From time to time in my career I’ve heard people say that a piece will be read in 100 years. This week we published such an article, Tareq Hajjaj’s memoir, “How the war killed my mother.” Amira Hajjaj died on March 4. Her youngest of eight children, Tareq chronicled the worst days in his life, taking great risks to visit his mother day after day as she dies for lack of medications.
The piece is a spiritual and psychological meditation on the bond between mother and son.
My mother was the key to my prayers being answered, the gate between myself and God. She was and always will be the reason I have had good fortune in my life…
I recall how hard my mother worked her entire life to have her big family and give us a good life. I recall every moment as a child when I would lie down next to her head on her pillow and she hugged every part of my body. I recall that year when I tried my best to teach her how to write her name. She never got the chance to receive an education, but she taught me how to be a human. She taught me how to have mercy in my heart and how to forgive. And she taught me how to be a good son.
As someone who has struggled all my life with that relationship, I read those words in tears.
I focus here on American political events, and this has been another huge week.
Biden is suffering huge damage to his base because of his support for genocide. Today CNN aired a poll showing that black support and youth support has dropped dramatically since 2020. Biden held a 75 percent advantage over Trump in black support; it’s down to 49 points. Among those under 30, his advantage has dropped from 24 points to a tie.
Biden went to Morehouse College today to try to stop the bleeding. He said the civilian deaths in Gaza are “heartbreaking” and he’s demanded a “ceasefire” — even as he continues to provide weapons to Israel. And Biden msm apologists David Chalian, Amy Walters, Bakari Sellers and Jonathan Capehart tell you the young don’t really care that much about Gaza, it’s just a few activists. That is now the party line. But Rep. Pramila Jayapal and others say this could be the election.
The question that must be asked again and again is, Why is an accomplished politician taking such risks with his reelection campaign by supporting a genocide? The answer was provided this week, at last in the mainstream, by the Washington Post and Responsible Statecraft. Just what I’ve been saying, It’s the donors.
The Washington Post reported that a group of billionaires – almost all Jewish and pro-Israel – have been coordinating efforts for months to “help win the war” of U.S. public opinion even as Israel works to “win the physical war,” according to an aide to real estate mogul Barry Sternlicht, quoted by the Post.
Billionaires get attention. Their “activism has stretched beyond New York, touching the highest levels of the Israeli government, the U.S. business world and elite universities.” Just last month, the group “privately” leaned on NY Mayor Eric Adams to break up the encampment at Columbia, days before police were sent in to do so.
The Post’s list of pro-Israel billionaires included Daniel Lubetzky of Kind snacks, financier Daniel Loeb, Warner Music’s Len Blavatnik, real estate owner Joseph Sitt, former Starbucks head Howard Schultz, Michael Dell of Dell, conservative financier Bill Ackman who demanded resignations at Harvard and Penn and got them, and Jared Kushner’s brother Josh Kushner.
The Post’s report promptly drew attack from the Jewish press as antisemitic for daring to describe a group of influential behind-the-scenes Jews. When in fact the Jewish community is the most pro-Israel/pro-war community in the U.S., per polling.
Meantime, Responsible Statecraft ran a piece, “Biden’s Gaza policy risks re-election but pleases his wealthiest donors,” in which Eli Clifton reviewed the “top tier” funders to Biden’s reelection and showed that nine of 25 who gave more than $900,000 to the Biden Victory Fund had “either contributed funds to staunchly pro-Israel groups or made statements that showed a strong pro-Israel bias.”
Chief among them are Haim Saban and his wife Cheryl, who have given over $3 million to the victory fund. Saban has carte blanche at the White House. And deplores any cessation of bombs to Israel. “Bad, bad, bad.” Jewish voters won’t like this, he says.
Clifton put together a hair-raising record of anti-Palestinan actions by some on the list.
“Why do we only see pro palestinians [sic] in acts of violence? Why has this become an accepted form of protest,” Mark Pincus, a gaming entrepreneur who contributed $929,600 to Biden, asked in March on X.
Other donors at that level: Sports mogul Casey Wasserman has funded the anti-boycott group Stand With Us. Casino owner Neil Bluhm has supported the AIPAC subsdiary that sends congresspeople to Israel. Peter Lowy has been a top official of the AIPAC-linked thinktank Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Eli Reinhard, a developer, has supported the Friends of the Israeli army.
Clifton didn’t even count Steven Spielberg, and p.s. Clifton didn’t mention the Jewish angle — because anyone who points out the obvious will be accused of antisemitism.
The broadcast networks won’t touch this reporting. And The New York times has avoided it too. (And you wonder why John Mearsheimer’s lecture on “Why Israel is in deep trouble” has gotten 750,000 views in two days.) But it is the core truth of Biden’s corruption on the genocide issue: He doesn’t want to lose the funding base of the Democratic Party. He has made a choice.
And now supporters of Palestinian human rights are making their choice. What a year.
Thanks for reading,
Phil Weiss
What does this say about our supposed democracies in the West? What does this say about the caliber and character of our leaders. Significant percentages of citizens in the US, Canada and Europe oppose their government’s support for Israel’s horrific war crimes, yet have no influence on government policy. Worse, they are demonized by politicians and their shills in the media and then violently attacked by police and military.
How can we possibly say we live in democratic countries when policy is determined by donors? Of course, it’s not just Zionist donors and lobbyist that are destroying our democracies. Military, pharmaceutical and other industries all engage in these same wicked and wholly undemocratic practices.
As for Biden—and both party leadership establishments—one can’t help but conclude that their loyalty isn’t really toward the US and its constitution. Their loyalties lie elsewhere.
Who can doubt that chants being widely interpreted as annihilating the Jews, by major politicians and media, hasn’t also played a significant role in corralling Biden and all politicians? A PR blind spot with huge costs. Carrying a political price for students and politicians who express support.