After Thomas Massie’s defeat in Kentucky’s 4th district GOP primary, AIPAC tweeted its usual line: “Being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics!”
Of course, everyone knows that’s not actually true. If it were, the pro-Israel lobbying groups wouldn’t have made it the most expensive House election in United States history. Just on its own, AIPAC spent $9 million to help propel challenger Ed Gallrein to victory.
Of course, the pro-Israel money helped defeat Massie, but he also became a target of Trump after voting against the President’s budget bill and pushing for the DOJ to release the Epstein files. Would Gallrein have prevailed without the Trump endorsement? It’s difficult to say, but (despite everything), Trump remains the dominant force within the GOP, and it was obviously a huge factor. It seems like a stretch to credit the Israel Lobby as the sole reason for Massie’s loss.
If being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics, then why did state senator Chris Rabb easily prevail in his primary, lapping the J-Street-backed Sharif Street and Ala Stanford, who seemingly took AIPAC contributions after they were funneled through a shell PAC?
“AIPAC can tank a candidate, even when it spends nothing,” is the headline of a Washington Post article on the lobbying group’s toxic brand. The paper spoke with Erik Polyak, executive director of the aforementioned shell PAC, 314 Action.
Despite reporting to the contrary, Polyak claims that 314 hasn’t accepted AIPAC money in the past 2 years. However, he also says that the group’s former association with AIPAC has severely damaged its reputation.
“Every move we make now, every investment we put into a race, whether it’s $5,000 or $5 million, is being characterized as AIPAC-driven or questioned,” he told the paper.
If being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics, then why did it become a detriment in Illinois’ Democratic primaries this March? Why is it expected to help sink Susan Collins in Maine? Why has it become a “dirty word” in Michigan, where a source close to Rep. Haley Stevens admitted to the Detroit Free Press that AIPAC has become a “radioactive term” and a “huge problem” for the pro-Israel incumbent?
In Ha’aretz, Ben Samuels points out that “f*ck Israel” and “f*ck AIPAC” chants broke out at Massie’s election party, which was obviously comprised of Republican voters. “Israel spending may have achieved its primary goal on Tuesday, but AIPAC may very well be sacrificing its long term standing for short term victories,” wrote Samuels.
If being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics, then why does a new New York Times poll show that almost three-quarters of Democratic voters oppose military aid to Israel? Why does the same poll say that almost half of Democratic supporters find the party too supportive of Israel?
If being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics, then why is infamous, pro-war neocon John Podhoretz on a podcast this week declaring that stopping Israel critics is an “existential issue for Jews” and calling for them to spend “Jewish money” to end the careers of people like Massie?
Surely, this crude appeal wouldn’t be necessary if Israel were popular among the U.S. population.
Tlaib reintroduces Nakba resolution
Earlier this week, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) reintroduced a resolution Recognizing the Ongoing Nakba and Palestinian Refugees’ Rights.
“The Nakba never ended,” said Tlaib in a statement. “Today, the Israeli apartheid regime is committing genocide in Gaza, violently erasing entire communities across the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, and bombing Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. It is a campaign to erase Palestinians from existence.
“War criminal Netanyahu and his cabinet have repeatedly threatened to ethnically cleanse the entire Palestinian population in Gaza, annex the land, and permanently occupy it,” she continued. “Today, they are extending these same threats towards southern Lebanon. As we mark the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, we honor all of those killed since the ethnic cleansing of Palestine began and all those who have been forced from their homes and violently displaced from their land.”
The legislation is backed by dozens of human rights organizations and co-sponsored by André Carson (D-IN), Chuy García (D-IL-), Al Green (D-TX), Hank Johnson, Jr. (D-GA), Summer Lee (D-PA), Betty McCollum (D-MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DNY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Delia Ramirez (D-IL), Lateefah Simon (D-CA), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ).
It has four new co-sponsors since last year–García, Green, Johnson, and McCollum.
Tlaib bill was introduced amid a new round of pro-Israel attacks on NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani. On Nakba Day, Mamdani posted a four-minute video featuring Inea Bushnaq, whose family was displaced by Israel when she was a child.
“The tweet’s one-sided narrative deepens division instead of advancing peace, coexistence, and understanding, and it should never have been posted by the mayor of New York City,” declared the Chabad-Lubavitch activist Yaacov Behrman.
“Mamdani is dangerous, he’s evil, he is stirring the pot of hate,” Americans Against Antisemitism founder Dov Hikind told the New York Post.
During a press conference, a reporter made a clunky attempt to challenge the mayor on the issue, but Mamdani defended the post.
“Acknowledging anyone’s people’s pain does not preclude you from the acknowledgement of another people’s,” he explained.
