The Squad Is About to Fight for Its Political Life

[Celerity]

38. Some on here would love to she her booted out in the primary, same for every one (all are PoC btw) on AIPAC's hit list.

It is ideological, and within that political ecosphere of conflict, it is a war on progs in general for that group on here. The AIPAC attempted series of hit jobs is just a welcome tool in the anti-progressive armoury. And AIPAC itself also has become more and more hostile to progs as well: see

(from the OP article):

AIPAC has a turbulent history with them, and progressives in general. In the 2022 midterms, the Israel lobby became the largest single-issue outside spender in Democratic primaries, pouring in nearly $30 million via the super PAC the United Democracy Project, and millions more via the Democratic Majority for Israel PAC. It was an astronomical amount of money, mostly directed at knocking progressives out of the primaries, largely in open and redrawn seats. Despite there being fewer vacancies in 2024, that money figure is expected to at least triple.

Israel policy was rarely ever mentioned in the ads those super PACs ran against progressives in the 2022 election cycle. But the lobbying group clearly sees Republicans (and conservative Democrats) as more likely to push for unconditional military aid from the U.S. to Israel, and has, in recent years, seen some mission creep toward the advancement of conservative policy priorities more broadly.

In 2022, AIPAC endorsed 109 Republican members of Congress who voted to overturn the 2020 election, and raised millions from Republican megadonors like Trump backers Bernie Marcus and Paul Singer. It has staffed up heavily from far-right corners of Republican politics; the group’s digital director was hired away from Trump’s Republican National Committee just before Election Day in 2020.

also see:

AIPAC vs. Democracy

AIPAC has endorsed 109 January 6 insurrectionists. The organization clearly doesn’t care if candidates don’t care about fair elections.

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/democracy-middle-east-israel-palestinians/

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Which brings us back to AIPAC. After years of insisting that it was a bipartisan organization focused on lobbying Congress and the White House, not interested in getting involved in elections, AIPAC decided to get directly involved in elections. With public opinion and elected officials turning against the group’s support for Israel’s policies, it’s understandable that AIPAC would cross a line that had once seemed inviolable. First, it created a PAC, called AIPAC PAC, to give money to candidates. Then, it created a super PAC, called United Democracy Project (UDP), whose name is turning out to be a textbook example of doublespeak. Among supporters of UDP at the $1 million level are major Republican donors.

Despite raising significant funds from Republicans, UDP has been spending money in Democratic primaries, supporting AIPAC-aligned candidates against Democrats who have been more critical of Israeli policy. Among UDP’s big targets: Representative Andy Levin of Michigan, a self-identified Zionist and former synagogue president with a strong record of support for workers and addressing international human rights violations, including the Israeli occupation. Levin, at least in part due to the huge influx of AIPAC-organized money, lost his primary on August 2. AIPAC claimed it as a victory for the “pro-Israel” cause.

AIPAC’s press releases and tweets attacked Levin for his record on Israel and Palestine. Its advertisements didn’t mention the issue at all. AIPAC knew its issues didn’t have salience in most of his district, so they ignored Israel and Palestine. To put a finer point on what is happening, a national organization with access to huge sums of money, much of it from Republicans, is seeking to determine the outcome of Democratic primaries by ignoring the very issue the group works on. This is not how a democracy should work. Summer Lee, a working-class US House candidate from Pennsylvania who managed to win despite millions in AIPAC spending against her, put it this way in a recent tweet. “I’m expected to somehow raise millions to fend off multimillion dollar attacks.… Limitless corporate and dark money in elections is objectively bad and antithetical to building a truly reflective democracy.” Amen.

Also bad for democracy: insurrectionists seeking to overturn fair elections.

You probably remember them from the day they stormed the Capitol building, seeking to stop the certification of the 2020 election and pave the way for a second Trump term. You might also remember how, later that same night, 147 Republican members of Congress voted not to certify the election, signaling their disdain for the rule of law and our electoral process. And you have seen many of the current crop of incumbents and challengers at the federal and state levels continuing to insist that the last election was stolen and that the January 6 attack was an act of high patriotism.

AIPAC has endorsed 109 of these insurrectionists, including Representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. Perry, you may recall, used a House Foreign Affairs Committee meeting to promote a conspiracy, embraced by white supremacists, that immigrants, (encouraged by Jews), are flocking to the United States to “replace” native-born Americans. Perry also voted against certifying Biden’s election. You would think a super PAC with the word “democracy” in its name, formed to support a country it considers the “only democracy in the Middle East,” on behalf of a community that has thrived in liberal democracies, would care if its candidates are hostile to democracy. You would be wrong.

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