Biden won’t set red lines for Israel so long as AIPAC is ‘top’ Democratic campaign funder

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman has been defiant in his backing of Israel’s attacks on Gaza. He’s faulted the Biden administration for withholding some weapons to Israel, and taunted progressives by flying the Israeli flag.

This week the New York Times did a story on Fetterman “relentlessly” supporting Netanyahu. But when it came to the senator’s motivation, the Times chalked it up to Fetterman’s contrarian “nature” – he is “stubborn… quirky, irreverent and at times frustrating to ideological purists on the left.” Though way down in the article, reporter Annie Karni said it might also be “calculated.” Fetterman thinks it’s a “winning lane.”

The article never mentioned the Israel lobby or its biggest campaign arm, AIPAC.

AIPAC is not nearly as shy as the New York Times. AIPAC is very proud of the money it raises. They lately bragged about being the “top” contributor to the Democratic Party, and to the black, Hispanic, and progressive caucuses in Congress. The AIPAC video flashes pictures of Israel stalwarts on the Hill, including Fetterman, Rep. Ritchie Torres, and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (“Israel today, Israel tomorrow, Israel forever“).

AIPAC is reportedly planning to spend $100 million this spring through one PAC or another.

“Follow the money” is a famous expression in journalism. But reporters have largely abandoned this precept when covering support for Israel. So AIPAC’s purchase of politicians is happening in plain sight with no scandal.  

Right now, AIPAC is spending upwards of $8 million to try to end the congressional career of Jamaal Bowman, a critic of Israel from the Bronx–whose campaign is said to have $715,000 to its name. AIPAC is also targeting another Squad member, Cori Bush in Missouri; and it has already helped elect two pro-Israel candidates over Israel critics in key Democratic races–the PACs spending $4.2m in a Maryland district and as much as $3 million in Oregon.

All that spending has not been lost on Joe Biden. The president has repeatedly refused to condemn Israeli massacres or lift a finger to do anything to stop them, to the open consternation of the press and even some liberal Zionists. AIPAC’s millions, raised largely from the Jewish Zionist community, obviously play a part in his thinking.

Two days ago, NPR asked liberal Zionist Aaron David Miller if there is “any red line” for Biden when it comes to Israeli violence.

Miller said this was a “fascinating question,” because “normal humans, like you and me” would have put serious pressure on Israel months ago. Then why doesn’t Biden act? Miller answered the question as he always does, saying Biden has an “emotional bond” with Israel. (“And I think the basis of the president’s reluctance to do that has remained constant. Really, it’s quite remarkable, frankly, particularly in the wake of what we’ve seen. It’s the president’s emotional bond with the state of Israel.”)

Miller did say Biden has political considerations, fear of Republicans rising up to support Israel. But he left out any mention of money from the Israel lobby.

It’s becoming harder and harder to ignore Zionist fundraising. I have focused on it for many years, and now and then it comes into the mainstream. The Washington Post recently reported that an influential chat group of Zionist “billionaires” had leaned on NY Mayor Eric Adams to break up the encampment at Columbia, days before police were sent in to do so.

The Post said that the billionaires had been spending money for months to “help win the war” of U.S. public opinion while Israel worked to “win the physical war,” according to an aide to real estate mogul Barry Sternlicht. The Post went on to say their “activism has stretched beyond New York, touching the highest levels of the Israeli government, the U.S. business world and elite universities.”

This influential network surely played a role in the ouster of the Harvard and Penn presidents last year over their supposed failure to police antisemitism on their campuses. As Norman Finkelstein writes,

One of the redemptive aspects of the current horrible moment is that a lot of the dirt is finally coming out. It was, for example, always assumed, but couldn’t be proven, that a class of Jewish supremacist billionaires acting at Israel’s behest were exerting financial pressures on academia. The machinations of the Ackmans, Krafts, Sternlichts et al. have now been exposed. If the Harvard Corporation wouldn’t let the 13 anti-genocide students attend graduation, was it not because “he who pays the piper calls the tune”?

But the influence of pro-Israel Jews remains a touchy subject. Lately, NPR aired reports on the activities of Jerry Seinfeld and Sheryl Sandberg, and left out the fact that both celebrities have been engaged in promoting Israeli hasbara.

The media avoid the topic because they fear that it will contribute to antisemitic beliefs about Jewish power. The head of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs recently slammed the left for circulating “conspiracy” theories about “Jewish and Zionist control and power.” Amy Spitalnick, a liberal Zionist, went on to suggest that any sharp critiques of American Zionist support for Israel are antisemitic– because “80 to 90 percent of American Jews have a connection to Israel of some form even if we don’t agree with the Israeli government.”

It’s OK to criticize Netanyahu, Spitalnick is saying– as Biden has done. Just don’t argue against the existence of a Jewish state, or bash the Israel lobby, because almost all Jews love Israel. Offering such arguments is similar to parading with a swastika, Spitalnick suggested.

Criticizing the American Jewish connection to Israel has another negative effect. It pits Jews against traditional Democratic allies, Spitalnick said, “and separates us from the very coalitions we need to support democracy.” This is of course the core political concern. Jews have been an essential part of the Democratic Party coalition for 100 years. Don’t mess with that by even mentioning the Israel lobby.  

And meanwhile AIPAC is boasting that it’s the largest funder of the Democratic Party. And AIPAC and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs have offered cover for Israel’s genocide.

Something’s got to give. As Israel presses on with massacres in Gaza and the West Bank, there is now a strong anti-genocide, anti-AIPAC movement within the Jewish community. The media should highlight that effort.