Pro-Israel policy conference nervously awaits Trump speech
As America's leading pro-Israel group prepares to hear from nearly all the presidential candidates, most eyes in the crowd of thousands of participants will be on Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
He's the wild card whose previous comments about Israel have created some anxiety among many who will attend the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference this week in Washington.
Expect Trump's Republican rivals, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, to espouse standard conservative fare. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton probably will stick to well-known positions. Rival Bernie Sanders -- a Vermont senator who is trying to become the first Jewish candidate to win a major party's presidential nomination -- is skipping the event.
Much like the American electorate at large, the pro-Israel community in the United States is anything but monolithic, and this year's conference appears set to highlight those different constituencies, including socially liberal Democratic Jews, establishment Republican Jews, and conservative evangelical Christians.
