter and the San Francisco press highlighted Harris’s hypocrisy.

“As @AIPAC literally piles on Ilhan Omar and tears her down, then starts blasting AOC and others, Kamala Harris doubles down her support of them. Disturbing,” activist Shaun King tweeted.

I’d point out that AIPAC president Mort Fridman, who is at Harris’s left in the foto, earlier that day had introduced Mike Pence at AIPAC with fulsome praise.

Vice president Mike Pence has demonstrated a profound love for the Jewish state and at this moment with sSrael under attack, we are proud to be joined by a leader who has always stood with Israel in her times of need and always defended her right to defend herself… We are greatly appreciative of all that the Trump administration has done in the last year to strengthen the US Israel relationship.

Fridman praised the pullout from the Iran deal, the moving of the embassy to Jerusalem, “the eternal capital of Israel,” and hailed Donald Trump, too.

Odd that Kamala Harris wants to give this sort of person sick access.

Harris has often met with AIPAC before. She said recently she supports Israel because of the civil rights movement in the U.S. South.

Last year she said that Israel made the desert bloom, and she helped out as a girl. The year before that, she proudly met the rightwing prime minister who race-baits Arabs.

Note that Harris in tweeting her meeting yesterday talks about the need to fight antisemitism and Israel’s right to defend itself:

Great to meet today in my office with California AIPAC leaders to discuss the need for a strong U.S.-Israel alliance, the right of Israel to defend itself, and my commitment to combat anti-Semitism in our country and around the world.

But she has nothing to say about Palestinian rights or bigotry against them. That doesn’t exist. Israel has a right to defend itself, but Palestinians have no such right. Who would even think to ask if they do?

Thanks to Donald Johnson, James North and Adam Horowitz.