Former Obama national security aide Ben Rhodes says the Israel lobby uses money to get its way in Congress. “Members would call me at the beginning of the August recess in 2015, when we’re having the Iran [deal] fight, and be like, AIPAC put out a press release saying they’re going to spend $40 million on ads on this. The money issue became acute. And people started to say, AIPAC told me they’d cancel my fundraisers if I vote this way. We’re never supposed to name the issue of money. But when AIPAC is threatening people that they’re going to cancel fundraisers, suddenly you’re having that conversation.”

Democratic Majority for Israel was established for the sole purpose of stomping out the growing pro-Palestine sentiment within the Democratic Party. Their next target: Nina Turner.

Response to Netanyahu’s deal with right wing racist party shows that US Israel lobby is getting tired of fighting for the good Israel. That drumbeat of racism and Jewish supremacy is working on American advocates for Israel. They’re losing their own illusions. What was “dangerous and deeply concerning” two years ago is just more of the same today.

ICC ruling that it has jurisdiction to investigate Israeli war crimes has put the country’s leadership on the defensive. Netanyahu calls it “pure antisemitism” and Israel’s US advocates, AIPAC, AJC, and Dennis Ross rush in to say that the ICC has no jurisdiction.

Israel lobby group AIPAC and the National Security Council come down on NBC for raising questions about a Biden aide who donated $559,000 to AIPAC — calling the story an antisemitic allegation of dual loyalty — and NBC retracts the story! A shocking case of influence in plain sight.

Liberal Zionist groups have all but ignored B’Tselem’s bombshell report stating that Israel is an apartheid regime. And no wonder, the report impugns the progressive credentials of any organization that calls itself pro-Israel, and apartheid demands use of a tool liberal Zionists have rejected as allegedly antisemitic, BDS.

Israel has become a big issue in Georgia Senate runoff race. Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock runs away from previous Israel-critical statements. He has now “condemned” BDS and indicated he would never condition aid to Israel for human rights abuses. The AIPAC-linked group DMFI has now endorsed Warnock for Senate.

Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Betty McCollum and the UN and EU condemned Israeli killing of boy protester Friday, and JVP called for an end to US military aid. As for liberal Zionist groups? Crickets. Even IfNotNow issues a toothless statement.

Ronen Bergman’s book on Israeli killings delights in security sources’ calling Palestinian targets “bugs” and “sewage.” And he travels the US for the Israel lobby group AIPAC. Maybe he shouldn’t report on the assassination in Iran for New York Times?

The New York Times is publishing a misleading report on its front page that further raises the risk that Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu could provoke a conflict with Iran during the Trump administration’s final 66 days.