Earlier this month, Jewish Insider’s Josh Kraushaar warned his readers about a “growing threat from the far left” developing across U.S. mayoral races.
Kraushaar’s main target was Willie Burnley Jr., a Somerville city councilor who is set to face his colleague Jake Wilson in the Massachusetts’s city’s upcoming runoff election.
Burnley, who has been endorsed by DSA, has consistently voiced his opposition to the genocide in Gaza and support for Palestinian self-determination.
Earlier this year, a Boston Globe op-ed wondered whether Burnley could “fairly represent Zionist constituents” if elected Mayor. It points out that Burnley attended an anti-genocide protest where someone held a sign comparing the Israeli flag to the Nazi swastika, and another where he posed in front of a a poster that said, “Glory to the martyrs.”
The hit piece quotes a number of Jewish, pro-Israel Somerville residents, including a physician who complains that many public events become platforms for pro-Palestine sentiment.
“It’s really hard to live like that,” she explains. “It’s not a comfortable environment.”
Burnley is endorsed by a number of pro-Palestine organizations, including DSA, Massachusetts Peace Action, and Somerville for Palestine.
“Burnley’s surprising advancement to the general election is another sign of the growth of far-left politics within the Democratic Party — particularly in urban centers. While the first round of results suggests that the more-experienced Wilson starts as the favorite, the fact that someone with Burnley’s extreme politics is in the running and could win one-third of the vote is alarming,” laments Kraushaar.
Similar concerns have arisen in Seattle, where progressive activist Katie Wilson is looking to unseat Mayor Bruce Harrell.
Wilson, who heads a public transit advocacy group, has embraced comparisons to the Democratic nominee in NYC’s mayoral race.
“In the wake of the election, I think there’s a feeling that that style of Democratic Party politics failed to stop the train wreck that was Trump’s election,” Wilson recently told a reporter. “I certainly see the parallels, and I’m very inspired by Mamdani’s race in New York City.”
Responding to a Twitter inquiry in August, Wilson said she was “strongly opposed to the genocide in Gaza.” In an email, she said she is open to divestment for Seattle if the city “has investments that are indirectly supporting Israel’s actions.”
In Minneapolis, socialist State Senator Omar Fateh is looking to unseat centrist Mayor Jacob Frey.
Despite emerging as the delegate winner, Fateh has faced opposition from both sides of the aisle. The Minnesota Democratic Party revoked its original endorsement of the challenger, claiming that there were “substantial failures” during the convention.
Fateh has also faced consistent attacks from pro-Israel groups because he publicly acknowledges that the country is committing genocide and has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in the region.
Of course, all eyes will be on New York City next month, where Zohran Mamdani is expected to prevail in the mayoral election despite vociferous opposition from billionaires, Republicans, centrist Democrats, and pro-Israel groups.
This week, hundreds of pro-Israel rabbis around the country signed an open letter claiming that a Mamdani win “will endanger Jewish safety.”
“We cannot remain silent in the face of rising anti-Zionism and its political normalization throughout our nation,” reads the letter.
It’s doubtful that this shift can be quashed, but we’ll soon see if it yields results on the electoral stage.
Secret AIPAC donations
There’s a great piece of local reporting in Evanston Now, where journalist Matthew Eadie investigates recent political donations in the area.
This includes Democratic State Sen. Laura Fine, who is looking to succeed retiring incumbent Jan Schakowsky in Illinois’s 9th district.
Eadie found that 270 donations to Fine came from individuals who have “strong links to AIPAC.” However, Fine’s FEC filings do not earmark the money as if it comes from the pro-Israel lobbying group so it would be easy to overlook their influence on the race.
Eadie tracks the donations week to week and ends up with some amazing results.
“On August 28 alone, Fine raised over $26,000 from 26 separate donors, nearly all of whom were out of state and all of whom had heavily supported AIPAC-supported candidates in the past,” he notes. “Exactly a week later, on Sept. 4, Fine raised another $35,350 from 26 more donors, all past-AIPAC donors.”
