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.
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.
Two new legislative efforts to force the Biden administration to investigate the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh were announced this week.
A new Super PAC has reared its head and it’s made no secret of its first target: Rashida Tlaib. It comes as no surprise that Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American woman and the only Palestinian Democrat ever in Congress, is coming under severe attack ahead of her primary two months from now. But the nature of that attack is a particularly dangerous and pernicious one, and its nature is one that constitutes a unique and serious threat to not only advocates of Palestinian rights and freedom, but to progressives across the board.
In yet another threat by an Israeli official to revisit the “Nakba” on Palestinians, lawmaker Israel Katz, a former minister of finance, warns Palestinian youth who fly the Palestinian flag to ask their parents about “your Nakba” — and warns, “If you don’t calm down, we’ll teach you a lesson that won’t be forgotten”.
Mainstream Democrats were shocked by the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, but their calls for an investigation were vague, even suggesting that Israel could investigate itself– a recipe for “whitewashing,” says a human rights group. No mainstream leader approached the position of progressive Congresspeople, that the U.S. must investigate Israel, or the view of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, that Israeli “apartheid” is the context of the killing.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib has introduced a historic resolution acknowledging the Nakba, which calls on the U.S. government to officially recognize the event and honor the rights of Palestinian refugees.
“Doing and saying nothing just enables more killings”: Rep. Rashida Tlaib calls for action after killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh
Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL says anti-Zionism is antisemitism, and as dangerous to Jews as white nationalism. His speech is strategic. Greenblatt’s core audience is the political establishment and the Jewish establishment. He is trying to make sure that Democratic Party doesn’t accept the growing number of human rights reports accusing Israel of apartheid. And he is trying to keep more young Jews from saying Israel has no right to exist.
Florida Congressman Ted Deutch announces that he is stepping through the revolving door from being an advocate for Israel as the chair of the Middle East subcommittee of House Foreign Affairs to being the head of a lead Israel lobby group, the American Jewish Committee, starting in October. The smooth transition makes smart people cynical about the extent to which Democratic politicians are dedicated to supporting Israel.