The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was told last month by the international spokesman of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Jonathan Conricus that “the scenes out of Gaza will be hard to stomach,” but that when “the going gets ugly,” they should be prepared to stick with what Israel was doing. Times of Israel reported the Conricus gave his address to AIPAC on Oct. 12 in Washington prior to Israel’s assault.
Now the liberal online magazine Slate on Nov. 15 has reported that AIPAC has pulled together a war chest of over $100 million to fund primary opponents of legislators who don’t fall into line on giving Israel carte blanche to defend themselves to the last Palestinian. Slate says that AIPAC’s targets are holding positions on the assault on Gaza that “are hardly radical: A recent Data for Progress poll found that 66% of Americans support a ceasefire, as do 80% of Democrats. But AIPAC has trained its attention on these members to make an example of them.”
They cite AIPAC’s targeting of Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who just recently has been pulled into a primary contest. Bush tweeted that AIPAC is targeting “Black and brown members of Congress for supporting a ceasefire, a position supported by 80% of our party’s voters.” Slate named Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Summer Lee (D-PA) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) as being at the top of AIPAC’s list.
