On Tuesday night, Representative Cori Bush lost in a Democratic primary election to challenger Wesley Bell, whose election campaign was overwhelmingly financed by pro-Israel groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac). According the New York Times, the spending by pro-Israel groups “transformed the race into one of the most expensive House primaries in history”. While Bush, an outspoken opponent of Israel’s crimes against Palestinians, is on her way out of Congress because of Aipac’s big spending, the victory for Israel donors is the latest sign of their cause’s decline in the United States and especially in the Democratic party.
How could it be that such a powerful flex by pro-Israel donors is a reflection of a weakening cause? It’s simple: it is because such power flexes were never needed before. Now, it has become routine. Recently, Aipac and company spent huge sums to defeat Jamal Bowman in a primary as well. They made similar efforts against Representative Summer Lee, though she was able to survive the onslaught.
In the immediate short term, it seems like a reflection of power, but anyone who has been following the politics around this issue in the United States for years knows this is anything but. Pro-Israel interest groups never had to overtly and heavily interject themselves into electoral politics in such a way previously precisely because their cause enjoy a great degree of cultural hegemony. In the US, politicians kissed babies, petted dogs, loved baseball and unequivocally supported Israel. That last part isn’t quite what it used to be. The consensus around supporting Israel, especially in the Democratic party, has collapsed.
TikTok is an absolutely dogshit way of becoming informed about politics. Any accidental overlap between the simplicity and video-bite-amenability of the Gaza issue, and TikTok’s ability to communicate issues that are dirt simple and can be illustrated by short videos, is purely accidental. The main issue is that it is explicit Chinese spyware of a type that is even more explicitly malicious than the usual standard for social media apps, which is already pretty malicious.
Also the fact that it took external-to-the-Democrats opposition and huge investment of outside money to get rid of a vocally anti-Israel Democratic member of congress, instead of anything the Democrats did against her, is notable. I think you should add the phrase “Israeli MAGA” to your lexicon; it’s still not accurate but it is much closer than the propaganda terminology you are currently using.