“We believe that adding new political conditions or restrictions on lifesaving security assistance to Israel, beyond the substantial conditions that already exist, is misguided, harms America’s interests and is not pro-Israel,” says Deryn Sousa, a spokeswoman for AIPAC. The United Democracy Project spent millions of dollars attacking Biss and supporting one of his opponents, Laura Fine, funneling much of the money through an innocuously named group called Elect Chicago Women.
Biss did some polling and discovered that three times as many Democratic voters in his district viewed AIPAC unfavorably as favorably, 51 percent to 17 percent. And so, having failed to persuade AIPAC to stay neutral, he highlighted its involvement in a TV spot. He credits the move with helping to deliver his primary victory in March.
This isn’t an easy line for candidates to walk. Israel and AIPAC are popular targets for conspiracy-mongers. A Democratic House candidate in Texas, Maureen Galindo, recently pledged to turn a former ICE detention facility into a prison for “American Zionists,” most of whom she says are probably pedophiles. (She denies she is antisemitic.) Criticizing AIPAC may now be good politics on the left, but it remains fraught, especially at a time of rising anti-Jewish sentiment around the world. “I feel queasy talking about it, given the antisemitic tropes at play here about Jews and money and power,” Lander says. “But I have to.”
As AIPAC sees it, the organization and its super PAC have been unfairly demonized by the left. They say that they are no different from any of the other single-issue interest groups — including anti-Israel ones — that make their voices heard in primaries. In New York, for instance, a new super PAC recently pledged to spend $2 million supporting candidates who are critical of Israel, including Lander.
But in a sense, mainstream Democrats like Biss and Malinowski pose a bigger threat to America’s pro-Israel consensus than overtly anti-Israel progressives. The Squad’s views on Israel are well to the left of most Democrats’. By contrast, Democrats who call themselves pro-Israel — while also criticizing the policies of the Netanyahu government — are harder for Israel’s defenders to dismiss. Netanyahu, after all, is not well-loved in Washington. Even President Trump called the prime minister “crazy” for his ingratitude on a call this month.
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