US Jews horrified as AIPAC endorses 37 Republicans who rejected Biden’s victory

DAN COLEMAN: The decision by America’s largest pro-Israel lobby group to back 37 'election deniers' raises doubts about whether it is committed to democracy, or only Israel

THE AMERICAN ISRAEL Public Affairs Committee’s newly formed political action committee has been widely condemned following the release of its first list of congressional endorsements. Shockingly, 37 of those endorsed voted, on January 6 of last year, against certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

While AIPAC proudly describes Israel as “the Middle East’s sole stable democracy” the lobbying group seems to be fine with threats to American democracy as long as those doing the threatening are firmly committed to Israel.

American Jews should need no reminder that the congressional Republicans voting against certification were part of the same movement to overturn the election that featured a host of white supremacist antisemites including Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and numerous adherents of QAnon.

Many of these Republicans, rather than rebuking the far right, have attempted to recast the insurrectionists as everything from tourists to patriots.

It hardly needs to be pointed out that Jews tend to prosper under democracy but have perished under fascism. Surely, this is one aspect of the admonition to “never forget”.

For Abe Foxman, former head of the Anti Defamation League, AIPAC’s endorsements entail an unacceptable contradiction. Calling the endorsements “a sad mistake,” Foxman tweeted “those who undermine America‘s democracy undermine America and a weak America will not be able to stand and support its ally Israel.”

AIPAC’s endorsees include quite the rogue’s gallery.

Notable among them is Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, who was not just a vote against certification but an active participant in the so-called “Stop the Steal” endeavour.

Writing in the Guardian, journalist Sidney Blumenthal has detailed Jordan’s activities in the months following the November 2020 election, attempting to determine “What did Jim Jordan know about the insurrection and when did he know it?”

Jordan’s involvement included private meetings at the White House with Trump and several other Republican House members “where they strategised over a last-ditch effort to overturn the election results.”

Also garnering favour with AIPAC is Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA). Perry is a particularly troublesome endorsee for a Jewish organisation. As well as his vote against certification, Perry has been singled out, along with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), for rebuke in a Special Report from the American Jewish Congress on politicians “using antisemitism as a tool to mobilise extremism for their own political power.”

The Special Report finds that “Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) compared members of the Democratic party to members of the Nazi party, then compared opposing efforts to restrict voting rights to fascism, just like Nazis. Perry has previously promoted white supremacist conspiracies around population replacement, the same conspiracy promoted in the Christchurch terrorist attack manifesto in 2019.”

This, apparently, is just fine with AIPAC.

Joining Foxman in the chorus of critics is Rabbi John Rosove, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Israel of Hollywood and the immediate past national chair of the Association of Reform Zionists of America. In a blog post, Rosove calls the endorsements “a slap in the face for American democracy” and concludes “AIPAC has stepped over the line of acceptability as an organisation that allegedly supports both Israeli and American democracy.”

But characterising AIPAC as an organisation that significantly supports democracy may not be entirely accurate.

In laying out its seven key issues in the AIPAC Action Center, Israeli democracy is mentioned only in passing. Similarly, the AIPAC Political action Committee (PAC) wants to “ensure that the Jewish state remains safe, strong and secure.” Again, no mention of democratic.

And, despite the criticism, AIPAC spokesman Marshall Wittmann had nothing to say about democracy when he told the Forward: “Unlike other groups which have ideological and partisan agendas, we are a single-issue organisation that is focused on our mission of building bipartisan support in Congress to strengthen the US-Israel relationship.”

Here, Wittmann is articulating a fundamentally immoral position. If this single-issue focus accepts endorsement of Scott Perry then, by implication, would a white supremacist who’d marched in Charlottesville but was strong on “the US-Israel relationship” also meet AIPAC’s endorsement criteria?

As Halie Soifer, CEO of Jewish Democratic Council of America, told Haaretz: “this shouldn’t be a tough call. We don’t have to choose between our values, our democracy, our decency, what we know is right, and support of the US-Israel relationship.”

The nature of AIPAC’s endorsements was not unanticipated. Back in December, after AIPAC announced the establishment of its PAC, J Street issued “a public call on all its fellow pro-Israel organizations with affiliated PACs to join the organisation in taking a public pledge… not to endorse any lawmaker who voted against Congressional certification of 2020 election results on January 6 or otherwise supported the ‘Big Lie’ which falsely claims that Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election.”

As J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami put it: “no amount of ‘pro-Israel’ posturing on the part of far-right politicians can be cause to justify or ignore the threat they pose to democracy, to the American Jewish community and all vulnerable minorities.”

J Street has been joined in its pledge by a number of other groups, including Democratic Majority for Israel and the Jewish Democratic Council of America. The latter is using the AIPAC controversy for fundraising, selling merchandise that says “friends don’t let friends support insurrectionists”.

Democratic Majority for Israel’s communications director, Rachel Rosen said “we will never support anyone who voted to undermine our democracy”.

Underlying the endorsements may be a certain hubris on the part of AIPAC and a failure to recognise the challenges it faces to maintain its historic stature as the peak body advocating US support for Israel.

The January 6 insurrection and the accompanying (and continuing) “Stop the Steal” campaign exposed deep fault lines in the American body politic and a real threat of white supremacist extremism and emboldened fascism challenging US democracy.

J Street and its peers have been growing in influence over recent years. Through these endorsements, AIPAC may be alienating many of the over 70% of American Jews who vote Democratic. These are voters who support democracy in the US and in Israel and who, like Abe Foxman, are clear about the linkages between the two.

As Rabbi Rosove asks, “Is it not now time for AIPAC’s long-time supporters to withdraw their support of that once venerable organisation?” AIPAC may find that many answer this question in the affirmative.

In the end, AIPAC may learn the hard way that, while Jews are known for wandering in the wilderness, a moral compass is a vital tool even for those advocating single-issue politics.

Photo: The January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol building