AIPAC is suddenly unwelcome among Democrats, but there's a new sheriff in town to enforce the pro-Israel orthodoxy. J Street aims to make liberals 'love Israel again,' but most Democrats are looking to distance themselves due to the Gaza genocide.
The Israel lobby is exposed these days as it has never been before. Or AIPAC is. AIPAC is a dirty word among Democrats because it refuses to criticize the Netanyahu government.
California Governor Gavin Newsom and Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner are both refusing AIPAC donations. In New York City, progressive Democratic candidates are primarying two sitting congressmen, Ritchie Torres and Dan Goldman, and making the incumbent’s donations from AIPAC an issue.
And not just Democrats. In announcing her resignation from Congress, the Republican firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted that she takes no money from AIPAC– and “condemns Israeli genocide” — in contrast to Donald Trump, who has gotten over $230 million in pro-Israel money, and backs Israeli genocide to the hilt.
The liberal Zionist organization J Street looks to be the beneficiary of this shift. J Street used to represent a left/liberal fringe of the Democratic establishment. Now it represents the center/right.
And J Street is lobbying hard for Israel. It doesn’t want the U.S. to cut military aid to Israel. It says it wants young Jews to “fall in love with Israel” all over again.
This is risky positioning. There is today a “civil war” inside the Democratic Party over Israel, two liberal Zionists acknowledged on a recent J Street podcast.
That civil war is happening for a simple reason. The Democratic base sympathizes with Palestinians more than they do Israelis, by a shocking 60 to 12 percent. Among the young, the numbers are even higher, while the party’s elites sympathize with Israel. (more...)
J Street is the new AIPAC in the Democratic Party
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