Democratic Primary in Michigan Finds Liberal Jews Joining Anti-Zionist Pols Against a Pro-Israel Centrist

A primary race pitting a Michigan political dynasty’s scion, Congressman Andy Levin, against a fellow incumbent Democrat, Congresswoman Haley Stevens, is increasingly being used by progressives, including Jews, to attack the involvement of Israel supporters in politics. A new pro-Israel political action committee, the United Democracy Project, is backing Ms. Stevens to the tune of $3,178,469, according to the website Open Secrets. Since the PAC started funding ads for Ms. Stevens, her poll numbers have shot up.She now leads Mr. Levin by 27 points among likely voters in Michigan’s 11th District, which was created after the state lost a congressional seat, forcing two incumbent Democrats to run against each other.Mr. Levin is a progressive who favors conditioning American aid to Israel on “human rights” for the Palestinian Arabs. Ms. Stevens is a centrist with more traditional views on Israel.Andy Levin took over his current congressional seat after his father, Sander Levin, who retired in 2019. He had represented the district northwest of Detroit since 1982. Uncle Carl Levin, who died last year, was an iconic U.S. senator who represented the state between 1979 and 2015. Is Michigan now prepared for a Levin-less congressional delegation?Asked recently by an MSNBC anchor, Mehdi Hasan, why a pro-Israel lobby would oppose a Jew, Mr. Levin said, “I’m not just Jewish, Mehdi, I’m one of two former synagogue presidents in Congress, along with Senator Jacky Rosen. I’ve got mezuzot on all my doors. I’m really Jewish.”Rather than Mr. Levin’s tribal affiliation, a sympathetic interview on a show anchored by the decisively anti-Israel Mr. Hasan might explain it: The United Democracy Project was launched by AIPAC to help finance political candidates who would counterbalance anti-Zionists like Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as their congressional allies. A chorus of progressives is now up in arms. Senator Sanders says he is gearing up for “war” against AIPAC. To counter an “avalanche of money and blanket advertising,” as Mr. Levin described it, Mr. Sanders will fly to Michigan Friday to campaign, alongside Mrs. Tlaib, for the progressive Democrat. Additionally, Senator Warren led a phone drive for Mr. Levin over the weekend. AIPAC bashers have long portrayed the lobby as a sinister, highly funded cabal favoring a foreign country over its own with a “negative effect on American interests,” as John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt described it in their 2007 book, “The Israel Lobby.”Now, as an AIPAC-affiliated PAC is entering electoral politics, attacks on pro-Israel money in politics are increasing— and are often led by progressive Jews. AIPAC decided that “only a massive infusion” of funds could keep Democrats on Israel’s side, a frequent New York Times contributor, Peter Beinart, told MSNBC last night. Mr. Beinart, once a pro-Israel journalist, has formally renounced Zionism.The United Democracy Project exclusively supports pro-Israel Democrats in primaries and general elections, and, according to Mr. Beinart, aims at electing “a whole new generation of Joe Manchins and Kyrsten Sinemas.” While the UDP’s sole goal is to “blindly” support Israel, Mr. Beinart said, “they don’t want an open debate on Israel-Palestine.” Instead, he argued, they run ads about local issues that have nothing to do with the subject at hand.Mr. Beinart claims that is because “the polling is very clear” that “younger voters are much more sympathetic to the Palestinians than older Democrats.” How “clear,” though?A recent Gallup poll finds that 55 percent of Americans favor Israel, while only 26 percent support the Palestinians. Democrats are nearly split on the issue — 40 percent to 38 percent in Israel’s favor, with a similar split among those between ages 18 and 34.Yet, when asked whether they favor the Israeli government or the Palestinian Authority, 68 percent of Democrats say Israel, while only 38 percent favor the Ramallah-based PA. Progressive Jews are prominent in the renewed campaign to weaken Israel-supporting candidates and portray their financial backers as uniquely sinister — as opposed to money contributors to other causes, including anti-Zionists like George Soros, whose motives leftists see as beyond reproach. In his new book, “Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People,” the historian Walter Russell Mead refutes the much-ballyhooed myth that Jews have been the main drivers behind America’s support of Israel.It turns out that support for Israel and Zionism is deeply rooted in American idealism, he writes — and if it were solely up to American Jews, that support could have eroded long ago.

Democratic Primary in Michigan Finds Liberal Jews Joining Anti-Zionist Pols Against a Pro-Israel Centrist

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