Tuesday, New York Democrats will choose between Congressman Jamaal Bowman and a local official George Latimer. Bowman is not exactly my cup of tea. I don't agree with his stands on immigrationor Tik-Tok, among other things. I wouldn't ordinarily care a fig about this election. But the issue in New York's 16th district is the intervention of AIPAC (the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee) in the election. AIPAC has a played a disastrous role in American foreign policy and is bent on electing candidates who will toe their line.
AIPAC grew out of the American Zionist Council, which grew out of the American Zionist Emergency Council, the main group advocating for Israel's statehood after World War II. AZC, which lobbied for American funding for the new state, was partially funded by Israel. Facing demands in 1962 that its lobbyist register as a foreign agent, the group reorganized as AIPAC. Since then, it has billed itself as an American-funded lobby, and there is no evidence that it is not. It has continued to lobby for what it thinks is in Israel's best interest. It also claims what is in Israel's best interest is in America's. That has not necessarily been the case, and what AIPAC has sometimes advocated may not even have been in Israel's best interest.
You can go back to AIPAC's opposition to George H.W. Bush's attempt in 1991, in the wake of America's success in the first Gulf War, to halt Israel's illegal settlements in the West Bank and to initiate talks between the Israeli government and the Palestinians, which led, by hook or by crook, to the Oslo negotiations. When Yitzhak Rabin, who became prime minister in 1992, met with AIPAC in Washington, he urged the organization to back off. It did not and has remained an obstacle to American attempts to achieve a reconciliation between the Israelis and Palestinians -- a goal that American governments have pursued not only for humanitarian reasons, but also for the stability it could bring to an economically vital and turbulent region.
In Barack Obama's first term, AIPAC worked to thwart his attempt to halt Israeli settlement expansion and to promote a two-state solution. It then led the fight to block Senate approval of the Iran nuclear pact. That pact held out the possibility of a different configuration of power in the Middle East in which the US could play the role of offshore balancer rather than of an implicated accessory to one side in a raging conflict. While Benjamin Netanyahu's government opposed the plan, scores of former Israeli military and intelligence officials supported it. Trump, of course, abandoned the nuclear pact, and when Biden promise to rejoin it, AIPAC was once again in opposition.
Currently, it opposes any attempt to condition American military aid on Israel's adherence to international standards of human rights. It threatens any attempt by the Biden administration to steer America away from uncritical support for Israel's assault on Gaza, which has already resulted in over 35,000 deaths of innocent civilians. According to a report in the American Prospect by Luke Goldstein, AIPAC issued last spring "talking points" for its members to take to Capitol Hill. These included an assertion that “Israel is not blocking the delivery of aid to Gaza,” and that “reports that people are starving in Gaza are false.”
In AIPAC's first years, it did not intervene in elections. It focused on lobbying Congress for aid to Israel. But in the 1980s, it began backing candidates. It didn't do so directly through a political action committee, but by recommending candidates to its wealthy members. In 2021, it established its own PAC, the United Democracy Project. In the 2022 elections, it poured millions into defeating candidates it deemed critical of Israel and into supporting candidates that had enthusiastically backed Israel. In 2022, AIPAC endorsed 37 Republicans who had voted to decertify Biden's election. Its Democratic targets included Representatives Andy Levin and Summer Lee, both of whom had been critical of the Israeli occupation and backed a two-state solution.
This year, AIPAC is at again, with a $100 million war chest. AIPAC spent $4.5 million in an Orange County, California Democratic congressional primary to defeat Dave Min who had criticized West Bank settlements and was privately critical of Netanyahu. Its main targets, however, are Bowman and St. Louis Congresswoman Cori Bush, both of whom are members of the "Squad. AIPAC is spending $15 million on defeating him.
In its advertising against candidates, AIPAC often does not mention their position on Israel. In its 2022 ads against Lee, AIPAC focused on her support for Medicare for All. It never mentioned Levin's support for a bill encouraging a two-state solution. In its ads this year opposing Min, AIPAC cited instead his drunken driving arrest last year. In its ads opposing Bowman, AIPAC has focused on his opposition to the infrastructure bill and to the bill raising the debt limit. This kind of politics undermines Americans' faith in elections. It is fundamentally anti-democratic. In the case of AIPAC, it may reflect the group's understanding that many voters in America don't share its unyielding support for Israel's government.
“When Yitzhak Rabin, who became prime minister in 1992, met with AIPAC in Washington, he urged the organization to back off. It did not and has remained an obstacle to American attempts to achieve a reconciliation between the Israelis and Palestinians -- a goal that American governments have pursued not only for humanitarian reasons, but also for the stability it could bring to an economically vital and turbulent region.”
We all recall what happened to Yitzhak Rabin.