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AIPAC

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Eric Edelman and Eliot Cohen, two Republican neoconservatives, endorse Joe Biden saying he will foster bipartisan support for Israel. And don’t worry about the Iran deal. Biden can’t easily return to the deal, Edelman assures a “Jews for Biden” event, because Trump has now set the terms and Dem leaders including Schumer and Menendez don’t like the deal.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Senator Kamala Harris in Israel, November 20, 2017. (Photo: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

One of Joe Biden’s political achievements this year is that he has taken what seemed to be a big issue for Trump– Israel — out of the campaign. The Israel lobby trusts Biden because he promises to use American force overseas and try to end the politicization of the Israel issue here. Biden and Harris have actually run against their own Democratic base on Palestinian rights.

U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar speaking with supporters of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders in Las Vegas, Nevada, February 2020. (Photo: Gage Skidmore)

Members of both parties spent months last year lambasting Rep. Ilhan Omar for claiming that the pro-Israel lobby influences US policy and discourse with its political spending. As the controversy’s latest installment plays out, federal campaign finance records show the pro-Israel lobby is doing just that. A Mondoweiss analysis of Federal Election Commission records and Facebook’s ad library found pro-Israel PACs have spend around $2 million in an effort to oust Omar.

California Senator Kamala Harris speaks at the AIPAC policy conference in Washington, D.C., March 28, 2017. (Photo: AIPAC)

The recent victory of Jamaal Bowman over AIPAC-backed Eliot Engel; AIPAC being forced to “give permission” to members of Congress to oppose Israeli annexation plans for the West Bank; and the recent letter to U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, from 12 Representatives and one Senator not only opposing annexation, but promising legislation to condition U.S. aid to Israel to their policies in the West Bank – all provide evidence that AIPAC may be losing its grip on Congress.