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New web site increases political activism

Thousands of activists showed their support for U.S.-Israeli relations last week by going to Washington and visiting a new web site introduced by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. On April 30, more than one thousand activists, including University students, went to Washington to show support for U.S.-Israeli relations. This was the 37th year that the Annual Policy Conference, sponsored by AIPAC, was held.

This year, AIPAC decided to break new ground by taking their conference online. By visiting AIPAC's web site at http://www.aipac.org, supporters all over the world could learn about the issues that were important to this year's conference. By clicking on their respective states on a U.S. map, supporters can obtain the e-mail addresses of their local members of Congress. In addition, part of the conference was video "webcast" worldwide so that supporters who could not be in Washington could "virtually attend."

This is the first major political conference to use this technology," said Roger Schneider of Traveller Information Services, a company that helped organize the "webcast."

Schneider said although AIPAC is a "pioneer in the arena," he predicted other political conferences would go online as well.

AIPAC's agenda for the conference included maintaining foreign aid to Israel and supporting foreign oil sanctions against Iran.

Since it was founded in the 1950s, AIPAC has grown to 55,000 members. It plans to double its readership by offering its services to 400 more colleges.