AIPAC Stops Endorsing Candidates
No more endorsements, no more PAC checks. The super PAC stays.
The IDF detained Brad Lander at an olive harvest. The Democratic House nominee from New York City was held Wednesday outside Bethlehem with dozens of rabbis and activists who had come to protect Palestinian farmers from settlers. He said he was released after a few hours with a "warning." Israel's Foreign Ministry called it "a calculated provocation." 1
Abdul El-Sayed hired a Jewish outreach director. Lenore Goldman, a consultant with Michigan ties, told JTA she has worked on his Senate campaign since September. Plenty of Michigan Jews object to El-Sayed calling Israel "not an ally." A Marist poll released Wednesday has him at 50% to Republican Mike Rogers's 48%. 2
Malaysia banned Waze for civil servants. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's office cited data security and the app's ties to Israel, where it was founded and is still incorporated. Google owns it. Anwar suggested a Malaysian app, TuJu, instead. Iraq announced its own Waze ban earlier this month. 3
AIPAC told its members Wednesday that "endorsements, direct PAC contributions, and earmarking will no longer be part of our approach." 4 Its super PAC, the United Democracy Project, keeps running, and a spokesperson says members gave more than $90 million directly to candidates this cycle.
We think this is a retreat, and the right one. An AIPAC endorsement has become something progressive Democrats campaign against, and a public endorsement list made every vote a loyalty test the lobby had to grade out loud. Pro-Israel politics in America works best when it looks like what it is, which is a lot of voters who care. Keeping the super PAC while dropping the endorsements means the money keeps flowing with AIPAC's name off it. If UDP spends, AIPAC should sign it.
In January 1976, Flyers chairman Ed Snider let signs about Soviet Jews go up at the Spectrum before his team played the Soviet Red Army. Mid-game the Soviets left the ice and came back only after Snider said they wouldn't get paid otherwise. Philadelphia won, 4-1. 5
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