Medea Benjamin responds to the pro-Israel lobby’s second “win” of the U.S. campaign season.
Rep. Cori Bush protesting at the U.S. Capitol on Aug. 3, 2021, to extend the eviction moratorium. (Miki Jourdan, Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
By Medea Benjamin
Medea’s Substack
Rep. Cori Bush, a progressive black woman from St. Louis who is a member of the “Squad” and has been a powerful voice in Congress for poor people, women’s rights, healthcare, housing — and Palestine, just lost her primary because pro-Israel lobby groups flooded the race with outside funding. Her loss is a tremendous blow to progressives and to the U.S. electoral process itself.
This is the pro-Israel lobby’s second “win” of the season. The first was the June defeat of progressive, black congressman from Westchester County, N.Y., Jamaal Bowman, who was a forceful critic of Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
AIPAC and its mis-named super PAC, the United Democracy Project, barged into Westchester County to anoint an opponent — white, pro-Israel Westchester County Executive George Latimer — and then shower him with cash.
The ads against Bowman were not about Israel. Instead, AIPAC smeared the congressman’s character and criticized him as a “hot head” who was not a reliable member of the Democratic team.
In the words of President of the Arab American Institute James Zogby, the race became “the angry, frightening young black man versus the calm, thoughtful older white guy.”
By throwing $17 million into the race, pro-Israel groups turned Bowman’s primary into the most expensive one in U.S. history. When Bowman was defeated, AIPAC declared the outcome showed that the pro-Israel position is “both good policy and good politics.”
On the contrary. It showed that pro-Israel groups can buy elections and it sent a frightening message to all elected officials that if they criticize Israel, even during a genocide, they may well pay with their careers.
Buoyed by its success, AIPAC then took on Cori Bush, marching into St. Louis determined to defeat a black woman with a unique voice in Congress.
Once a unhoused single mother of two, and a survivor of gun violence, domestic violence and sexual assault, Bush became a nurse and a pastor, and in the wake of the killing of the unarmed black man Michael Brown in Ferguson in 2014, she became an activist on the frontlines of the movement to save black lives.
After protesting in the streets for 400 days, she jumped into the political arena. In 2020 she made a successful run for Congress, becoming the first black representative from Missouri.
In Bush’s two terms in Congress, she demonstrated leadership on many fronts, including reproductive justice and abortion rights. At a House of Representatives committee hearing in 2021, Bush was one of three congresswomen to share her abortion story publicly.
And after the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, she introduced a host of bills, including the Reproductive Health Care Accessibility Act, the Protecting Access to Medication Abortion Act, the Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act, and the Protect Sexual and Reproductive Health Act.
This is actually a good admission: that elections in the US can be bought on behalf of Israeli occupation and genocide. pic.twitter.com/ukn0jXjNTu
— asad abukhalil ???? ??? ???? (@asadabukhalil) August 7, 2024
She also championed housing rights. When the Covid moratorium on evictions was about to expire, she grabbed her sleeping bag and lawn chair, and organized a “sleep in” on the steps of the U.S. Capitol that resulted in an extension of the moratorium on evictions.
Introduced Ceasefire Resolution
Foreign policy was not her focus, but in the wake of the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel’s subsequent bombing of civilians in Gaza, Bush felt compelled to speak out.
Just nine days after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, she had the courage to introduce a ceasefire resolution in the House.
She was one of only nine House members who opposed a resolution supporting Israel.
She boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress, calling him a “war criminal.”
As a result of defending Palestinians, she found herself in AIPAC’s crosshairs. “Cori Bush has been one of the most hostile critics of Israel since she came to Congress in 2021 and has actively worked to undermine mainstream Democratic support for the U.S.-Israel relationship, “ AIPAC claimed.
AIPAC’s super PAC spent nearly $9 million, much of it coming from Republican mega-donors, to buy ads smearing Bush and shoring up contender Wesley Bell, a St. Louis County prosecutor.
The attacks were vicious, including ads that darkened Bush’s skin and manipulated her racial features. They also distorted her domestic voting record, condemning her for not supporting Biden’s infrastructure bill instead of explaining that her vote was part of a strategy to gain leverage for key social programs in the Build Back Better Act.
Tonight, Cori Bush will go up against prosecutor Wesley Bell, who entered the race almost immediately after Bush called for a ceasefire
Bell’s ads have repeatedly said Bush did not vote for the infrastructure bill. That’s true—but also misses key context.https://t.co/wcnOLgVcQ3
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) August 7, 2024
Attack Ads Silent on Israel
Curiously, in the cases of both Bowman and Bush, the attack ads did not even mention Israel. But if Israel is AIPAC’s singular focus, why did the ads avoid the issue? That’s because most Americans, especially in those liberal Democrat districts, agree with the positions of Bowman and Bush.
