AIPAC Strikes Again

They are again running dishonest ads in a California Congressional race

I keep checking the results for the special Congressional race in California’s East Bay to fill the remaining months of the seat vacated by Rep. Eric Swalwell. State Senator Aisha Wahab holds a narrow two-point lead over transportation official Melissa Hernandez with 62 percent of the vote counted, and mail-in ballots still to be tallied. Why should anyone outside of Hayward, California care? It’s because the country’s foreign policy and its political morality -- if I can use such a term -- are at stake.

In the first round of the primary last June, Wahab led Hernandez, the nearest challenger, by 26 points, but because she failed to get a majority among the four candidates, she and Hernandez had to hold a run off last Tuesday. Both candidates are Democrats, but Wahab, who supports programs like Medicare for All, is closer to the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party. But the election last Tuesday didn’t turn on healthcare policy.

In the last weeks before the run-off, AIPAC and affiliated groups aligned with Israel’s government pumped $6.3 million into the race attacking Wahab. That’s more than they have spent this year on any House race. American foreign policy had not figured in the race except during a debate among the four candidates where they were asked to raise their hand if they thought Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Wahab did and Hernandez did not. Herandez said Israel had “a right to defend itself,” but she added that the destruction in Gaza “had gone too far.” That was enough to spur AIPAC’s United Democracy Project into action.

But AIPAC and Bold America didn’t run ads defending their support for unconditional aid to Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu government. Their ads didn’t mention Israel. Instead, they attacked Wahab for obscure stands she had taken as a state legislator. Wahab and all the other Democrats on the state’s Public Safety Committee had opposed a bill on sex trafficking because it was written too broadly and could target people who were not engaged in trafficking. Wahab, one ad said, “led that effort, making teenage girls more vulnerable to predators.” Another mailer attacked Wahab as a “radical socialist,” which she has not identified herself to be.

Wahab’s life story is worth noting. She was born in Queens, New York, the child of Afghan immigrants who had fled the Soviet-Afghan war. Soon after her birth, her father was murdered, and her mother died. She was raised by foster parents in Fremont, California and earned her bachelor’s degree, an MBA, and a Ph.D. in social work. She served on the Hayward City Council and in 2022 won a state senate seat. It’s a great American success story, but if it’s up to AIPAC and its despicable allies, it will have a chapter with an unhappy ending in the 14th district congressional race. To be noted: whoever wins this run-off, there is likely to be a rerun in November for the Congressional seat.

UPDATE: Wahab has been declared the winner. She leads by six percentage points with 95 percent of the vote counted.

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