Pro-Israel Billionaires Are Spending Big to Oust Socialists From Office

BY
LIZA FEATHERSTONE
Jacobin.
 
Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib may be number one on AIPAC’s enemies list. The DSA-endorsed congresswoman, who is the only Palestinian American to serve in the US House of Representatives, has faced censure from her colleagues for her Palestinian advocacy. Two Detroit Senate candidates say that AIPAC offered them $20 million to abandon their Senate races and run against her. Both refused, in pretty indignant terms, and despite the hefty political bounty on her head, Tlaib still doesn’t have a serious primary opponent. AIPAC has for now resorted to running attack ads against her through its dark money arm, equating her advocacy for a cease-fire in Gaza — and her participation in antiwar protests — with enabling terrorists.
AIPAC has a genuine challenger for Missouri representative Cori Bush, a democratic socialist activist from St Louis who introduced the House bill calling for a cease-fire, around which so much of the antiwar movement has mobilized. In an especially depraved move, Wesley Bell, the prosecutor who investigated the Ferguson Police Department after the infamous police murder of Michael Brown, switched his attentions from unseating far-right Senator Josh Hawley — a worthy goal — to launching a primary campaign against Bush, tapping into monied ire over her cease-fire bill.
Most of the “Squad” will be targeted in 2024. AIPAC remains, as the Nation put it in 2022, “desperate to defeat Summer Lee.” The group has tried backing both primary challengers and Republicans against the Pennsylvania representative and former DSA member, and it is expected to do so again in 2024. Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar, one of the most principled anti-imperialist and pro-Palestinian voices in office and a close ally of DSA members in Congress, faces multiple primary challengers competing for AIPAC funds.
Perhaps most worrisome is the animus against Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York. Bowman, ironically, left DSA when many members felt he was not sufficiently supportive of the group’s stance on Palestine, but he has turned out to be one of the strongest voices in Washington regarding the urgency of a cease-fire and the injustice of Israel’s occupation. Bowman’s seat may now be the most imperiled of any Squad member, as AIPAC has recruited Westchester County executive George Latimer to run against him, and Latimer may tap into considerable pro-war sentiment in the district.
Read more. 
 
https://jacobin.com/2023/12/pro-israel-billionaires-socialists-dsa-aipac-gaza-cease-fire-israel-war
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