The Bipartisan Coalition For Genocide… Silence Is Complicity— But So Is A Vote

AIPAC’s Congress Members Are Bought, Paid For, Covered In Blood

Last January, the House voted to approve, 243-140, Chip Roy’s Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act, a bill to impose sanctions on anyone involved with the International Criminal Court investigating, arresting, detaining or prosecuting Netanyahu and any other war criminals in his government. Every Republican, except Thomas Massie who voted “present,” plus 45 Democrats voted for it. 140 Democrats voted against it. 30 Democrats, most of whom didn’t want to go on the record one way or the other, absented themselves from the chamber and didn’t vote, including two from the Democratic leadership, Pete Aguilar and Ted Lieu. My own genocide-aligned congresswoman, Laura Friedman, was one of the members who skipped the vote.

The Democrats who crossed the aisle to vote with the GOP and AIPAC that day— and how much they’ve taken from the genocide coalition (bolded names are part of the AIPAC Tracker Hall of Shame— were:

• Yassamin Ansari (AZ)- $679,748

• Wesley Bell (MO)- $12,281,104

• Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (FL)- $210,041

• Gil Cisneros (CA)- $93,038

• Angie Craig, candidate for Minnesota Senate- $456,703

• Henry Cuellar (TX)- $2,076,130

• Don Davis (NC)- $3,415,782

• April Delaney (MD)- $40,900

• Shomari Figures (AL)- $52,700

• Lois Frankel (FL)- $675,354

• Laura Gillen (NY)- $94,905

• Jared Golden (ME)- $817,681

• Dan Goldman (NY)- $366,724

• Vicente Gonzalez (TX)- $221,431

• Josh Gottheimer (NJ)- $2,001,136

• Adam Grey (CA)- $33,019

• Steven Horsford (NV)- $209,539

• Greg Landsman (OH)- $415,658

• George Latimer (NY)- $19,102,140

• Susie Lee (NV)- $119,905

• Mike Levin (CA)- $368,574

• Lucy McBath (GA)- $78,715

• Rob Menendez (NJ)- $325,668

• Grace Meng (NY)- $619,633

• Jared Moskowitz (FL)- $397,398

• Donald Norcross (NJ)- $221,855

• Frank Pallone (NJ)- $246,863

• Jimmy Panetta (CA)- $295,146

• Chris Pappas, candidate for New Hampshire Senate- $523,333

• Marie Perez (WA)- $240,949

• Scott Peters (CA)- $152,163

• Josh Riley (NY)- $36,645

• Pat Ryan (NY)- $279,274

• Brad Schneider (IL)- $1,301,534

• Kim Schrier (WA)- $288,389

• Darren Soto (FL)- $258,747

• Haley Stevens, candidate for Michigan Senate- $5,480,017

• Suhas Subramanyam (VA)- $44,750

• Tom Suozzi (NY)- $336,976

• Emilia Sykes (OH)- $225,971

• Sri Thanedar (MI)- $182,153

• Ritchie Torres (NY)- $1,497,402

• Juan Vargas (CA)- $325,952

• Marc Veasey (TX)- $114,078

• Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL)- $1,038,534

Earlier, the House voted 224-187 to pass the Israel Security Assistance Support Act. Only 16 Democrats voted for it— 16 too many:

• Matt Cartwright (PA)— immediately defeated in reelection bid

• Angie Craig (MN)

• Henry Cuellar (TX)

• Don Davis (NC)

• Lois Frankel (FL)

• Jared Golden (ME)

• Josh Gottheimer (NJ)

• Greg Landsman (OH)

• Jared Moskowitz (FL)

• Frank Pallone (NJ)

• Mary Peltola (AK)— immediately defeated in reelection bid

• Marie Perez (WA)

• David Scott (GA)

• Darren Soto (FL)

• Tom Suozzi (NY)

• Ritchie Torres (NY)

Good news is that Jared Moskowitz and Sri Thanedar already have very viable primary opponents, respectively Oliver Larkin and Donavan McKinney, who should be supported in their efforts. Also, AIPAC Queens Angie Craig and Haley Stevens are being opposed in their AIPAC-and-Schumer-supported Senate bids, respectively, by Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Abdul El-Sayed.

As a country, we’re complicit in the genocide against Gaza. It’s the worst stain on our nation since the savagery in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. And it can’t just be blamed on Trump and Biden, the Republicans and Democrats— or even just on AIPAC and DMFI. Every one of us bears some degree of responsibility unless we take some kind of meaningful action to stop it. Voting for anyone— regardless of party— who is voting fund Israel’s genocide, is… well, you know what collusion means.

As the fabulous Chambers Brothers— who I hired to play at Stony Brook a few years before I skipped out of Dodge for the duration of the American war against Vietnam— used to say, Time Has Come Today, in this case, to stop mincing words: funding the Israeli military at this moment in history is not an act of defense, diplomacy or even misguided alliance. It’s the financial enabling of ethnic cleansing, collective punishment and war crimes on a scale that should have made every conscience in Congress burn red with shame. Instead, too many Democrats continue marching across the aisle to stand with Trump, the GOP and the war machine. There were many reasons Kamala— despite being the lesser evil— didn’t deserve to be president. This was certainly one. Cowardice is not a form of neutrality and not something we should tolerate in people seeking leadership positions.

The Democrats working with the GOP to fund the genocide aren’t aberrations. They’re symptoms of a party too compromised by donor cash and AIPAC intimidation to find its spine. This isn’t just about Netanyahu. It’s about a political system so broken that support for genocide is bipartisan— and the price tags are printed in campaign disclosures. If you’re still clinging to the fantasy that voting blue no matter who is a moral position, think again. Nothing changes until we make it clear— publicly, loudly, at the ballot box and beyond— that there will be political consequences for aligning with war criminals. That means supporting primary challengers like Larkin and McKinney. That means telling Angie Craig, Haley Stevens, Ritchie Torres, Jared Moskowitz and Josh Gottheimer that their career trajectories are downward, telling Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries and Pete Aguilar that they are not fit to lead the Democratic Party in Congress, and the rest that no amount of slick ads or party endorsements will wash the blood from their votes. A presidential election is coming up. There are genocide-AIPAC supporters in the mix— as guilty as JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz— Democrats wanting it both ways, voicing support for the IDF or even Netanyahu while gently criticizing Israel’s “overreach in Gaza” like Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Gavin Newsom, Rahm Emanuel, Josh Shapiro, Cory Booker, Ruben Gallego, Amy Klobuchar, JB Pritzker, Gina Raimondo. 

As far as I can tell, the only potential presidential candidates the media is talking about who are serious about not backing genocide are Chris Murphy, Ro Khanna and AOC. History has a long memory and one day, our grandchildren will ask what we did when the U.S. helped starve a nation and flatten its hospitals, schools and refugee camps. “I voted for the guy who backed it all because I was scared of the alternative” will not cut it. Not morally, not politically, not anymore. Silence is complicity. But so is a vote.