Finally Some Good News
Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) was arguably the most conservative Democrat in the House and certainly one of AIPAC’s favorite lawmakers. On Tuesday, the incumbent lost a narrow race to progressive challenger Marie Newman. Lipinski highlighted his staunchly pro-Israel record during the campaign and tagged Newman as an enemy of the country. Earlier this year, Lipinski said that Newman “embraced every so-called progressive position, and unfortunately in the past year we have seen even more that the progressive position has become anti-Israel to some extent.” Illinois’ 3rd congressional district has a large number of Palestinians and Lipinski also seemed miffed that Newman aimed to address their issues and concerns. “Newman decided, because of my support for Israel, that reaching out to Palestinians was a good way to gain votes in the district, so in doing so she decided to make support for Israel an issue in the election,” he told the Jewish Insider earlier this year. The horror…the horror.
Speaking of Jewish Insider, they have a fantastic breakdown of the fallout that Lipinski’s loss has caused among pro-Israel groups. Richard Goldberg was chief of staff for former Governor Bruce Rauner (R-IL). “Attention pro-Israel Democrats,” he tweeted after Newman’s victory, “You were warned. Where were you? Who is running your IE efforts? Who is doing your polling? This was completely preventable. But perhaps you put your disdain for Lipinski’s domestic views over your disdain for Newman’s views on Israel. Telling.”
Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) CEO Mark Mellman shot back at such comments, citing Lipinski’s conservative views on abortion, LGBTQ rights, and stem-cell research as some of the reasons DMFI didn’t back him. As “an organization of Democrats and like most Democrats, we do not believe the incumbent represents the values of the Democratic Party,” said Mellman.
Newman was endorsed by the liberal, pro-Israel group J Street, and she’s not exactly Rashida Tlaib, but she’s definitely better than Lipinski on these issues. She’s not a supporter of the BDS movement, but she opposes any attempt to criminalize it. (Lipinski introduced a bill in 2014 that would have cut federal funding to schools that joined the boycott.) She’s a supporter of the Iran nuclear deal that the Trump administration violated. (Lipinski opposed it.) However (perhaps most importantly) Newman has indicated that she’s open to the idea of conditioning aid to Israel over its policies toward Palestinians. “The U.S. has a responsibility to examine how aid to Israel is used and that we should ensure that this aid is not used to support actions and policies that undercut our values,” she has said. This concept was long thought to be the third rail of U.S. politics, but it’s been getting traction throughout the presidential race as Bernie Sanders has consistently brought it up on the campaign trail. No lawmaker (including Sanders) has offered much in terms of specifics, but the idea seems to be slowly permeating the Democratic Party.
As Mondoweiss has documented on this site many times, this shift among elected officials is happening because it’s what many voters want. A Data for Progress survey from last August found that 67% of the respondents who voted for a Democrat in 2018 support reducing aid to Israel over its human rights record. Only 10% oppose such a policy. The numbers predictably flip around when applied to the GOP. Only 18% of respondents who voted for a Republican support such a policy, while 68% oppose it.
Lipinski was clearly outside of the mainstream of Democratic voters on this issue and now he’s gone. In case you’re wondering, the Democrats’ presumptive nominee Joe Biden thinks conditioning aid to Israel is “outrageous” and “a gigantic mistake”, but you probably already knew that.
Run It Back
Earlier this month, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) (another extremely conservative, pro-Israel Democrat) narrowly defeated young, progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros: 51.8% to 48.2%. Unlike the race in Illinois, Israel didn’t really come up in Texas’ 28th district battle, but that didn’t stop pro-Israel organizations from declaring Cuellar’s win a huge triumph for the cause. The aforementioned Mark Mellman said the election showed that “being pro-Israel is good politics and being anti-Israel is bad politics.” Pro Israel America executive director Jeff Mendelsohn said Cuellar’s victory “sends a signal that the pro-Israel community is strong and that we will defend the best of our abilities those who have been supporters of the U.S.-Israel relationship in Congress.”
Cisneros was endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but neither of them came to Texas to campaign for her. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did visit the state…to campaign for Cuellar. He also had the support of the Koch Network. Who says bipartisanship is dead?
I bring this all up because Newman actually tried to unseat Lipinski in 2018, but ended up losing by just 2.4 points. Seems plausible that we see Cisneros take another crack at Cuellar in 2022, this time with more progressive support. The center cannot hold.
Odds and Ends
? Political activist and author Angela Davis endorses Israeli Apartheid Week: “With our oppressors uniting, it is becoming increasingly clear that all our struggles for freedom are interconnected, and that no one will be free until we are all free.”
?? Sarah Lazare has a great piece on how the U.S. sanctions on Iran are worsening the country’s COVID-19 crisis: “Right now, in the grips of an emergency, anyone who claims to care about human life and solidarity needs to fiercely fight to shut Iran sanctions down.”
?? This week is the 17th anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s death. The 23-year-old American activist was killed by the IDF, which ran her over with an armored bulldozer. Last year, The Real News Network interviewed Rachel’s parents. It’s heartbreaking stuff, but I recommend watching.
Take care of each other and wash your hands. We’re all in this together. – Michael