Odds & Ends
✏️ How Jeffrey Goldberg weaponized Jewish trauma to pave the way for war with Iran
🇮🇱 AIPAC has become TOXIC to both Democrats and Republicans
🗳️ Responsible Statecraft: AIPAC takes out Israel lobby critic Thomas Massie in grueling primary
🏛️ Jewish Insider: Rosen, Lankford introduce bill championed by Jewish leaders to address antisemitism
📱 New York Times: Mamdani’s Nakba Day Social Media Post Marks Shift for N.Y.C. Mayors
📱 Counterpunch: The San Diego Mosque Hate Crime and the Political Leaders Who Lit the Fuse
🇮🇷 Jacobin: Iran Is Prepared for a Return to War and Wary of US Talks
🪖 The Nation: “Why Did So Many People Think This War Was a Good Idea?”
🇵🇸 Jewish Currents: Backed by North American Dollars, A Yeshiva Could Push Palestinians Out of Sheikh Jarrah
⏲ Reuters: Trump administration pressures Palestinian UN envoy to drop General Assembly vice presidency bid
🐘 Intercept: Thomas Massie Loses His Seat in a Win for Trump — and AIPAC
📉 WHYY: Progressive Rabb wins 3rd District race with boosts from ‘the squad’ and local grassroots activism
🎤 Zeteo: Donald Trump’s War Crimes Game Show
🇵🇰 Drop Site: From Mutual Suspicion to Political Embrace: How the U.S. Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Pakistan
📑 Common Dreams: The 192-Page Autopsy of the 2024 Election the DNC Didn’t Want You To See
Re Kristof’s infamous piece mentioned in Odds & Ends, I decided to give it a careful re-read to see how it’s holding up. Two paragraphs stand out:
“Some may wonder whether Palestinians fabricated accusations of sexual assaults to defame Israel. To me that seems far-fetched because none of those I interviewed sought me out or knew who else I was speaking to and they were reluctant to speak. Yet there is some evidence that Israel’s sexual abuse has become so frequent that norms are changing and Palestinian victims are becoming a bit more willing to speak out.”
In general when Israelis captured by Hamas speak about their experiences they tend to be believed; when Palestinian prisoners speak about their experiences they tend to be disbelieved. Why?
“To try to make sense of what I found, I called up Ehud Olmert, who was Israel’s prime minister from 2006 to 2009. Olmert told me he didn’t know much about sexual violence against Palestinians but was not surprised by the accounts I had heard….“Do I believe it happens?” he asked. “Definitely.” “There are war crimes committed every day in the territories,” he added. “
Opinion | The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians – The New York Times
Another addition to Odds & Ends for the military folks out there: our colleagues at Hasbara U claim that the mass destruction of Gaza was necessary and unavoidable – tunnels, human shields, hiding among the general population, hostages, etc etc etc, were all factors that made mass casualties unavoidable. Unavoidable, I tell you!
Here’s a purely military analysis from a marine with experience in urban warfare ( Falluja, Mosul ):
The Operational Case Against Israel’s Gaza Campaign…Gaza did not have to look the way it looks. That is not a moral claim. It is an operational one….Claims of necessity are invoked to explain the scale of civilian harm, but they founder in the face of operational logic. Supporters of Israeli methods argue that Gaza’s urban battlefield — tunnels, rocket fire, extreme population density, hostages held underground — left no viable alternative to large-scale destruction. That argument rests on a false assumption: that large-scale fires were inevitable rather than chosen, and that the only tradeoff was between more fires and mission failure. That is a false choice, and I’ll explain why.
The Operational Case Against Israel’s Gaza Campaign
Even from a purely military standpoint it should be clear that the point was to make Gaza uninhabitable.
“Being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics!”
LOL. Why don’t you just admit that Israel is like the guy nobody likes and who spends millions to get someone to call him his “friend”.
Here’s a good example from a local Atlanta race>>>showing that being pro-Israel is not only bad policy but also bad politics,
Aaron Carter challenged GA Rep.Esther Panitch (District 51), and designed a website using Esther’s own tweets and record that captures how nasty Esther Panitch’s pro-Israel politics have become.
HOW ESTHER PANITCH TALKS TO PEOPLE ONLINEPanitch repeatedly used “GFY” (shorthand for “go f*** yourself”) in public posts while representing District 51.
https://estherpanitch.com/gfy-tweets.html
https://estherpanitch.com/. (main site)
DISTRICT 51 DINO ALERT
ESTHER ENDORSES REPUBLICANS, ACTS LIKE A REPUBLICAN, AND RAISES REPUBLICAN MONEY
Project Esther rammed IHRA thru the GA state house.