In front of a crowd of thousands at the AIPAC Policy Conference on March 26 in Washington DC, one speaker after another took turns condemning progressive Democrats. If there was a theme to the day’s programming, it was to use the Left, and in particular the embattled freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, as a boogeyman and a punching bag.

Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, intoned about the “growing tide of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment” in the Democratic Party. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi bragged about using the allegations of antisemitism against Omar to justify a House bill against the “antisemitic myth of dual loyalty.” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on a fuzzy livestream from Israel, directly called Omar an antisemite.

That same day, about a ten-minute walk from AIPAC’s festivities, the pro-Israel lobby held another, smaller event — “an invitation-only roundtable with Michael Herzog, retired Israeli Defense forces brigadier general” — at the H Street offices of the Center for American Progress (CAP), the most influential Democratic Party–aligned think tank. According to a private event invitation obtained by Jewish Currents, Herzog planned to discuss “the challenges and opportunities that Israel faces in the current strategic landscape.”