The warning for AIPAC in Tom Malinowski's primary loss

[Jilly_in_VA]

When the American Israel Public Affairs Committee decided to spend big in the New Jersey special election to fill the U.S. House seat Mikie Sherrill vacated when elected governor, it was following a familiar strategy. By punishing a politician the group viewed as an apostate, it might get a friendly vote in the House; if nothing else, the race would be an object lesson: Cross AIPAC and you’ll come to regret it.

But things didn’t work out that way. The race turned out to be a lesson in AIPAC’s diminishing power and the rapidly changing politics around the America-Israel relationship.

Former Rep. Tom Malinowski, the early favorite in the crowded Democratic primary, conceded on Tuesday to Analilia Mejia, a progressive who garnered endorsements from the likes of Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Through the United Democracy Project, its affiliated super PAC, AIPAC poured more than $2 million into attack ads targeting Malinowski, though they didn’t mention Israel, making it a stealth effort.

In his previous two terms in Congress, Malinowski supported Israel. But AIPAC targeted him because he now says we should condition that support on some basic respect for human rights. “I committed one sin in their minds,” Malinowski said in January. “I was not willing to tell them that I would unconditionally, unquestionably, blindly support any request for assistance that Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel might make.”

That was too much for AIPAC, which maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward any cracks in U.S. support for Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Clearly, the group hoped that knocking out Malinowski in the primary would help a candidate it might find more reliable. But Mejia is poised to be a stronger critic of Israel than her opponents would have been, and other politicians may be a little less afraid of AIPAC going forward. As they should be.

https://www.ms.now/opinion/aipac-new-jersey-special-election-malinowski-majia-israel

It's about damn time.

[TheRickles]

1. A few AIPAC/Epstein links would help move this process along.

Hopefully someone has that in mind as they trawl through those 3 million files.

[3_Limes]

3. It seems really unlikely to me that there were no interactions between those camps.

So I do expect so see something come out there.

[Alansworld]

2. Blind ass fools...

Reminds me of the time the Green's refused to support Kamala and we got Trump. Let them try to keep their perfect purity. Worked in our favor this time.

[3_Limes]

5. "AIPAC's diminishing power "

I'm glad to read about this. Limitations on the influence of foreign governments on US policy is a good thing.

[JI7]

7. Not the same thing. The greens got the outcome they wanted

[karynnj]

4. I would caution that articles like this should wait until after the GE

I think the Republican candidate may be weak in a district that leans Democratic after redistricting.

The candidate has been described as the mayor of Randolph, the town I lived in for 25 years. There is no elected mayor, it rotates between members of the town counsel. In his case, he was appointed to fill a term, then reelected. My memory is that incumbent councillors almost always are reelected in pretty non competitive elections. This means that he likely has not developed campaign skills.

I hope that, as in NYC, a progressive championing affordability, as she seems to be doing, in addition to speaking against ICE, she will win Not to mention, many in this district will correctly see it as a vote against Speaker Johnson. Much of the Republican part of the district is "old money" "main street" Republican, not MAGA Republican.

Still, until the Democrat wins, we can't say for sure AIPAC lost. AIPAC pushed many MAGA Republicans just because they would vote for anything Netanyahu wanted. AIPAC is pretty one issue

[Faux pas]

6. ...

[617Blue]

8. Maybe they think Mejia will be easier to beat in the general?

[Prairie Gates]

9. They targeted him and he lost...how is this about their diminished powers?

[leftstreet]

10. I think it's kind of an own goal

They thought his loss would elevate the candidate they wanted, WAY. But instead got blindsided by MEJIA who won the primary instead

At least that's how I understand it

[PCB66]

11. I'm a Boomer that remembers

How the AIPAC put pressure on LBJ to sweep the despicable Israeli attack on the USS Liberty under the rug. And he did.

He called the Israelis his "Little Buddies".

Every President since then except Obama and Biden continued to bow to AIPAC pressure.

Trump is in the back pocket of Israel.

[PatrickforB]

12. I'm so sick of congress laying down for these corrupt lobbyists. That is bullshit. You know what I actually WANT

from congress?

To take care of the middle class kitchen table issues.

I WANT HEALTHCARE as in Medicare for all Americans. I've done everything right and have $10K in HEALTHCARE DEBT and am sick of theze bozos (IN BOTH PARTIES) ignoring middle class kitchen table issues because they are so scared of these fucking lobbyists. Overturn Citizens United, make it so corporations are not treated as people. And tax these fucking billionaire parasites out of existence. Raise taxes on corporations so they pay their fair share.

And change the effing rules of corporate governance to require CEOs to hold worker and consumer interests, and the environment, EQUAL to shareholder profits in terms of fiduciary responsibility. And throw in a clause in the consumer portion of that to insist on TRUTH in news reporting from publicly traded news outlets. I'm fucking sick of getting the Wall Street version of news pounded into my head - they manipulate empathy to cause outrage and drive wedges.

I ALSO WANT SOCIAL SECURITY FIXED. The idea that Congress has been so negligent as to let it get to the point it will only be able to pay out 70 cents on the dollar is BULLSHIT. And I don't want to hear excuses. I really don't. That is a sacred trust and I've paid in full-boat for 40 years.

And what about childcare subsidies? Free college?

How about Congress start using OUR tax dollars that WE pay in for stuff that actually HELPS us?

I'll tell you what I DON'T care about:
- The political industrial complex that demands donations for politicians and advocacy groups so they will 'do the right thing.' How about doing the right thing FIRST, passing universal healthcare and funding stuff that actually helps us and THEN maybe I'll donate, because I'm fucking done.
- A trillion dollar war budget.
- Billions spent beefing up ICE.
- The billionaire tech bros ramming AI down our throats and up our rectums.
- All these no-bid contracts.
- The massive rollback of regulations in place to keep us safe.

And what about the Epstein files? That despicable performance yesterday by Pam Bondi. Why these people aren't on the dock NOW for crimes against humanity is beyond me. Because we need to start getting ugly-tough with these criminals.

[DJ Synikus Makisimus]

13. Expect AIPAC to go all-in against Analilia Mejia.

AIPAC doesn't care about party label. They care about far-right causes like the US paying to underwrite the genocidal expansionists (Bibi's Likud, etc.) in Israel. They're not going anywhere. It's how they roll.The question will be how Democrats play it. Many Democrats take AIPAC money, and lots more are deathly afraid of them.

[Multichromatic]

14. HA HA!!! it backfired.