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Prominent Jewish Americans Condemn AIPAC Effort to 'Dominate' US Primaries [1]
['Jake Johnson', 'Jake Johnson Is A Senior Editor', 'Staff Writer For Common Dreams.']
Date: 2024-03-20 12:44:49+00:00
More than 100 prominent Jewish Americans signed a statement released Wednesday condemning the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's increasingly aggressive interventions in U.S. elections, particularly Democratic Party primaries in which the powerful lobbying group is spending big to unseat progressives.
The statement's list of signatories includes well-known scholars, rabbis, anti-war activists, journalists, and filmmakers who have "agreed to come together to highlight and oppose the unprecedented and damaging role of AIPAC" and its allied organizations in the American electoral process. The statement calls on Democratic candidates to reject all funding from AIPAC's political network.
AIPAC's political entities, including its United Democracy Project super PAC, are expected to spend $100 million this election cycle targeting candidates who have backed a cease-fire in Gaza or have otherwise been deemed inadequately pro-Israel.
"We recognize the purpose of AIPAC's interventions in electoral politics is to defeat any critics of Israeli government policy and to support candidates who vow unwavering loyalty to Israel, thereby ensuring the United States' continuing support for all that Israel does, regardless of its violence and illegality," reads the new statement from Jewish Americans, which can be read in full below.
"Given that Israel is so isolated internationally that it could not continue its inhumane treatment of the Palestinians without U.S. political and military support, AIPAC is an essential link in the chain that holds in place the unbearable tragedy of Israel/Palestine," the statement continues. "In the coming U.S. elections, we need to break that chain in order to help free the people of Israel/Palestine to pursue peaceful coexistence."
"In contrast to AIPAC, we are American Jews who believe that U.S. support for foreign governments should only be extended to those that respect the full human and civil rights, and right to self-determination, of all people."
The statement comes days after more than 20 progressive advocacy organizations—including Jewish Voice for Peace Action and the Jewish-led IfNotNow Movement—formed a coalition aimed at countering AIPAC's influence in the 2024 elections after the lobbying group had a significant impact on the 2022 midterms.
According to OpenSecrets, most of the candidates AIPAC supported in the 2022 cycle won their races after the group's super PAC raised more than $30 million.
In the current cycle, AIPAC's top targets are members of the progressive Squad who have called for a cease-fire and end to weapons exports to Israel. As The Interceptreported earlier this month, AIPAC recruited and is funding Rep. Jamaal Bowman's (D-N.Y.) primary challenger and is expected to spend heavily to unseat Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), who overcame AIPAC money to win her seat in Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District in 2022.
On top of working to sink progressives, AIPAC has also previously "endorsed Republican extremists and dozens of Congress members who'd voted against certifying" President Joe Biden's 2020 victory over former President Donald Trump, the Jewish Americans noted in their new statement.
"In contrast to AIPAC, we are American Jews who believe that U.S. support for foreign governments should only be extended to those that respect the full human and civil rights, and right to self-determination, of all people," the statement reads. "We oppose all forms of racism and bigotry, including antisemitism—and we support the historic alliance in our country of Jewish Americans with African Americans and other people of color in the cause of civil rights and equal justice."
"Therefore, we strongly oppose AIPAC's attempts to dominate Democratic primary elections," the statement adds. "We will support candidates who are opposed by AIPAC, and who are advocates for peace and a new, just U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine."
Read the full statement and list of signatories:
We are Jewish Americans who have varying perspectives. We’ve agreed to come together to highlight and oppose the unprecedented and damaging role of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and allied groups in U.S. elections, especially within Democratic Party primaries. We recognize the purpose of AIPAC's interventions in electoral politics is to defeat any critics of Israeli Government policy and to support candidates who vow unwavering loyalty to Israel, thereby ensuring the United States' continuing support for all that Israel does, regardless of its violence and illegality.
