Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) was arguably the most conservative Democrat in the House and certainly one of AIPAC’s favorite lawmakers. Progressives threw him out.

Iran has confirmed 16,169 COVID-19 cases in its country and 988 deaths. The virus’s crushing impact on Iran has no doubt been compounded by the United State’s sanctions, which have been devastating for the country’s economy. Many have called on sanctions to be suspended, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced that he’s instituting even more restrictions and that the Trump administration will continue to enforce all preexisting sanctions.

Israel emerged as a hot topic in Illinois’s 3rd congressional district fight. In the race Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) lost a tight race to progressive challenger Marie Newman, who has indicated that she is open to the idea of conditioning aid to Israel. “The U.S. has a responsibility to examine how aid to Israel is used and that we should ensure that this aid is not used to support actions and policies that undercut our values,” Newman has said. 

Amidst coronavirus crisis, Ilhan Omar is calling for the U.S. to suspend its sanctions on Iran.

Covid-19 is becoming a very dire problem in Iran. The situation in Iran is compounded by the fact that the Trump administration imposed a new round of sanctions on Iran pushed by the Israel lobby. Read The Shift, a weekly politics newsletter from Michael Arria taking you to the front lines in the battle over Palestine in the United States.

We never know where pro-Israel groups – AIPAC in particular – will draw their red lines,” said James Zogby tells Mondoweiss, In ’88 when I was representing Jackson in the platform fight, they wouldn’t allow the ‘P’ word. I was told that if we raised it, ‘you will destroy the Democratic Party.’ 

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) is calling for the Department of Education to investigate the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Arizona. Gosar sent a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos claiming that the program is “anti-American and pro-BDS.” One of the examples Gosar cites is a piece by CMES associate professor Maha Nassar that ran on Mondoweiss two years ago.

The Shift is a weekly politics newsletter from Michael Arria taking you to the front…

Concerns about Russia’s impact on U.S. elections have generated countless articles and wall-to-wall cable news coverage, however blatant election interference from other countries is certainly not treated in the same way. This contradiction was on display over the weekend, when Benjamin Netanyahu bashed Democratic frontrunner Bernie Sanders during AIPAC’s annual policy conference.

“In the course of six years, the NYPD’s now-disbanded and incredibly illegal surveillance program of infiltrating and spying on Muslim communities, houses of worship and student clubs, generated zero criminal leads,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad in a statement, “CAIR believes that in addition to costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, the NYPD’s illegal spying program under Bloomberg’s leadership damaged the Muslim community’s trust in law enforcement and made it difficult for the NYPD to maintain open lines of communication.”