On May 5 the Israeli Supreme Court gave the IDF permission to permanently evict more than 1,000 Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank village of Masafer Yata, demolish them, and turn the village into a firing zone for army exercises.
According to the Washington Post this will kick off “the biggest mass expulsion of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since the 1967 war, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from territories captured by Israel.”
In response, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) have asked their House and Senate colleagues to sign a letter to Secretary of State Blinken asking him to “engage with the Israeli government to prevent these evictions and further military training exercises in the area.”
Engage with. Talk. Discuss.
A grand total of 83 House and Senate members (all Democrats, of course) signed.
Why only them? What Democrat can really oppose “engaging” with the Israeli government to try to prevent demolition of a village in territory that does not belong to Israel and replacing it with a firing range?
The answer is probably not one. I mean what could be wrong about talking with an ally that receives $3.5 billion a year in US taxpayer dollars about turning a thousand more Palestinians into refugees.
I’ll tell you what’s wrong, based on my 20 years as a House and Senate staffer. AIPAC, the Israeli lobby and one of the top funders of political campaigns, opposes this effort as it opposes any and all efforts to question any Israeli action. So do its enforcers in Congress like Senate Majority Leader Schumer, Ben Cardin, Corey Booker, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
Signing a letter like this could cost a Member of Congress money or even land them on AIPAC’s target list for defeat. (Like Andy Levin, son of Sander, nephew of Carl, who AIPAC is spending millions to defeat because he is a J Street guy: pro-Israel BUT pro-Palestinian human rights too).
Although AIPAC is a firm believer in the First Amendment, and has on many occasions launched vicious criticism of the United States government, it opposes any criticism of any kind directed at the policies of the State of Israel. (I distinguish the State of Israel from AIPAC on this and many other points. It is AIPAC not Israel that does not tolerate dissent. For evidence, see Ha’aretz, the most widely internationally circulated Israeli newspaper. It could not exist in the United States because AIPAC and its corporate cutouts would shut it down. Happily, the Israel lobby is not a force in Israel.)
Of course, some House and Senate members probably didn’t even know about the letter. Democratic legislative assistants might not have told their bosses about it. They are as aware of the dangers of crossing AIPAC as their Republican counterparts are aware of the dangers of crossing the NRA.
You know, AIPAC:Democrats = NRA:Republicans.
This is not to say that AIPAC is a Democratic organization. It isn’t. It prefers Republicans, including the most vile Trumpers, which is why it is pouring money into the campaigns of the worst insurrectionists, and racists in Congress like Jim “Gym” Jordan.
It knows Republicans don’t care about human rights anywhere so they are in the bag for them, no questions asked. Democrats, not being brain dead, do have questions or at least the occasional quibble.
In any case, it’s unlikely that of the 274 Democrats in Congress only 83 are NOT in AIPAC’s pocket. I mean, they can’t all be bought. Right?
Here is the list of the 83 who definitely aren’t.
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Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Ore.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawai’i), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
Representatives Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.-04), Donald Beyer (D-Va.-04), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.-03), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.-16), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.-24), Joaquin Castro (D-Texas-20), Judy Chu (D-Calif.-32), Katherine Clark (D-Mass.-05), Gerald Connolly (D-Va.-11), Danny Davis (D-Ill.-07), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.-04), Pete DeFazio (D-Ore.-04), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.-03), Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.-11), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.-12), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas-35), Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.-18), Dwight Evans (D-Pa.-03), Bill Foster (D-Ill.-14), Al Green (D-Texas-09), Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.-03), Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.-05), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.-02), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.-53), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas-30), Hank Johnson (D-Georgia-04), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio-09), Ro Khanna (D-Calif-17), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.-08), Ann Kuster (D-N.H.-02), Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.-03), Andy Levin (D-Mich.-09), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-19), Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.-47), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.-08), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.-04), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.-02), Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.-09), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.-06), Marie Newman (D-Ill.-03), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Donald Payne Jr. (D-N.J.-10), Chellie Pingree (D-Maine-01), Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.-02), Katie Porter (D-Calif.-45), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.-07), David Price (D-N.C.-04), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.-08), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.-40), Bobby Rush (D-Ill.-01), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.-09), Jackie Speier (D-Calif.-14), Mark Takano (D-Calif.-41), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.-20), Nydia Velásquez (N.Y.-07), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.-43), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.-12), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.-10), John Yarmuth (D-Ky.-03).