At Thanksgiving, a friend took me aside and said, “How does Israel get away
with this? They are wiping these people out, you can see it before your eyes.
But people here are losing their jobs if they say anything against it on social
media. Health care workers have lost their jobs at hospitals.”
My friend is not alone. The upside of our government’s greenlight to Israel’s
unending massacre and destruction in Gaza, with disease and famine
looming, is that many are asking the same questions. Why is Joe Biden
incapable of doing what any decent person would do, and any leader—of
saying, Stop this madness now!
An overwhelming majority of countries in the region and world have
condemned the brutal military offensive– what BBC describes as
“apocalyptic,” and one high UN official says is “the worst” destruction he’s
ever seen. (“They stopped counting the number of women and children
killed.. . It’s complete and utter carnage.”)
And the progressive Democratic base is appalled. And there have been
resignations at the State Department and at mainstream media. Even as
Israelis regularly appear on our broadcasts, thanking Biden for his
unwavering support.
The answer to this puzzle is that Biden fears the domestic political cost: the
loss of the Israel lobby inside the Democratic Party. Biden fears the
disaffection of the Jewish establishment that has for over 50 years dedicated
itself to the principle that there must be no daylight between the U.S. and
Israeli governments, even as war crimes are blasted over the airwaves.
This dynamic is rarely discussed in our media because it is thought to foster
antisemitic theories of Jewish control. Even addressing the Israel lobby is
labeled a conspiracy theory with lawless consequences — such as the
reported vandalism of the Los Angeles home of the head of the Israel lobby
group AIPAC, with red paint flung on his property as protesters shouted,
Baby killer.
There is plenty of evidence for the idea that the lobby’s support is what
weighs on Biden’s mind.
Jews are an important part of Biden’s Democratic base. 70 percent of Jews
say they are Democrats. And the Jewish community appears to be
overwhelmingly supportive of Israel, just as it was during other historical
crises– with notable and honourable exceptions. We are “working around
the clock to bring urgent relief to the people of Israel,” the Jewish
Federations announces in its regular ad on WNYC, the NPR station I listen to.
The dissent of liberal Zionists is over – J Street is back with the rightwing pro-
Israel groups in backing Israel’s “right to defend itself” and in opposing a
ceasefire.
Zionists are flexing their political muscle in plain sight. AIPAC is said to be
planning a multi-million-dollar offensive to pick off Squad members in
Congress who have been critical of Israel. A progressive senatorial candidate
in Michigan has reportedly been offered $20 million in campaign
contributions from a former AIPAC donor to drop his bid and take on Rep.
Rashida Tlaib instead. Big donors have withdrawn gifts from universities or
threatened to do so in anger over anti-Zionist demonstrations and faculty
statements. One Forbes headline said a “Jewish billionaire” was pulling his
money from Columbia; and craven remarks equating anti-Zionism with
antisemitism from Harvard’s president and Columbia’s too appear to be
responses to donor pressure. Columbia’s banning of pro-Palestinian
groups has the backing of the president and former president and has sent
chills through the academic community.
The media are under similar top-down pressure from Israel supporters. “We
are horrified and deeply saddened by the brutal attack on Israel,” the
chairman of Comcast/MSNBC (who once participated in the Israeli Maccabee
games) said last month, even as Israel was already pounding the Gaza Strip.
The CEO of Warner/CNN, David Zaslav, also issued a statement of support for
Israel after it experienced “one of the deadliest [days] in Jewish history since
the Holocaust.” Later Zaslav was reported to be considering taking part in a
$50 million publicity campaign to “define Hamas to the American people as a
terrorist organization.”
CNN’s coverage has been distinctly pro-Israel, as has MSNBC’s. While both
networks have aired reports that portray the Palestinian nightmare of the
last seven weeks, generally the coverage has been from the Israeli point of
view, often with a propaganda-like tone. Israeli government spokespeople
are frequent guests, and the Zionist ideology is happily ensconced
throughout liberal media. Wolf Blitzer once worked for AIPAC; the Atlantic’s
editor once was an Israeli prison guard; and Tom Friedman told a Jewish
audience in 2021 that “Israel had me at hello,” and “Don’t worry. In times of
crisis, I know where I will be. When the Jewish state is under threat.” Joe
Scarborough regularly equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.
Our official political culture is Zionist. Joe Biden calls himself a Zionist. Last
summer House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries took 22 first-year Democratic
congresspeople on a tour of Israel and stood at Netanyahu’s side, alongside
the head of AIPAC (whose house is the target of demonstrations).
Biden and Jeffries are surely concerned about Democratic fundraising. Israel
supporters use campaign contributions to make sure that the policy debate
in the U.S. “remains extremely narrow,” as Nathan Thrall wrote in the New
York Times in 2019.
“Despite pointed critiques of American support for Israel by representatives
like Betty McCollum of Minnesota, [Rashida] Tlaib and [Ilhan] Omar, there is
little willingness among Democrats to argue publicly for substantially
changing longstanding policy toward Israel,” Thrall said. “In part, some Hill
staff members and former White House officials say, this is because of the
influence of megadonors: Of the dozens of personal checks greater than
$500,000 made out to the largest PAC for Democrats in 2018, the Senate
Majority PAC, around three-fourths were written by Jewish donors. This
provides fodder for anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and for some, it is the
elephant in the room. Though the number of Jewish donors known to
prioritize pro-Israel policies above all other issues is small, there are few if
any pushing in the opposite direction.”
Yes, it’s about “Jewish donors.” At J Street in 2016 political experts
described the “gigantic” and “shocking” magnitude of Jewish donors in
Democratic Party campaigns– who are perceived to be pro-Israel. A former
finance director for many Democratic congressional campaigns said she had
always gone to AIPAC for a position paper on Israel before undertaking to
raise money from the Jewish community.
Joe Biden, like Netanyahu, are steeped in the blood of dead children, & to think he claims Irish roots.