This was the week Israelis turned on the Israel lobby, but an AIPAC delegation to Israel showed that Democrats aren’t ready to cut ties just yet.

Some viewed AIPAC’s role in the Michigan Democratic Party primaries as a proxy war over the issue of Israel within the Democratic party, but the reality is a little more complicated.

Some viewed the Stevens/Levin race as a proxy war over the issue of Israel within the Democratic party, but the reality is a little more complicated.

After pro-Israel Rep. Haley Stevens beat fellow House member Andy Levin in Michigan’s 11th district this week, with almost $5 million worth of help from AIPAC’s superpac, the Israel lobby group declared that Stevens’s win “reflects mainstream Democratic views and demonstrates that being pro-Israel is both good policy and good politics!” But new polling shows that Democrats support BDS targeting Israel by 33-10; and a third of Dems say their Congressperson leans more toward Israel than they do — while only 3 percent say they lean too much toward Palestine.

Rep. Haley Stevens has reportedly prevailed over fellow House member Andy Levin in the Democratic primary for Michigan’s 11th district. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spent more than $4 million in support of Stevens through its United Democracy Project (UDP) Super PAC.

Tonight’s Michigan primary is historic. The war between two branches of the Israel lobby, AIPAC and J Street, will break out in the sunlight in the race between Andy Levin and Haley Stevens for a Congressional seat. And it looks like the rightwing Israel lobby will win the battle, not the war. Hillary Clinton endorsed Stevens over Levin in Michigan because she knows that AIPAC’s money is key to the Democratic Party. But Rashida Tlaib has supported Levin because the Democratic Party rank and file want aid to Israel conditioned over its human rights abuses.

Why is Biden is telling Israeli leaders that the relationship with the U.S. is “bone-deep”? To please the Israel lobby back home, which has flexed its muscles in Michigan and Maryland, pouring millions into two Democratic primaries. Biden doesn’t want to alienate those donors. Even if Democratic voters don’t care. Ads in those primaries don’t even mention Israel!

Polling by Huwaida Arraf, a Democratic House candidate in Michigan, shows that her position of cutting off aid to Israel is not unpopular. “Palestine is a political positive…Attitudes toward military aid to Israel undermine claims by AIPAC that strong support for Israel is ‘good politics… [S]ix in ten (60%) voters under 45 want aid to Israel reduced or ended,” a memo to donors asserts.

Mainstream pro-Israel groups and politicians have made the Boston Mapping Project into a punching bag. Many are using the Mapping Project to bash the campaign targeting Israel with boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) and to affirm the center-right pro-Israel line that anti-Zionism is antisemitism. A group of Congress members even stated that the project was likely to result in “violent attacks by supporters of the BDS movement” against Jews and Jewish organizations. The FBI has met with Jewish groups in Boston and said it is “tracking” the project over these concerns.

The battle between J Street and AIPAC to influence the Democratic Party is also opening space for Palestine solidarity to enter the mainstream.