AIPAC has been on a mission to destroy the candidacy of progressives
across the country.
And their massive investments in this project certainly paid off in
Michigan's 11th district.
After spending millions of dollars,
representative Haley Stevens who a pack of course preferred
defeated fellow Democratic representative Ander Andy Levin.
A Jewish progressive who has criticized Israel's illegal and
brutal occupation of Palestinian territory.
Stevens ultimately prevailed with 60% of the vote a win that
AIPAC celebrated as major and consequential.
Now, AIPAC intervention in this race was through one of their super PACs that's
referred to as the United Democracy Project,
which is a hilarious label considering what they're engaging in.
And it's mostly funded by moderate Democrats?
No, it's mostly funded by billionaire Republicans.
So, Stevens and
Levin were forced into a primary contest by Michigan's redistricting process.
And I know Emma, there's some of that going on in New York,
which I'd love you to jump in about in just a moment.
But that provided an opportunity for AIPAC super PAC and other special interest
groups to pour literally millions of dollars into the race to oust Levin.
Who by the way,
has been described as one of the most progressive Jewish members of the house.
Now due to redistricting Levin and Stevens both found themselves choosing
between the 11th district and the neighboring 10th district,
which unfortunately is a trump leaning seat based in Macomb county.
Both ultimately chose the 11th district leading to accusations of carpetbagging
against Levin, whose current constituent base is largely within the 10th district.
I'm gonna skip ahead because I think the statement from J Street
is absolutely correct.
So J Street is also a Jewish organization, but they are the antithesis of AIPAC,
and here's what they had to say.
It is alarming that this race, like many other democratic primaries,
this cycle was heavily impacted by the aggressive outside spending of AIPAC and
its super PAC, the United Democracy Project.
They spent nearly $5 million to target and
defeat Levin far more than was spent by any other group.
AIPAC has endorsed and funded 109 republicans who voted to overturn
the 2020 election on January 6th, promoters of the big lie like Jim Jordans,
Scott Perry, and more while attacking candidates like Andy Levine as extremists.
Which by the way, also makes their pro-democracy label ridiculous
considering the kinds of candidates they tend to fund and endorse.
Emma thoughts on this?
>> Yeah, it is a really troubling dynamic in the country right now where I
think AIPAC and right-wing interests and they overlap all together.
By the way, are really threatened by the Ilhan Omar's, the [INAUDIBLE],
the Alexandria Ocasio Cortez's, the Cori Bush's.
The progressives in Congress who are causing a c-change about the way
Israel and the Israeli apartheid state is discussed in the mainstream press.
Because the more voices that you have in the halls of power, talking
about how 90% of the occupied territory in Palestine does not have clean water.
How they are second-class citizens and
have to check in with the Israeli government when
they want to travel around the territory.
How asymmetrical the warfare is there where essentially Palestine
is being occupied and they retaliate.
But Israel's brutality that's usually comes first, frankly,
as a way to make sure that Palestine doesn't get too hopeful
about their prospects for actually having some freedom.
They will kill many times over because they have way more
sophisticated weaponry and Palestinians try to fight back.
But because of the United States's unconditional support, it's not gonna
work out for them because we send them so much money and so much weaponry.
And so it's an existential threat to right-wing hawks in Israel
when there are more people in the halls of power saying maybe we should
make that conditional on I don't know, treating Palestinians like human beings.
And so the more people in Congress who have that perspective,
the more scared AIPAC becomes.
And so I think they understand even though they are a right-wing organization that
they can get way more bang for their buck.
And they can represent other right-wing interests who can funnel money through
AIPAC and it's under the guise of a pro-Israel lobby, not like the oil and
gas industry or Wall Street, etc, right?
And there's no accountability there.
They can cut off progressives legs in the primary process and
it's all under the guise of hey, it's just AIPAC money.
And so all of these issues intersect.
>> Yeah, you make a really great point there.
The way dark money works in our congressional races and
end presidential races by the way is really, really important to hone in on.
Because I think that things are changing, which is a good thing where
you can actually be openly critical about the government of Israel.
Just like any other government in any other country without automatically being
labeled anti-Semitic, right?
And so I feel like a lot of these special interests kind of grouped together
under that AIPAC labor to do their spending in order to get the protection,
they think that they're gonna get, right?
Because for the longest time saying anything that came across as even a little
anti-Israel was so negative.
I mean, you would have a negative reaction to that and
it's changing among young voters and young people.
I mean, they're definitely aware of what's going on, and
being critical of the treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli
government does not make you anti-Semitic at all.
Same as being critical of the American government doesn't make you anti-American,
that's insane.
But I do think that the way dark money works in these congressional races is
important to pay attention to.
And in the end, the people who actually end up winning
the most tend to be moderate Democrats in these races.
And moderate Democrats in a lot of the policy issues that we care most about
would much rather side with the Republican party than with progressives,
which is terrifying.
[LAUGH] And we see that play out with social spending bills and the like.
>> Well, you bring up America there, imagine [LAUGH] you
were watching the United States is slow genocide and
stealing of land of native Americans in real-time.
And then understand why it's so
important to speak out against what's happening in the West Bank and Gaza.
And everybody but the United States and
other allied countries in the West agrees with this assessment.
The United Nations agrees with this assessment.
Any country that isn't completely biased in this area agrees with this assessment.
And so this is why we should support BDS because the only way that South Africa
really changed its position is when they were on apartheid, I should say,
is when they were economically harmed.
And I think you can see why AIPAC is so scared is because people are starting
to gain a consciousness about what is happening over there.
And it's very analogous to what was happening in South Africa.
And it's analogous to as I say other movements of cultural genocide throughout
history.
And we have to be clear about that and
not be scared about being smeared as anti-Semitic.
Because frankly, like Andy Levin or Bernie Sanders,
they'll also get smeared as being a self-hating Jew,
because that's the only tactic that AIPAC can go back to.
And all these other Jewish progressive organizations don't
ever go there because it's not true, it's a smear, it's false.
And Jewish America in this country are some of the most progressive voters
historically, and they've been incredibly consistent on that.
When you pull Jewish Americans, they are not supportive of the way that Israel
is conducting this cultural genocide in Palestine.
And so just remember that AIPAC is not representative of Jewish Americans.