The Israel lobby just led an attack on Rashida Tlaib to stop any criticism of Israeli colonization of Palestinian land. What else can it do? It has helped stop the Iran deal and promoted Abraham Accords, bribery of Arab monarchies to normalize Israel and overlook Palestinian human rights. But surely the biggest sign of the lobby’s power is that it is not scrutinized in the press. When it is called out for corrupting influence, it says the criticism is antisemitic.

Rashida Tlaib hit a nerve. It is obviously very important to the Israel lobby to maintain the claim that you can be progressive and support Israel. Being truthful about Israeli apartheid undermines this effort. Liberal Zionists are divided. J Street has condemned Tlaib’s comment. But like nearly all the Dems who attacked Tlaib, they didn’t even mention the apartheid part of her comment. Democrats don’t want to address it. They don’t want to engage with what Israel actually does and how Palestinians live.

On September 18 the New York Times published an article by Ellen Barry titled How Russian Trolls Helped Keep the Women’s March Out of Lock Step.

An Israeli official admits that designating six Palestinian NGOs as “terrorist groups” has hurt the country’s standing in the United States, particularly within the Democratic party as multiple lawmakers have condemned the move. So it seems like Israel is now scrambling to do some more damage control.

The liberal Zionist organization J Street is adamantly opposed to BDS, the nonviolent boycott campaign targeting Israel, and proudly declares that it is “Pro-Israel.” But one of its student leaders evidently disagrees with the organization. Eliana Blumberg supports BDS and says that the effort to say that being “pro-Israel means being pro-democracy, not pro-apartheid” is “futile.”

Civic leader Ruth Messinger says that the large sums of “secret” money being spent by AIPAC-aligned superpacs on congressional races to defeat progressives who are critical of Israel such as Donna Edwards and Yuh-Line Niou makes Americans think “less well of Jews.” While digital media expert Mik Moore says the money has “perverted” the political process and punished the “boldest” progressives.

U.S. Liberal Zionists have now upped the pressure on the Biden administration to condemn Israel’s “persecution” of Palestinian human rights group, by issuing statements that Israel’s declaration of the groups as terrorist is “baseless.” Let’s hope J Street victorious NY endorsees Jerry Nadler and Jamaal Bowman now join other Congresspeople in condemning the action.

A recent J Street critique of AIPAC encapsulates the moral bankruptcy of liberal Zionism.

Israel’s openly-fascistic move of shutting down seven Palestinian human rights groups in occupied territory was widely condemned by American progressives who demanded that the Biden administration take action against Israel. But rightwing Israel lobby groups were silent on the crackdown, J Street expressed “deep concern,” not condemnation. Though Americans for Peace now denounced the “persecution” of the Palestinian groups.

Let’s take a look at the wild Democratic primary happening in New York’s 10th district