J Street’s battle with AIPAC and Democratic Majority for Israel is good and important because two branches of the Israel lobby are making Israel a political football. Maybe progressives will get a voice here too.

Incoming White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is facing criticism over a 2019 Newsweek op-ed where she wrote, “You cannot call yourself a progressive while continuing to associate yourself with an organization like AIPAC.”

For the second time in the last year, the rightwing Israel lobby– AIPAC and the Democratic Majority for Israel, which bragged of spending over $1 million — helped Rep. Shontel Brown defeat Nina Turner in Cleveland primary. What was Nina Turner’s crime? Expressing solidarity with Palestinians being thrown out of their homes and being bombed in Gaza. Though Brown doesn’t even mention Israel in her public priorities.

It’s O.K. in the Democratic Party to critique white supremacy in the U.S. but dare to bring up Jewish supremacy in Israel and cite apartheid reports and you will get railroaded as a supposed antisemite. Aided by megadonor Haim Saban, the Israel lobby group AIPAC has raised nearly $16 million in three months to take on Democratic candidates who might “undermine” the relationship with Israel.

The United Democracy Project, the new super PAC of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), has begun spending in Democratic primaries. It has unveiled four television ads set to run in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. The new ads do not mention Israel once. The spot for Rep. Shontel Brown in Ohio mainly focuses on progressive challenger Nina Turner, who squared off against Brown in a special election last year.

The rightwing Israel lobby is enraged by the new report by the Special Rapporteur to the U.N. accusing Israel of “apartheid”– a “landmark moment of recognition of the lived reality of millions of Palestinians,” says Amnesty International. But J Street has had nothing to say about the report. It surely hopes it will go away, because these reports foster demands among progressives to actually do something about human rights violations beyond acknowledging their existence.

Democratic lawmakers harshly criticized Republicans who denied the 2020 presidential election results. Now some of them are linked to these same election deniers via AIPAC.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer tweets about the Ukraine while a photo shows him to be in Israel on the tab of the Israel lobby group AIPAC. Bill Keating is Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, so he’s been tweeting a lot about Ukraine, but not a word about being in Israel on the AIPAC trip. Other Reps also seem bashful about the junket, including Kathleen Rice who gave AIPAC a video testimonial from the occupied Golan Heights.

This week dozens of House members have met with Israeli leaders and tweeted praise for the country as police continued to clash with Palestinian protestors in occupied East Jerusalem, where multiple families face displacement.

The lead Israel lobby group AIPAC brought 40 members of Congress to Israel, including Democrats who met with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, even as he trashed the Iran deal. Some Democrats reportedly met with disgraced rightwing former premier Benjamin Netanyahu. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries toasted the “land of milk and honey” while Rep. Ritchie Torres celebrated an illegal Israeli settlement in occupied Jerusalem.