Most Americans want a ceasefire and disapprove of Israel’s military actions in Gaza. As Jewish Voice for Peace Executive Director Stephanie Fox said during a call to rally support for Bush, “She has been a life raft for our values and principles in Congress and she has been under attack because far right extremist groups like AIPAC are scared.”
Zogby of the Arab American Institute agrees. “Pro-Israel groups are running scared,” he said.
“They are losing the public debate over policy — especially among Democrats. Most Democrats are deeply opposed to Israeli policies in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian lands. Majorities want a ceasefire and an end to settlements. And they want to stop further arms shipments to Israel.”
So AIPAC hides the Israel issue and then claims the “win” is a victory for Israel.
[Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the lone Palestinian-American in Congress, won re-election in Michigan this month, Al Jazeera reports, despite the attacks by an opponent backed by a new pro-Israel group, the Urban Empowerment Action (UEA), who targeted her opposition to Biden’s infrastructure bill.]
If we are going to stop U.S. support for Israel’s genocide, prevent the Middle East from erupting in flames and reclaim our elections here at home, we have to stop AIPAC.
Medea Benjamin is an author and the cofounder of the peace group CODEPINK. You can find her on social media @medeabenjamin.
This article is from Medea’s Substack.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
America is a golden calf and we will suck it dry, chop it up and sell it off, piece by piece, until there is nothing left but the world’s biggest welfare state that we will create and control.
This is what we do to countries that we hate. We destroy them, very slowly and make them suffer for refusing to be our slaves.
Netanyahu recorded at Finks Bar, Jerusalem, 1990
Pay attention to Finks bar and what was said there.
veteranstoday.com/2020/07/22/bibi-trump-assad-saddam-finks-bar/
JANUARY 3, 2021: “Nancy Pelosi IS “Re-Elected” $peaker of The House, (Pelosi-216, McCarthy-209).
…….“While each member of the “squad” did vote for HER, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY & Cori Bush, D-MO, WITHHELD their votes Until AFTER the ROLL was called; then they clambered into the chamber & squawked out a VOTE for HER, Nancy Pelosi, “@The Very END.”
“BLAME,” A.O-C., & Cori Bush, the TWO that heaped, the “Over the Hill,” Nancy Pelosi, to the “Top,” on The Hill for “Four (4) MO’ Years!” “Unburdened by what has been burdened.” A.O.C., & Cori Bush coulda, shoulda, woulda ended Nancy Pelosi’s career. Nancy “4 Terms” Pelosi marinating in crime, corruption, Botox, silicon, & cover-ups, “lives” & bank$ on it!!!
Obviously, it’s 2024, times have changed, “Win w/Black Women,” “White Women for Kamala,” “White Dudes for Harris;” &, The DNC, in 2024, didn’t give a flying rat’s a$$, NOT a Care about Cori Bush’s woes, i.e., the opposition & HER Ca$h flow. Then & now, the DNC w/a complicit Company know, Cori Bush is on HER own, i.e., Cori Bush is now flying “unburdened by what has been burdened.”
The Congresswoman, from Missouri, used, abused, abandoned! LEFT to “Sink or Swim.” HER resources,“GONE!” Like HER Career in Congress, “Done & Dusted!”
Consequently, Cori Bush, the Community Organizer, perhaps “subconsciously;” otherwise, lost HER “sh*t!!!” BIGLY! Conceding HER loss was NOT HER doing. Vowing vengeance per the beat-down, she “GOT” @ the “battle” box. Once, again, the DNC’s Squad, REDUCED!!! NOT to be Recycled for Re-Use. Democrats “Beat @ the Ballot Box!!!” AND, Cori Bush vows HER rage & the rejection will manifest itself in revenge. No One is Exempt! No One is Safe! “Everybody’s angry. Coming in “HOT!”
Fuhgeddabout It! Let it go. Obviously, Cori Bush’s constituency didn’t roll in & vote, for HER. Who can blame ‘em? After all, Cori Bush’s & Jamaal Bowman’s “footprints,” are as alarming as Harris-Walz for POTUS. Here’s to the DNC’s “win $um;” AND, will lose more!!!! Ciao.
The one single issue that will do the most to free America from from the clutches of evil doers and remove the albatross from the neck of the American public is for Americans to disown Israel fanatical right wing leadership.
