This week the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is holding its annual policy conference in Washington, D.C. Dr. Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum has an excellent article out about AIPAC’S deafening silence over Chuck Hagel’s nomination and confirmation as Secretary of Defense.

Many people may be surprised by AIPAC giving Hagel and Obama a pass, but I’m not. That’s because right before the 2008 presidential election I applied for a position at AIPAC.

During my interview I was asked a series of questions, but one stood out to me. I was asked who AIPAC should support for president, Barack Obama or John McCain. I answered that John McCain should be supported over Obama due to his more pro-Israel and pro-America stance. The interviewer then “corrected” me by saying that AIPAC should not take a stand on either candidate as it was uncertain who would become president and that AIPAC would need the support of whomever emerged the victor.

There is some merit to this position. Under normal circumstances it would be prudent for AIPAC to remain neutral and support neither candidate in the run-up to a presidential election. But 2008 was no normal circumstance and Obama was no ordinary candidate. Prior to the election, it had become widely known that Obama sat in Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s pews for nearly twenty years.

That is the same radical Reverend Wright who supported the Palestinians and shouted, “G-d damn America!” in his sermons. Yet AIPAC insisted on remaining neutral towards Obama despite solid and growing evidence that he had radical associations and was likely hostile to traditional American values, the West, and Israel.

I never got the position at AIPAC. However, I was vindicated in my support for John McCain. Obama has turned out to be the most anti-Israel president ever. He has also embarked on a radical far-left agenda to “fundamentally transform” America into his vision of a utopian European-style socialist welfare state.

As Daniel Pipes notes, AIPAC did not even make a peep over Hagel’s nomination or confirmation. And all this despite Hagel’s abysmal performance at the Senate confirmation hearings and his prior outrageous statements about Iran, Israel and other topics of critical importance to national security.

AIPAC has lost its moral compass and in doing so has lost sight of its raison d’être: strengthening both America and Israel through their shared values and unique relationship.