AIPAC is poised to spend $100 million this election cycle, as they look to oust the few House members who criticize Israeli policy on a regular basis.
In Missouri a new poll (commissioned by the GOP firm Remington Research Group) shows incumbent Rep. Cori Bush down by 22 points to St. Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell.
Bush is probably the second strongest critic of Israel in the House, behind Rep. Rashida Tlaib. She was one of the House members to call for a ceasefire, pushing legislation on the issue back in October.
Bell is backed by AIPAC and his policy positions reflect that. Asked by a constituent about Palestine defending itself against a genocide last fall, Bell said, “It is offensive to me that you would say that Israel defending itself is genocide. Genocide is intentionally trying to wipe out a people. And no reasonable person would say that is Israel’s intention.”
“I think we have to stand with our allies,” said Bell when he was asked about potentially conditioning aid to Israel.
A recent New York Times piece on the race points out that Bell has already gotten maximum contributions from the co-chairmen of the St. Louis AIPAC Council, Timothy Drury (of the Republican hotelier family), financier Tony Davis, and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.
“Beating an incumbent member of Congress is the hardest thing in politics; that’s just a statistical fact, and she is not an unpopular politician,” DMFI CEO and Yair Lapid pollster Mark Mellman told the paper. “She can be beaten.”
The same article quotes Justice Democrats spokesperson Usamah Andrabi on Bell’s recent political shift. “Wesley Bell went from running against Josh Hawley, an actual right-wing insurrectionist, to taking thousands of dollars from the donors of Josh Hawley, Donald Trump and almost the entire Missouri Republican delegation to run against Missouri’s first Black congresswoman,” he explained.
“I don’t see Wesley Bell as a progressive,” added Progressive Jews of St. Louis co-founder Hannah Rosenthal. “His allegiance with AIPAC supporters is a prime example.”
A similar story is playing out in New York’s 16th district, where Rep. Jamaal Bowman is up against Westchester County Executive George Latimer in the primary.
AIPAC pushed Latimer to run for the seat and now they’re funding his campaign. Earlier this month The Intercept reported that the pro-Israel lobbying group has already spent over $600,000 on the campaign.
“This report makes it clear that George Latimer’s campaign to unseat Jamaal Bowman is heavily funded by the same Republican megadonors who’ve spent millions to elect Donald Trump,” a Bowman advisor told the website. “There is a direct connection between Latimer and the upper echelons of the Republican party.”
At a black history event last weekend Latimer was confronted about the AIPAC money by a voter and inexplicably claimed that Bowman is taking money from Hamas.
Asked to expound on this assertion, he later sent the woman an article from the right-wing Free Beacon on Palestine activists holding a fundraiser for Bowman and Bush.
“There is nothing in the article to suggest that Hamas has donated to Bowman’s reelection campaign,” explains City & State New York.
Bowman’s team has sent Latimer’s campaign threatening a defamation lawsuit over the claim.
Columbia
The congressional committee that’s allegedly probing campus antisemitism is expanding its efforts.
As you know, the name of the game is Israel here. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), who helped lead the crusade to oust multiple college presidents over their failure to crack down on Palestine protests, has turned her sights to Columbia University.
“We have grave concerns regarding the inadequacy of Columbia’s response to antisemitism on its campus,” reads a 16-page letter from Foxx to school leaders. She claims an “environment of pervasive antisemitism” has existed at the school for twenty years.
“We are committed to combating antisemitism and all forms of hatred,” said a Columbia spokesperson. “We have received the letter from Chairwoman Foxx and will cooperate fully with any investigation.”
Would be great to see this kind of energy implemented to protect students on campus.
In recent months we’ve seen Palestine advocates doxed at the school, student organizations shut down, and protesters doused with dangerous chemical spray.
“It seems like they only respond when there’s bad press,” Columbia University Apartheid Divest Coalition member Zainab Khan told me last month. “We know the worst thing for Columbia University is bad press, and it’s only when students take to social media or try to shame the university that’s when they respond to do damage control. It’s been blatantly clear since October they don’t really care about their students. At sit-ins or protests, they’ll come out and threaten us with academic sanctions or arrest rather than ever trying to have genuine conversations about what our demands are and why we are there.”
“They can do more, and they don’t want to because there are relationships between the administration, the board of trustees, the SGA, other student organizations, and the University Dean that will all be impacted if we push for divestment from Israel,” she continued. “When you follow where our tuition money and endowment money are being invested, it becomes blatantly clear why these individuals don’t want to provide more tangible support for students.”
Biden statements
In recent days, the Biden administration has expressed a growing public frustration over Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza.
During a February 8 news conference, the President referred to Israel’s Gaza operation as “over the top.” In a meeting with Arab leaders in Michigan last week, Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer expressed regret over the bloodshed and admitted that The White House had made mistakes in the communication of their policy. Several sources recently told NBC News that Biden privately disparages Benjamin Netanyahu, complaining that Israeli Prime Minister is an “asshole” that is “giving him hell.”