The time has come for a nation wide effort to push AIPAC out to sea on a raft of their practiced behavior. Jeff Harrison has this issue covered here.
“If we are going to stop U.S. support for Israel’s genocide, prevent the Middle East from erupting in flames and reclaim our elections here at home, we have to stop AIPAC.”
The subject, I very much hope, of a future article.
why surprised the entire govt is infested
AIPAC is a de facto foreign agent doing vast damage to our nation and system of government — in service of genocidal maniacs halfway around the world. Is there any possible way to apply US law to shut down these a$$holes?
I do wish people would stop pretending Bowman was some kind of saint on the subject of Israel. He had no problem sending all sorts of arms to Israel in the past and in fact this was the subject of a big controversy a couple years ago among the DSA (the “socialist” organization that somehow keeps endorsing liberals). He only started stepping out of line after October last year, and the Zionist lobby couldn’t tolerate that.
Let me see if I got this right. The u.s. gives the ZIONAZIS 4 billion a year, this year 20 billion, and they graciously share a few hundred million back to us to buy our representatives on both sides. I don’t know if they are that slick or we’re just that stupid. I do know that we are fucked, and if harris doesn’t stop telling people to shut up about Gaza she’s going to lose big time.
We’re that stupid that we allowed our country to be taken over by the ethno-state. I do see a lot of support for ending dual passports, particularly for politicians.
You got it right. well said.
An especially important article for African Americans who will hopefully, one day, emancipate themselves politically.
Not likely, considering that there is little leadership, I am very sad to say.
“everybody went bullshit” I think you meant “everybody went apeshit,” but anyway. Russiagate has done immense harm to the US AND to the world at large. I live in Europe and the war on Russia has taken on as much power in politics here as Israel has over the US. At least the US is beginning to wake up to what Israel is really about, and let’s hope that cases like this (the successful campaigns against Bush and Bowman) will wake people further. But when it comes to Russia, the minds of US and European citizens are in total darkness.
Thank you, Medea Benjamin, for this analysis. We no longer have a democracy: all branches of government serve the parties serving bribes alone. We must become activists to restore our Constitution.
The solutions to be implemented are:
1. Public and mass media education to identify tribes, and to avoid social or economic dependency upon them;
2. Constitutional amendments prohibiting election activity or funding beyond limited individual donations;
3. Constitutional amendments prohibiting mass media activity beyond limited individual donations.
The educational component is much assisted by alternative media such as CN.
It will be further assisted by the Congress Of Debate now forming, described at CongressOfDebate (dotcom)
to permit the public to access balanced textual debates of all major issues, as well as discussion groups.
But we will not have any of these means without massive demonstrations and boycott of the DemRep duopoly.
I’d go for public funding of all elections, no outside money allowed. Every candidate, regardless of party, gets equal airtime as a condition of broadcasting licenses. Shorten the election period to six weeks!
Oh geez, just what we need, another 6% approval Congress Critter shilling for AIPAC.
I would argue that AIPAC bought three elections, so far. Medea has overlooked the defeat of the other Jayapal, Susheela, who ran in Oregon’s 3rd District, for the seat vacated by Earl Blumenauer. That seat was won by another candidate, Maxine Dexter, who not only received large sums of AIPAC money, but also very large, mystery donations from a PAC instituted shortly before the election. That PAC wasn’t obliged to file a report showing their funders until the day before the election, and when they did, guess what it showed? Nothing. It wasn’t until June when they filed, showing ten contributors of some $3,ooo,ooo, all of whom were from outside Oregon.
hxxps://www.portlandmercury.com/news/2024/07/10/47296718/how-a-super-pac-upended-portlands-3rd-congressional-district-race
The Portland Mercury quotes AIPAC after Jayapal’s defeat: “‘AIPAC congratulates @doctormaxine on her Democratic primary win!’” the group posted following the primary. “’AIPAC members were proud to support Maxine Dexter in her race against an anti-Israel opponent endorsed by @BernieSanders, @AOC, and @jstreetdotorg. Being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics!’” Where have I heard that before?
The problem is HOW to stop AIPAC. Stopping AIPAC means stopping the money, but the Supreme Court says you can’t stop the money.
Until we find some way to overturn “Citizens United”, we’re screwed.
No other foreign government is permitted to donate to election funds. Why is Israel the exception?
What Medea’s otherwise excellent article fails to mention is that, according to AIPAC’s own words, that its decisions on which candidates to support or oppose are based mainly on their positions on Israel, NOT on what may be good or bad for the United States.
