The Israeli government’s moves to hamstring the judiciary and to steal more Palestinian land for Jewish settlements are causing further breakup in the pro-Israel consensus in the United States.
At the organization’s annual national conference, J Street CEO Jeremy Ben-Ami announced a major pivot in the group’s advocacy: for restricting U.S. aid to Israel over its human rights abuses. “Maybe it’s time for some serious oversight and accountability for how our aid to Israel is actually being used,” Jeremy Ben-Ami said, likening Palestine to Ukraine under Russian invasion. Ben-Ami also warned that leading Jewish organizations that enforce loyalty to Israel are threatening the health of the Jewish community by undermining a traditional Jewish commitment to civil rights.
A red tsunami never materialized and they’re still counting votes but it doesn’t seem like it will be much of a wave either. Maybe a small ripple at most.
After failing to oust her in the primaries, AIPAC fell to Summer Lee in the PA-12 general election as well. “They are losing a generational battle here,” says Justice Democrats’ Waleed Shahid.
More news out of the Berkeley School of Law, where 14 student organizations pledged that they would not invite Zionist speakers to events.
Israel’s boosters across the political spectrum are panicking over the far-right’s victory in Israel’s election, and the reactions are telling. “We cannot remain silent knowing the enormous impact that the words and actions of Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich as senior ministers would have on the US-Israeli relationship,” writes Israel lobby stalwarts Dennis Ross and David Makovsky.
AIPAC spent big trying to defeat Summer Lee in her primary by claiming she was a bad Democrat, now they’re spending $1 million on her GOP opponent.
The Israel lobby just led an attack on Rashida Tlaib to stop any criticism of Israeli colonization of Palestinian land. What else can it do? It has helped stop the Iran deal and promoted Abraham Accords, bribery of Arab monarchies to normalize Israel and overlook Palestinian human rights. But surely the biggest sign of the lobby’s power is that it is not scrutinized in the press. When it is called out for corrupting influence, it says the criticism is antisemitic.
Filings from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) reveal that the pro-Israel group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spent more than $350,000 trying to defeat Rep. Ilhan Omar in the Democratic primary for Minnesota’s 5th district. Additionally the group spent over $400,000 to help defeat New York 10th district candidate Yuh-Line Niou, a progressive assembly member who expressed support for the BDS movement. Both races were very close, Omar’s unexpectedly so.
Israel and its proxies in Washington are stepping up their efforts to promote war against Iran in response to the increasingly positive outlook for a renewed Iran Nuclear Deal. Their arguments, however, can be easily debunked.