What does any of this mean? A strategy to influence Israeli behavior? An attempt to appease Dem voters amid an election year?
Whatever the motivation, it’s hard to believe it adds up to anything. Some recent exchanges with reporters make this clear.
Check out State Department Matthew Miller’s comments during a recent briefing. He’s asked whether he is satisfied with the impact that U.S. pressure has had on Israel’s actions:
Question: But did you get any assurances from the Israelis that they’re not going to proceed with a Rafah offensive unless they get that plan in there? Because I mean, the humanitarian plans for everywhere else in Rafah was not very robust and sound either. It wouldn’t have led to this civilian death toll and humanitarian crisis that the enclave is facing right now.
Miller: I am not going to speak for the Israeli Government. I will speak for the United States and make clear what our expectation is. And the expectation is as I have outlined it, and we have communicated that quite clearly with them.
Question: …EU’s foreign policy chief Borrell, for example, said the U.S. should consider cutting aid to Israel. And we know that there is growing frustration with Netanyahu’s government. Is that at all a possibility that the administration is considering if it would not have any success in the coming days in terms of moving Israel?
Miller: So let me say a few things about that, the most important of which is that we have pursued the policy that we think gives us the maximum ability to be successful in influencing how Israel conducts its military campaign.
Question: Were you happy with the results of that?
Miller: And – in many cases, no, absolutely we are not…
What about all that stuff about how the Biden administration is concerned about Rafah and calling on Israel to halt its plans? Well, here’s NSC Communications Advisor John Kirby on the issue:
I want to make it clear here: This is a sovereign nation. They plan their military operations, and they conduct their military operations, and they make the choices. There — there’s not — it’s not like we give them a homework assignment, and they have to then turn in their plan to us for grading.
We have said that the — from our perspective, as a friend of Israel and as a supporter of their efforts to defend themselves, we would expect that any plan for going into Rafah would properly account for the now more than a million civilians that — that are seeking refuge down there.
Odds & Ends
???????? ‘Chicago area activists shut down weapons manufacturer implicated in Gaza genocide‘
???????? ‘The last American war’
✊ ‘UAW Arab Caucus: UAW must move from ceasefire declaration to stopping weapons for Israel’
???????? Counterpunch: ‘Biden is Dragging the United States Deeper Into the Middle East‘
???????? Truthout: ‘Frustrated by Netanyahu, Biden Is Under Pressure to Condemn Israeli Atrocities’
???? Al Jazeera: ‘US activists join forces to amplify calls for Gaza ceasefire’
???? Independent: ‘Biden urges Netanyahu not to advance into Rafah without a plan to avoid massive civilian casualties’
???? Last night the House quietly passed H.R. 3016 via voice vote. The legislation targets individuals who engage in political boycotts.
The group JVP Action circulated information about the bill prior to its passage.
“Boycotts are a tried and true, constitutionally protected, and nonviolent tactic that human rights and social justice movements use to hold the powerful to account,” read their petition. “Boycotts and divestment campaigns empower Americans to act as individuals and communities to offset our own government’s harmful foreign policy, including its complicity in the Israeli state’s oppression of Palestinians.”
???????? Responsible Statecraft: ‘Biden’s calls for Israel to mind the laws appear feeble, and ignored’
???????? Axios: ‘Israeli minister blocking flour Bibi promised Biden would be allowed into Gaza’
???? New ISPU poll: ‘Majority of Muslim and Jewish Democrats Favor a Permanent Ceasefire in Gaza’
???????? Democracy Now: ‘A War Against Palestinian Americans’: Jailed, Attacked, Killed in West Bank and U.S.’
???? Responsible Statecraft: ‘Nearly 100% of Arabs say U.S. policy on Israel-Gaza ‘bad’’
????️ New York Times: ‘Liberal Group Joins Efforts Calling for Protest Vote Against Biden in Michigan’
???? The Intercept: ‘Dem Senator Calls Israeli Leadership ‘War Criminals,’ Votes to Send Them $14 Billion Anyway’
???????? HuffPost: ‘The Biden Administration Is Investigating Israel’s Possible War Crimes — Despite Public Claims To The Contrary’
???? +972 Magazine: ‘Israel is surveilling U.S. data on settler attacks to thwart sanctions, sources reveal’
Stay safe out there,
Michael
Community rot at the hands of far-right religious fundamentalist price tagging our local tax base with their demands while destroying our democracy. Way to go! Get it?
“As you know, the name of the game is Israel here…. Several sources recently told NBC News that Biden privately disparages Benjamin Netanyahu, complaining that Israeli Prime Minister is an “asshole” that is “giving him hell.”
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Tlaib hasn’t focused on how to craft safe political ground for political support to stand on. Support is extended at a risk.
Perhaps she will have insights into capitalizing on current Biden’s frustration and current world support.
Gene Bird, then head at CNI, told me the Saudi Ambassador to the US had told him that the Japanese Amb. to the US had said that if Japan needed something from the Americans, they worked for it through Israelis.”