AIPAC Is A Reverse Litmus Test Now— No Progressives For Genocide

A Vital Moral Divide In The Democratic Party... Bye-Bye Schumer & Jeffries?

Even NY's worst AIPAC whores like Goldman, Torres & Meeks have started changing their tune

Yesterday, an old friend asked me if Blue America will support their presidential candidacy. Before responding, the first thing I did was to check out their standing with AIPAC. My friend doesn’t accept contributions from the heinous pro-genocide Israeli lobby, so… time to make sure everything is in order in terms of the issues that mean the most to us: Medicare-fo-All, the battle over Global Warming and the climate crisis, fair taxation, corporate accountability, workers’ rights, racial and gender equality, reproductive freedom and the defense of democracy itself. With that all checking out, there are the less quantifiable qualities like courageousness, honesty, moral clarity, persistence in the face of adversity, a willingness to speak uncomfortable truths and a deep-rooted empathy for people who don’t have lobbyists or corporate PACs fighting for them. We look for candidates who don’t just check policy boxes, but who live their values— and who aren’t afraid to ruffle feathers or challenge their own party establishment when justice demands it.

And that brings us full circle back to genocide and the Israeli lobby. At a time when moral equivocation is the norm in Washington, we can’t afford to support candidates who play it safe on an issue this fundamental. A refusal to condemn apartheid, occupation, ethnic cleansing and mass slaughter/genocide isn’t a matter of “strategy”— it’s a disqualifier. We expect the people we back to show moral leadership, not moral cowardice. That means standing up to AIPAC and its enablers, even when it's politically risky. It means speaking out for Palestinian rights, demanding a permanent ceasefire, and rejecting the manufactured narratives that dehumanize an entire population. If you can't draw a clear line between human rights and campaign contributions, you have no business asking for our support.

Yesterday, Gallup reported that Americans’ approval of Israel’s military action in Gaza is cratering. Disapproval is now 60%, with just 32% approving. “The decline in approval is driven by 16-point drops among both Democrats and independents… In contrast, 71% of Republicans say they approve of Israel’s action in Gaza, up from 66% in September.”

On top of that, Gallup found that 52% of Americans now view Netanyahu unfavorably, his highest unfavorable rating since 1997. His favorable rating stands at 29%. Just 9% of Democrats (as well as 19% of independents and 67% of Republicans) have a favorable opinion of the Israeli prime minister.

At the same time the Gallup survey was being released, The Forward published a news pieces by Jacob Kornbluh, After Mamdani and Gaza, are Democrats turning against Israel?, to some extend, at least in the title, deflecting Americans’ horror at Israeli genocide onto a NYC mayoral campaign. “Statements published over the weekend by New York elected officials,” he wrote, “mark a tonal shift in how Democrats are addressing Israel and the conflict in Gaza, with Israel’s allies sharpening their criticism of the country. Democrats who once avoided public criticism of Israeli policy may now feel compelled to speak out amid the worsening starvation crisis. Another factor may be the political ups by Zohran Mamdani, a strident critic of Israel, in the New York City mayoral race. Rep. Ritchie Torres, one of Israel’s most outspoken allies in Congress, called for an end to the war and said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership was causing ‘irreparable damage’ to the U.S.-Israel relationship. New York Attorney General Tish James led a letter signed by dozens of state and city lawmakers that blasted Israel’s military strategy and called for ‘sustained, unrestricted humanitarian aid’ to enter Gaza.”

The underlying problem for them is that the Democratic Party base, if not the party’s elected leadership— Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries for example remain AIPAC fanatics and defenders of the indefensible— has turned against America-backed  Israeli imperialism and genocide. Supporting AIPAC and accepting funds from them has rapidly become a reverse litmus test among Democrats.

The images coming out of Gaza, along with the growing outspokenness of the Democratic electorate on the issue in a longtime pro-Israel stronghold, make it harder for politicians “to continue to embrace Israel without any criticism or distance,” said Abe Foxman, the former longtime head of the Anti-Defamation League.