As such, AIPAC should be required to register for what it clearly, by its own admission, is, a foreign agent working on Israel’s behalf.
Not enough people are aware that President. Kennedy has demanded that the American Zionist Council, of which AIPAC was then only a minor component, register with the Foreign Agents Registration Agency at the Justice Department which the AZC’s lawyers were able to forestall until JFK’s assassination in Dallas, made the issue moot since LBJ was already deep in the pocket of the Israel Lobby. The only visible result was that Israel deep sided the AZC name and made it appear to be more American, and thus AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee entered the scene, doing exactly what the ADC was doing before.
It would be more effective if the ACLU or the National Lawyers’ Guild could be persuaded to take up the torch for President. Kennedy who also supported the Palestinian Right of Return and adamantly opposed Israel obtaining or developing nuclear weapons, all of which, including the registration requirement, were red lines that Israel would not or could not allowed to be crossed.
This fits in with the French ambassador — speaking to JFK about Vietnam — telling JFK to stay out of colonialist projects. What a different world we would have if we stopped supporting colonialism.
Oh, but our corporations would be so much poorer! That cannot be!
This could all have been averted if AIPAC had been required to register as a foreign agent, which it truly is. But no, the people who would be responsible for establishing such a requirement are some of the same people whom AIPAC has bought.
Guess we’ll see next November just how solidly Democratic these locations were vs. just how much they preferred their existing representatives who likely got no support from the Democratic establishment in these cases (used to be that support was pretty much guaranteed for an existing office-holder).
I wish all organizations active in different progressive issues would begin to actively collaborate to stimulate mass actions across their different issues. Citizen power is in mass strategic actions. Losing Cori and Jamaal to the Progressive cause is a serious wounding and must activate us all into a willingness to go outside our comfort zones to zap the power of our
contemporary “money masters” whose use of money to disembowel our democracy and suffocate our Peoples’s voice must be stopped.
notice that the party does not intervene. iirc they even allow obvious republican donors to pour large sums into these primaries. this is ridiculous, imo.
It aint just AIPAC, let’s connect a few dots. The ENTIRE US oligarchy and individual oligarchs like Musk, Gates, Bezos, Soros, et al. ALL support Genocide. Look at the list of corps to boycott on the BDS websites: they are mostly US corps. – they profit from Genocide. Let’s not be naive and assume it’s only AIPAC and a few bad apples.
This sort of thing is to be expected: US Elections Inc. are the most expensive in the world- it costs BigMoney and it is that way by design. There is even a great book, cited by Chris Hedges many times that explains in detail: Democracy Inc. (Sheldon Wolin)
AIPAC/MICIMATT/BigPharma/BigOil/BigTechOligopoly The five “families” of corporate oligarchy that run the country. We Plebs can only tilt at windmills and choose one of two corporate candidates.
So so-called “progressives” and faux “leftists” (AOC, Bernard Sanders et al.) will tell us we must vote in another “historic” election to “save US democracy”. This is insulting to the intelligence and gives hypocrisy a bad name. My response (think Roger Waters accent) you can F off! I aint gonna “vote” for no f-in racist genocidal warmonger, no matter what party, race or gender.
Which brand of Genocide will you vote for president? Blue Genocide or the Red Genocide?
No, it’s not just AIPAC, but the entire Jewish Political Establishment which has embraced Zionism and its current genocidal war in which, I assure you, few, if any of those companies listed on the BDS site, have no vested interest.
Just the Jews eh? How comforting to think that the WASP elites, and the Oligarchy are not complicit, just a few bad apples and all that. No vested interests? Please, don’t be so naive
Neither “red” nor “blue” for genocide, but Green, for People Planet & Peace.
What makes it easy for money to buy American elections?
Yet another reason to reverse the Citizens United decision that made our elections about who can put the most money into them. We desperately need a law restricting political donations to a set dollar amount from only individual voters residing within the geographic bounds of the district of the person running for office. No other contributions allowed, including any media advertising for said races, and all such donations to be a matter of public record.
I would disagree with your proposed solution. Instead, what is needed is complete federal funding of all federal elections. I’d take further to the states, but that would have to be done state by state, but I would like that as well.
Agreed!
The Citizens United decision only eliminated the final restrictions from what already was the most corrupt political system in the so-called “developed world.” In 1909, Mark Twain wrote, and I quote from memory, “It can be argued that the only criminal class in America is Congress,” and a few years later the legendary cowboy humorist, Will Rogers, opined that the US “has the best Congress money can buy.” Our “democracy” has never been more than a cruel joke on those who have been victimized by it, worldwide.