Given that Israel is so isolated internationally that it could not continue its inhumane treatment of the Palestinians without U.S. political and military support, AIPAC is an essential link in the chain that holds in place the unbearable tragedy of Israel/Palestine. In the coming U.S. elections, we need to break that chain in order to help free the people of Israel/Palestine to pursue peaceful coexistence.
In the same 2021-22 election cycle in which AIPAC endorsed Republican extremists and dozens of Congress members who’d voted against certifying Biden's victory over Trump, the AIPAC network raised millions from Trump donors and spent the money inside Democratic primaries against progressives, mostly candidates of color. AIPAC is now vowing to spend even more millions in the 2024 Democratic primaries, targeting specific Democrats in Congress—initially all legislators of color—who’ve advocated for a Gaza cease-fire, a position supported by the vast majority of Democratic voters. AIPAC’s election spending increasingly works to defeat candidates who criticize the racist policies of Israel.
In contrast to AIPAC, we are American Jews who believe that U.S. support for foreign governments should only be extended to those that respect the full human and civil rights, and right to self-determination, of all people. We oppose all forms of racism and bigotry, including antisemitism—and we support the historic alliance in our country of Jewish Americans with African Americans and other people of color in the cause of civil rights and equal justice.
Therefore, we strongly oppose AIPAC's attempts to dominate Democratic primary elections. We call on Democratic candidates to not accept AIPAC network funding, and demand that the Democratic leadership not allow Republican funders to use that network to deform Democratic primary elections. We will support candidates who are opposed by AIPAC, and who are advocates for peace and a new, just U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine.
Signed by: (Organizational Affiliations For Identification Purposes Only)
Adam Gold, Senior Strategist, Working Families Party
Adam Shatz, London Review of Books
Alan Levine, Civil rights lawyer
Alan Minsky, Executive Director, Progressive Democrats of America
Alicia T. Singham Goodwin, Political Director at Jews For Racial & Economic Justice
Rabbi Alissa Wise, Lead Organizer, Rabbis for Ceasefire
Alisse Waterson, Presidential Scholar and Professor, John Jay College, CUNY
Anna Baltzer, Author, “Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories”
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright, M4BL Black Hive/Black Alliance for Peace
Ariel Dorfman, Novelist, playwright, essayist, human rights activist
Ariel Gold, Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation
Ariela Gross, Distinguished Professor, UCLA School of Law
Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen, Professor, American Jewish University
Aurora Levins Morales, Writer
Aviva Chomsky, Professor of History, Salem State University
Aviva Orenstein, Professor, Maurer School of Law, Indiana University
Ben Cohen, Co-founder, Ben & Jerry’s, philanthropist
Ben Ehrenreich, Author, winner of American Book Award
Beth Miller, Political Director, Jewish Voice for Peace
Rabbi Brant Rosen
Rabbi Brian Walt
Caroline Levine, Professor of the Humanities, Cornell University
Dan Segal, Professor Emeritus, Anthropology and History, Pitzer College
Dan Simon, Professor of Law and Psychology, University of Southern California
Daniel Stolzenberg, Associate Professor of History, University of California, Davis
Danny Goldberg, Music executive, author
Dave Zirin, Sports editor at The Nation, author
David Vine, Professor of Anthropology, American University
Deborah Eisenberg, Writer and actress
Deena Metzger, Poet, novelist, and essayist
Dennis Bernstein, Poet, human rights reporter, and host of Flashpoints
Donna Nevel, Educator
Eliot Katz, Poet, author “The Poetry and Politics of Allen Ginsberg”
Elliott Gould
Eric Drooker, Graphic novelist and artist
Estee Chandler, Board Chair, Jewish Voice for Peace Action
