AIPAC’s favorite Senate Democrat, New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, may lose his seat following a second major corruption scandal. This could be an opportunity for Palestinian rights advocates.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz is trying to ban leading Palestinian human rights groups as alleged “terrorist” groups and has bragged of bombing Gaza to “the stone age.” So why are Democrats Chris Coons and Steve Cohen meeting with him and standing for photo opps? They don’t want to be on the wrong side of the Israel lobby.

Chuck Schumer once called for Gaza to be “strangled.” Now the NY senator is silent as progressive Democrats decry Israeli onslaught and Schumer’s potential adversary in 2022, AOC, brands Israel an “apartheid state.” The other leading pro-Israel Democratic senator, Robert Menendez, has called for accountability for Israeli attacks on civilian targets and media outlets in Gaza. Even Paris Hilton is calling Israeli attack a “genocide.”

A bipartisan group of Senators introduced a bill last week to advance the normalization of ties between Israel and Arab governments. The bill builds on the Trump administration’s cynical business deals with Arab governments to further their interests at the expense of the Palestinian people. It is highly doubtful the Biden administration will oppose it.

Senators Rob Portman and Ben Cardin are circulating a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking him to denounce the ICC’s decision it has jurisdiction to investigate war crimes committed by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Haaretz reports: “A group of around 30 demonstrators from the left-wing Jewish group “If Not Now” gathered Monday in front of the office of Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) to protest Israel’s use of deadly force against thousands of Palestinian demonstrators on the Israel-Gaza border in recent weeks.”