I whole heartedly agree that we needed to stop AIPAC by any means necessary. May all those who sold their country and their souls to Isreal rot in hell.
We can also stop supporting faux progressive candidates. Your solution is not with the Democratic party.
Suggest reading Margaret Kimberley’s article, “Jamaal Bowman, AIPAC, Phony Progressives, and Black Misleadership”
hxxps://www.blackagendareport.com/jamaal-bowman-aipac-phony-progressives-and-black-misleadership
Margaret has done a lot of good work at BAR but has a party-based fixation on whether a progressive can exist within a party whose establishment is determinedly non-progressive and she uses occasionally sloppy reporting to try to justify that assertion. For example, she wrote an excellent piece on the ‘black misleadership class’ on Jan 18 2017 castigating John Lewis for his blatant misleadership during the 2016 presidential primary and his unquestioningly buying into the ‘Russiagate’ hoax during the presidential election. However, in the article you refer to she was far more sloppy in putting Bowman into the same category (and also in her earlier article last September which she refers to as if it provided additional independent evidence for her assertions).
Bowman was brought to my attention by Rashida Tlaib’s supporting him for his vigorous opposition to Israel’s genocidal activity as was Cori Bush while the Democratic establishment definitely does support it (while both of them and Rashida also supported multiple progressive positions that that establishment prefers to ignore). Dumping on Trump is of course not very controversial within the party so is hardly evidence of having sold out to the establishment.
Margaret has also been exposed to other BAR editors like Glen Ford who were less fixated on pushing people away from the Democratic party who wanted to have SOME say within that party even if not a dominant one (most overt Congressional Progressive Caucus efforts to use their numbers to change establishment policy have failed because the establishment out-maneuvered them during negotiations) but instead on assessing the beneficial effects that individuals who campaigned under its coverage because campaigning outside the duopoly’s strangle-hold on electability is not the way to attract attention from people who might respond to your progressive beliefs if they weren’t captivated by the idea that any support outside that duopoly would be wasted. One of Glen’s favorite ways to describe the Democratic establishment was as ‘the more effective evil’ which is the correct way to characterize the correct culprit.
Apologies for having forgotten to include the below:
Further evidence of Margaret’s scatter-shot approach to reporting was her deciding that the three people she castigates as ‘faux progressives’ must be insincere because they don’t consider the plight of the Palestinians to eclipse every other concern that they have as representatives of their constituencies. Even after stating their opposition to the genocide that Biden is supporting saying that they preferred to support Biden than Trump in the presidential election represents a value judgment for the U.S. that may have little relevance for the Palestinians. And when it comes to Bernie, starting even before his 34 years in Congress he has been one of the few voices in politics supporting Palestinian freedom from destruction by Israel and liberty in their own independent land as described in detail by a pro-Israel website’s coverage of his 2016 campaign for president in
hxxps://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/2016-u-s-elections-bernie-sanders-jewish-virtual-library
excellent suggested reading!
Good point.
I have NO USE for this shameless SCUM!!!
I’d be willing to bet that the Dem leadership didn’t mind Bush losing. The fact is, Cory Bush had no business being in the pro-Genocide Dem Party in the first place. Were any ads placed by her campaign specifically attacking AIPAC? Specifically yoking AIPAC and the racist apartheid government of Israel? Pointing out that a murderous racist foreign government was directly interfering in a domestic political campaign?
Thank you. It’s not rocket-science, AIPAC is a foreign lobbyist. It does not work in America’s best interests, it promotes the interests of a foreign power. Karma perhaps? Vassals of the US are one of two things, they are cannon fodder; Ukraine, or they are food; the EU. America is effectively a vassal state of Israel and they treat us the same way. All to our detriment. What goes around, comes around.
They ought be running scared. This is wrong. This is despicably, absolutely wrong. It has nothing to do with the will of decent people concerned about fairness and protection of human rights. It is rule by mob mafia. It MUST end.
Forgive me if I am endlessly amused. Russia was influencing our elections with a couple of hundred grand and everybody went bullshit. Israel spends millions and millions to defeat a couple of anti-Israeli congress critters and that, apparently, is OK. Hypocrisy, thy name is United States. When will AIPAC have to start complying with FARA?
And don’t forget the endless “interference” in foreign elections that the US engages in. Interference is a rather pleasant word for assassinations of politicians, murders of ordinary voters, grotesque propaganda (telling women in Chile that Allende would outlaw the RCC), etc.