Five weeks after New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman was ousted in his Democrat primary, fellow Squad member Cori Bush of St Louis, Missouri met the same fate. Like Bowman, Bush frequently crossed the line from anti-Israel criticism to overt antisemitism. Bush could not even bring herself to concede that Hamas is a terrorist organization. Even the U.S. State Department, certainly no friend of Israel, was able to take that small step.
To the two congressmen who repeatedly attacked Jews, good riddance to bad rubbish. Yet there is an even deeper silver lining to the removal of these black clouds. This might be the election that revives AIPAC as a legitimate political force.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee can be maddeningly confounding. Desperate to be seen as non-partisan, AIPAC frequently angers people on both sides of the political spectrum.
Liberals including liberal Jews often attack AIPAC as a dark and shadowy right-wing power group. They claim that AIPAC is far too reluctant to support the claims of Palestinians. These critics fail to grasp that the job of an Israel lobby is to…wait for it…lobby for Israel. To be fair, these critics are also often the same people angry at McDonalds hamburger restaurants for eschewing vegetables in favor of hamburgers. AIPAC’s obstinacy in going against its own core mission is somehow apostasy.
This all provides plenty of amusement for conservative Republican Jews, who lament that AIPAC for too long has been liberal, impotent, and completely useless. Jews on the right offer as evidence AIPAC’s stubborn refusal to criticize antisemitism on the left or praise philosemitism from evangelical Christians and other Trump supporters.
On the policy front, many conservative Republican Jews never forgave AIPAC for being far too tepid in their belated criticism of the Iran Nuclear Deal. The perception of AIPAC is that they hold an annual gathering, politicians praise Israel, and no concrete policies follow up the conference.
AIPAC hurts their own image by insisting that they take politicians to task privately. This very well could be true, but conservatives have been right to remain skeptical. AIPAC tended to give everyone except Jimmy Carter and Pat Buchanan an “A” rating, rendering these inflated grades meaningless.
Yet AIPAC’s critics on the right need to give grudging credit where credit is due. AIPAC finally stepped up. They stepped up in a big way. They stepped up in a way that mattered. Most importantly, they stepped up in a way that was successful. AIPAC stood up for Jews and against those who hate Jews. Unlike the Iran Deal fiasco, this time AIPAC did not epitomize the idea of too little, too late. They did the right thing at the right time and got the right results.
AIPAC spent millions of dollars in 2024 Democrat primaries to help pro-Israel Democrats defeat anti-Israel incumbents. AIPAC’s ads were targeted toward moderate Democrats and often did not even mention Israel. AIPAC smartly focused on kitchen table issues including inflation and public safety. They focused on the squalid conditions in the Bowman and Bush districts with a message that hope was on the way from a better Democrat. In these districts, a Republican will not win. The Democrat primary is the general election. AIPAC spent millions of dollars to elect Democrats who are in many ways as progressive as Bowman and Bush, albeit with one major exception. The challengers who defeated Bowman and Bush like and respect Jews.
Criticize of AIPAC is deserved when they get something wrong. Those criticisms are often legitimate. Yet AIPAC just got something very big very right.
Thanks to AIPAC spending, two members of the Gaza ceasefire crowd have been fired. Two people who condemned Israel’s response to the October 7th attacks and whitewashed October 7th itself have been removed. Two people who repeated blood libels and antisemitic tropes will no longer be able to spread their bile.
Congress may not have gotten more Jewish, but it certainly got a lot less anti-Jewish.
Bowman and Bush can scream all they want about Jewish money and power. They are free to do so as private citizens.
So let us thank those who helped transfer Bowman and Bush to private life.
Well done, AIPAC. Ya done good.