Democratic Reps tweet about Ukraine — from Israel, on AIPAC junket

This is ironic. Dozens of congresspeople were in Israel this week on the tab of the Israel lobby group AIPAC, seeing the “tough neighborhood” and the threat from Iran. But then Russia invaded the Ukraine, and a few of them appear to be embarrassed by the timing.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has issued several statements about Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine as an “attack on democracy”. But according to his colleague Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Hoyer was in Israel yesterday. Though Hoyer didn’t mention that in his social media.

Democrat Bill Keating of Massachusetts is Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe. He’s been tweeting a lot about Ukraine and the sanctions he supports against Russia.

But not a peep about the country Keating is in — Israel. AIPAC today tweeted this photo of Keating at alleged “terror tunnels” near the Lebanon border. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the tour was yesterday, February 24.

Mike Levin of California is pictured in that same tour of “terror tunnels.” And Levin gave AIPAC a video statement that it tweeted out from near the Lebanon border. But Levin didn’t post that statement on his own twitter feed– where he is talking about the Ukraine. He must be feeling a little bashful.

Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois has been tweeting a lot about the Ukraine and standing up to Russia. Schneider did not tweet out a video statement he gave to his sponsor, AIPAC, two days ago speaking of the “incredible experience” of seeing all the ways that Americans “benefit.. and have to gain” from the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Kathleen Rice of Long Island was also featured in an AIPAC video it posted today. But she didn’t tweet it, even as she tweeted about the Ukraine. In that video Rice says she’s “in Israel up in the Golan Heights” — Syrian territory occupied and annexed by Israel in defiance of world opinion. A lot like what Russia has done/is doing to Ukrainian territory.

Even worse, the Democrats have been props in an anti-Iran propaganda push that AIPAC and the Israeli government are coordinating to try to undercut the Biden administration agenda, of reinstating the Iran deal. As AIPAC commented, “the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah spent years and millions of dollars” building the tunnels near the Lebanon border.

Both Republicans and Democrats have met with Israeli officials who are vociferously opposing the Iran deal. They were both briefed by an anti-Iran thinktank located in the Galilee. Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who beat back a BDS supporting rival in her Florida district, speaks of all she’s learned on the ground about “the threats to Israel.”

The Democrats are clearly in the pocket of the Israel lobby. A big theme in their messaging to AIPAC is the claim that the special relationship between the countries is furthering economic development in the United States.

Boasting that it’s her seventh or eighth trip to Israel, Kathleen Rice of Long Island gushed about Israeli technology and R&D, including “job opportunities,” and said she hopes AIPAC will invite her back.

We are just so grateful to AIEF [AIPAC arm American Israel Education Foundation] for giving people in my position an opportunity to get the knowledge we need to understand how important it is when we are making policy decisions about whether it’s legislation or investments that the United States is making in our allies all across the world. I don’t think there’s a better investment that the United States can make than in our ally Israel, and I hope I get invited back again.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz isn’t at all bashful about the trip. A committed Zionist, she has been a fount of Jewish nationalism. Here she gave a video to AIPAC about the guidance she offers as a Jew to colleagues on both sides of the aisle: “I can help them understand the importance of having a Jewish home and haven” in Israel. She tweeted photos of a congressional tour of that “terror tunnel” built by Hezbollah between Lebanon and Israel.

P.S. Happily, the Israel lobby is not unified in its opposition to the Iran deal. Liberal Zionists are doing yeoman work to support the Iran deal and tell Democrats that not all Jews are for Israel’s militant stance re Iran. Here is a strong statement that J Street and Americans for Peace Now signed along with National Iranian American Council, Quincy Institute, the Friends Committee, and Ploughshares among others. “[I]t is clear that the Iran nuclear agreement remains overwhelmingly in the U.S. interest, and that the nonproliferation benefits of restoring the deal would be immediate and significant.”