AIPAC holds its annual conference next week and, as it does every four years, has invited presidential candidates from both parties to speak. Donald Trump is among those who accepted the invitation. While many Jewish leaders, activists, and journalists have called on AIPAC to disinvite him, Jonathan Tobin contends that the organization must stick to its usual policy of bipartisanship:

AIPAC can’t afford to write off either party. Its job is to fight for support for Israel on both sides of the aisle, and it has been largely successful in that effort even in an era where many rank-and-file Democrats are increasingly likely to be hostile or indifferent to it. . . .

[I]t’s important to understand that AIPAC as an organization—as opposed to what some of its members think—must do its best to stay away from partisan warfare. Expecting it to fight other battles is a formula for its dissolution, not one that can save its soul. Once it starts down that path, there will be no stopping.

Of course, some on the left would like nothing better than to see AIPAC dissolve or be weakened. That cannot be allowed to happen. The lobby will continue to play a responsible role in speaking up for Israel no matter who wins in November. But, as they always have, its members are free to speak out as they like about the candidates.

With the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program damaged, and its regional influence diminished, the U.S. must now prevent it from recovering, and, if possible, weaken it further. Benjamin Baird argues that it can do both through economic means—if Congress does its part:

Legislation that codifies President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” policies into law, places sanctions on Iran’s energy sales, and designates the regime’s proxy armies as foreign terrorist organizations will go a long way toward containing Iran’s regime and encouraging its downfall. . . . Congress has already introduced much of the legislation needed to bring the ayatollah to his knees, and committee chairmen need only hold markup hearings to advance these bills and send them to the House and Senate floors.

They should start with the HR 2614—the Maximum Support Act. What the Iranian people truly need to overcome the regime is protection from the state security apparatus.

Next, Congress must get to work dismantling Iran’s proxy army in Iraq. By sanctioning and designating a list of 29 Iran-backed Iraqi militias through the Florida representative Greg Steube’s Iranian Terror Prevention Act, the U.S. can shut down . . . groups like the Badr Organization and Kataib Hizballah, which are part of the Iranian-sponsored armed groups responsible for killing hundreds of American service members.

Those same militias are almost certainly responsible for a series of drone attacks on oilfields in Iraq over the past few days