Eva Borgwardt, National Spokesperson, If Not Now
Ira Shor, Professor Emeritus, Graduate Center, CUNY
Gabriel Winant, Assistant Professor of History, University of Chicago
Gail Hershatter, Professor Emeritus of History, University of California, Santa Cruz
Gene Bruskin, Labor leader and playwright
Hadar Cohen, Scholar, mystic, and artist
Hollie Ainbinder, Program Director, Institute for Public Accuracy
Howard Horowitz, Board President, WESPAC Foundation
Howard A. Rodman, Screenwriter, novelist, and educator
Ivan Handler, J Street Chicago
James Schamus, Filmmaker, Professor, Columbia University
Jay Levin, Founder of LA Weekly
Jeff Cohen, Media critic, retired Ithaca College journalism professor
Jeff Gottlieb, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Jennifer Spitzer, Associate Professor, Literatures in English, Ithaca College
Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg, Organizer, founding member, Radical Jewish Calendar
Joel Beinin, Emeritus Professor of History, Stanford University
Judith Butler, Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Judith Gurewich, Publisher, Other Press
Kenneth Pomeranz, Professor, University of Chicago, Yuen Campus in Hong Kong
Larry Cohen, Former President of Communications Workers of America
Laura Dittmar, Professor Emerita, author of “Tracing Homelands”
Leora Auslander, Professor, University of Chicago
Lesley Williams, Librarian, Board Member, Jewish Voice for Peace Action
Lisa Sternlieb, Associate Professor of English and Jewish Studies, Penn State University
Marcy Winograd, Co-founder, Progressive Caucus, California Democratic Party
Marjorie Cohn, Professor Emerita of Law, past president of National Lawyers Guild
Mark Dimondstein, President of the American Postal Workers Union
Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Martin A. Lee, Author, “The Beast Reawakens”
Maya Schenwar, Director, Truthout Center for Grassroots Journalism
Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK Co-founder
Michael Greenberg, Founder and Executive Director, Climate Defiance
Mike Hersh, Communications Director, Progressive Democrats of America
Mitchell Plitnick, President, ReThinking Foreign Policy
Molly Crabapple, Artist and writer
Morgan Spector, Actor
Naomi Dann, Chief of Staff, Housing Justice for All
Nomi Stolzenberg, Professor, USC Gould School of Law
Norman Solomon, National Director, RootsAction
Dr. Paul Zeitz, Author and activist
Penny Rosenwasser, Author, Center for Jewish Nonviolence
Peter Beinart, Editor-at-Large, Jewish Currents, author, and journalism professor
Phyllis Bennis, Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies
Rafael Shimunov, Radio host and co-founder, The Jewish Vote
Rebecca Vilkomerson, Organizer and author
Richard Bauman, Professor Emeritus, Indiana University
Richard Handler, Professor of Anthropology, University of Virginia
Rick Goldsmith, Documentary filmmaker
Robert Brenner, Professor Emeritus of History, UCLA
Robert Greenwald, Filmmaker, President of Brave New Films
Robert Herbst, Esq., Board Co-Chair, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)
Robert Naiman, Former Policy Director, Just Foreign Policy
Robert Scheer, Author, journalist, publisher of ScheerPost
Sam Rosenthal, Political Director, RootsAction
Samuel Moyn, Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History, Yale University
Sarah Jaffe, Journalist, author of “Work Won’t Love You Back”
Sarah Schulman, Writer
Seth Ackerman, Editor-at-Large, Jacobin
Sheldon Pollock, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University
Simone Zimmerman, Co-founder, IfNotNow
Sarah Sophie Flicker, Artist, actress, and activist
Spencer Ackerman, Journalist and author
Stefanie Fox, Executive Director, Jewish Voice for Peace
Susan Adelman, Feminist, activist, and philanthropist
Suzanne Gordon, Journalist and author
Suzi Weissman, Professor of Politics, St. Mary’s College
Tony Kushner, Writer
Victor Wallis, Professor of Liberal Arts, Berklee College of Music
Wallace Shawn, Actor & Playwright
Zillah Eisenstein, Professor Emerita of Politics, Ithaca College
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