Polls show that Democratic voters are increasingly sympathetic to Palestinians. In a recent Quinnipiac survey,  just 12% of Democrats sympathize more with Israelis in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

… Phylisa Wisdom, the executive director of the progressive New York Jewish Agenda, said some liberal Jewish organizations have made it safe for non-Jewish elected officials to support Israel while being critical of its government.

Wisdom’s organization, along with J Street and other progressive Jewish groups, is organizing a protest outside the Israeli Consulate in Manhattan on Monday evening to decry the humanitarian situation in Gaza and Israel’s conduct of the war. Rep. Jerry Nadler, co-chair of the congressional Jewish Caucus, and State Senator Liz Krueger are scheduled to address the crowd.

Politicians like Torres and James, Wisdom said, “can’t be scared into thinking” that support for Israel means they must be uncritical of the Israeli government.

“Many Jews are demonstrating that support for Israel means wanting it to live up to its founding values, wanting it to be a thriving democracy, wanting it to live in peace with its neighbors, and wanting it not to be part of starving a civilian population,” she said. “All of that is totally compatible with being supportive of Israel.”

Others see the shift in rhetoric as a sign of the times, which require a more principled approach.

… [Torres] blamed it on Netanyahu, whose public rift with former President Barack Obama over the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran caused “irreparable” damage to Israel’s relationship with the Democratic Party.

“When you inject yourself into partisan politics and put your thumb on the scale in favor of one political party, that sets a dangerous precedent,” Torres said. “And I believe that the consequences of that political geopolitical calculation continue to reverberate till this day.”

Ronn Torossian, a public relations executive and philanthropist, who bundled hundreds of thousands for Torres after Oct. 7, said he no longer supports the congressman over his recent statements.

“Sadly, Ritchie Torres no longer stands with the State of Israel,” he said. “It’s clear that he’s very concerned about his future in the Democratic Party.” Torres recently returned personal contributions from Torossian and entrepreneur Michael Sinensky, following a report about their ties to Trump and the Likud party in Israel.

“Sadly, it’s clear that whether it is changing times or political expediency, his love for the Jewish people is limited to a love of a left-wing Jewish government,” Torossian said.

Some commentators described Mamdani’s election last month as a broader political realignment which has led to concern among some Democrats about it opening the door to strident criticism of Israel. Where criticism was seen as a political risk, it is now becoming part of the party’s mainstream discourse.

National Jewish Democrats, like [genocidal maniacs] Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel— both considered as possible presidential candidates in 2028— criticized Mamdani for dodging calls from Democratic colleagues and Jewish organizations to condemn the use of the “globalize the intifada” slogan.

She may be an anti-Semite but it’s still significant that even Marjorie Traitor Greene is calling out Israeli genocide for what it is. She can do it... but Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer can’t? Is that what the Democratic Party has come to?

Please don’t get the idea that what we’re interested in here is a shift in rhetoric. We’re looking at the beginnings of a generational, moral and political reckoning that will help revitalize a Democratic Party that has been on the decline since Bill Clinton steered it towards corporate-alignment and away from principle. The Democratic base has moved, and no amount of AIPAC money or performative outrage from party elites will undo that. Zohran Mamdani isn't fringe outlier; he’s a bellwether, as are more and more Democratic candidates around the country. The party's old guard, clinging to the politics of triangulation and donor appeasement, is rapidly being overtaken by a movement grounded in justice, human rights and moral consistency. At Blue America, we’re not interested in candidates who trim their sails to please war profiteers, corporate executives or the lobbyists of apartheid regimes. We’re looking for leaders who are unbought, unbossed and unafraid. The days of silent complicity are over. The line has been drawn— and it runs straight through Gaza. If you can’t condemn genocide when it’s playing out in real time, you can’t call yourself a progressive. And you sure as hell can’t expect our support.