One day before the deadline, Michael and Cari Sacks, one of AIPAC’s largest donors, donated $14,000 to Fine.
Eadie asked the Fine campaign about the donations, but they would not address the issue.
This local story comes amid a PR crisis for AIPAC at the national level.
The group recently put out an ad defending itself against heightening criticisms from the American Right.
Things are becoming even shakier among Democrats. Centrist Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) just announced that he will stop accepting political donations from the group and will return all the money they’ve already given him.
Moulton is the fourth AIPAC recipient to turn on the group, joining Reps. Morgan McGarvey (D-KY), Valerie Foushee (D-NC), and Deborah Ross (D-NC).
The Israel Lobby has long been regarded as a third rail in U.S. politics, but Governors Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and Josh Shapiro (D-PA) were both recently pressed about AIPAC during media appearances.
A new poll released by another 9th district candidate, Kat Abughazaleh, shows a three-way race between Abughazaleh, Fine, and Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss.
In a fundraising email, Abughazaleh attacked AIPAC as a “right-wing organization which funnels millions of dollars of Republican money into Democratic primaries all for the express purpose of defending Israel’s illegal and immoral actions in Gaza and the West Bank.”
“So hell yes, I am a detractor from AIPAC’s mission of funding, celebrating, and profiting off of the deaths of Palestinian civilians,” she added.
Odds & Ends
📺 As support for Israel drops, the mainstream media is becoming even more Zionist
🔎 Portland’s City Councilors pledge to investigate city’s ties to Israel
☢️ AIPAC has become so politically toxic that even centrist Democrats are abandoning the group
🎥 As solidarity with Palestine grows, thousands of film workers pledge to end complicity with genocide
💰 Evanston Now: AIPAC donors flood Fine’s campaign
📱 Electronic Intifada: Trump’s TikTok deal presents new challenge for Palestine’s defenders
🇺🇸 NBC News: Trump says Gaza ceasefire still in place after Israeli strikes
🤝 Responsible Statecraft: These Israeli-backed gangs could wreck the Gaza ceasefire
🇮🇱 Axios: Vance says he was “insulted” by Knesset vote on West Bank annexation
👀 Politico: Trump-backed Gallrein officially launches bid to unseat Massie
🫏 Middle East Eye: Democratic senators urge Trump to oppose West Bank annexation
🐘 Jewish Currents: The Anti-Soros Strategy at the Heart of Trump’s War on Progressive Nonprofits
📊 Counterpunch: The Crumbling Illusion: Why American Public Opinion on Israel Is Shifting
🇵🇸 Common Dreams: ICJ Rejects Israeli Claims About UNRWA and Orders Officials to Provide More Aid to Gaza
🪧 The Intercept: Zohran Mamdani Has Pushed the Liberal Consensus on Palestine. The Left Isn’t Satisfied.
🗳️ Zeteo: Did Muslim Voters Swing the 2024 Election for Trump?
Did it also wonder if he could fairly represent KKK members?
Contrary to the adulatory commentary on Mamdani in many supposedly left-of-centre media – and the New York Times, which should tell you all you need about him – this supposed pro-Palestinian candidate for NYC is working hard to please Israeli Zionist interests. From the World Socialist Web Site today:
“We cannot remain silent in the face of rising anti-Zionism”
below the author of “Transitional Justice: The Case of Palestine” is interviewed by saltcubeanalytics
People love to say Ireland is Palestine and Palestine is Ireland.It sounds poetic — until you look closer.
In this conversation, we go past the easy parallels and into the harder truth: why these two histories can’t be neatly compared — and what that misunderstanding reveals about empire, memory, and moral storytelling today.
Brendan Browne, from the north of Ireland, has spent years studying the spaces where history still bleeds into the present. His work asks a different kind of question: not how conflicts echo each other, but how power teaches us to mistake those echoes for sameness.
If you’ve ever wondered how colonial thinking still shapes modern conflicts — how the language of “peace,” “security,” and “stability” keeps the old hierarchies alive — this interview will make you stop and think.
https://youtu.be/pAzt2HEBbxw?si=CNHcb2P6mXgUiu9k