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2024-11-19 02:20:00

ZeroHedge News (RSS Feed) on Nostr: AOC Says Dems Hurt By Yielding To AIPAC's 'Wildly Unpopular' Pro-Israel Agenda AOC ...

AOC Says Dems Hurt By Yielding To AIPAC's 'Wildly Unpopular' Pro-Israel Agenda

AOC Says Dems Hurt By Yielding To AIPAC's 'Wildly Unpopular' Pro-Israel Agenda

Progressive New York Rep. Alexandrio Ocasio-Cortez kicked a hornet's nest on Sunday afternoon when she pointed to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as one of the powerful special interest groups that push a "wildly unpopular agenda" on Democratic politicians to the party's detriment.   

AOC's comment came in a response to a social media post by Jeremy Slevin. "Weird to have a whole discourse about 'special interest groups' that completely leaves out corporate and industry lobbies—by far the most influential 'groups' in the Democratic Party," wrote the senior advisor to progressive Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. 

Implying that Slevin was himself omitting an important special interest group, AOC characterized AIPAC as "a special interest group pushing a wildly unpopular agenda that pushes voters away from Democrats," and said Democrats were "overly influenced" by the big-spending organization.  


If people want to talk about members of Congress being overly influenced by a special interest group pushing a wildly unpopular agenda that pushes voters away from Democrats then they should be discussing AIPAC https://t.co/2o22CMMtqw

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1858275868336152645?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Having long been an enormously influential lobbying group, AIPAC began pursuing a new avenue of influence in 2022, and started spending money directly on political campaigns, and rapidly became one of the most prolific outside spenders in US politics, https://theintercept.com/2024/10/24/aipac-spending-congress-elections-israel/


The 2024 election saw Democrats lose the White House and the Senate while failing to take over the House of Representatives. While there's no indication that the issue was decisive, the Biden-Harris administration's eager provision of weapons and billions of dollars to Israel for the pursuit of its astoundingly destructive war on Gaza doubtlessly dampened Democrats' enthusiasm and turnout. 

A September Pew Research poll found that https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/10/01/slight-uptick-in-americans-wanting-u-s-to-help-diplomatically-resolve-israel-hamas-war/
. With full knowledge of these dynamics, party standard-bearer Harris nonetheless pressed on with full-throated support of Israel, failing to stake out any policy difference with Biden on the Gaza War. 

AIPAC quickly fired back at AOC's social media post, sharing screen shots that spotlighted the group's ousting of progressive Democratic representatives https://www.zerohedge.com/political/israel-lobby-takes-out-second-squad-member-cori-bush-loses-primary



Fact check on what Democratic voters find popular vs unpopular, https://twitter.com/AOC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

— AIPAC 🇺🇸🇮🇱🎗️ (@AIPAC) https://twitter.com/AIPAC/status/1858284190984216731?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

To describe AIPAC's retort as misleading would be a huge understatement. As it did frequently through the 2024 cycle, the group implied that support of Israel was the key to the success of the candidates it backed. However, that claim is defied by https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/17/aipac-campaign-ads-israel-00158567
 of the Israel lobby's participation in these races: Advertising that pro-Israel groups injected into 2024 campaigns almost never mentioned Israel. Instead, the ads focused on unrelated domestic issues. AIPAC's dedication to concealing its hand in political campaigns extends to the name of its super PAC, which it vaguely calls the "United Democracy Project."

It's a well-established fact of Western politics that one can talk with relatively impunity about the power wielded by any number of special interest groups -- but not the pro-Israel lobby. Predictably, AOC's post about AIPAC triggered a deluge of responses accusing her of bigotry: 


There is a critical conversation to be had about AIPAC. But so singularly focusing on them here - when there are a number of special interest groups that operate the same way - plays into dangerous tropes. https://t.co/IiB7xvEprg

— Amy Spitalnick (@amyspitalnick) https://twitter.com/amyspitalnick/status/1858308982336630943?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw


.https://twitter.com/AOC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

— Gary Weiss (@gary_weiss) https://twitter.com/gary_weiss/status/1858342539235119373?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw


If your response to an election where your party lost ground with every minority group in the country - losing the popular vote and losing every swing State - and you blame it all on a pro Israel lobby group, you are unquestionably an Antisemite. https://t.co/CQrwQesUId

— Joel M. Petlin (@Joelmpetlin) https://twitter.com/Joelmpetlin/status/1858299012769886596?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw


Oh, look, https://twitter.com/AOC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

— Adam Mossoff (@AdamMossoff) https://twitter.com/AdamMossoff/status/1858285496142811170?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw


Are people EVER going to understand, REALLY understand that https://twitter.com/AOC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

— Yehudah Shmuel (@yehudah_shmuel) https://twitter.com/yehudah_shmuel/status/1858299423526453449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw


Backers and beneficiaries of AIPAC face no such condemnation for noting the group's power in US politics. In the wake of this month's election, https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-828009
." Watch for him to be a reliable "yes" vote on every pro-Israel piece of legislation that hits the House floor in the upcoming 119th Congress. 

https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden

Mon, 11/18/2024 - 21:20

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/aoc-says-dems-hurt-yielding-aipacs-wildly-unpopular-pro-israel-agenda
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