AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution: The Squad: The Left Behind a Deep, Deep Understanding of Israel/Palestine Controversy
As the left-leaning journalist Ryan Grim points out in his forthcoming book, “The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution,” the politics of Israel and Palestine have bedeviled the group ever since its first members burst onto the political scene in 2018.
She betrayed a deep sense of how damaging the issue was for her, but she couldn’t have known how much she had underestimated it.
There was a raging discontent on Oct. 7. The organizers of the Westchester Jewish Council advised him to stay away from the Israeli solidarity rally because they would not like him. He has denounced recent attacks on the Jewish people by Hamas and the Democratic Socialists of America. But he hasn’t backed away from his fundamental view of the conflict, leaving the mainstream Jewish community feeling as if he’s run roughshod over their interests and sensitivities. Weinberger, a woman with two children in Israel, said, “We feel helpless in Congress because of him.” He’s taken our voice away.”
“I’ve been in politics for 30 years, local, state and federal,” said Mark Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat and former co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “But last cycle was the first time I saw a really disturbing new phenomenon, which was two groups — cryptocurrency folks and AIPAC — getting involved in Democratic primaries with huge amounts of money,” often more than the candidates were spending themselves. Outside money will more than likely be used in the case of Israel being deployed against the squad. “The level of concern and engagement on the part of the pro-Israel community is at an extraordinarily high level,” Mellman, of Democratic Majority for Israel, told me.
Diana Lovett, the Democratic Party district leader who held a fund-raiser for the congressman last year, said that the congressman’s popularity was tearing apart local Democrats. She told me that she did not feel like she could support him anymore. She said she loved him personally. In October she talked to him about their disagreement over Israel. “He was lovely, and he’s amazing, and he was the same warm and openhearted person that he was today,” she said.
The district, whose contours have changed with redistricting and could change again before the primary, is about 50 percent Black and Latino, and voters of color were Bowman’s base. But they were joined by some Jews, who are thought to make up about 10 percent of the district’s population. “It was the time,” said Giddins, the Bronxville retiree, who backed Bowman in the past. “We have to coalesce and give Black people power. They’re entitled to it.”
Omar is going to have a rematch against a former Minneapolis City Council member, Don Samuels, who lost to her by about two points in the 2022 primary. Bush is facing a challenge from a former political ally in the Democratic primary. Summer Lee, a Pittsburgh Democrat whose district includes the Tree of Life synagogue, site of an antisemitic mass murder in 2018, is being challenged by Bhavini Patel.
Should a few members of the Squad lose their primaries, the blow to Democratic unity could be severe. Many of the young people or people of color, Muslim and Arab Democrats that support the Squad will feel like the party is not a place for them, said Waleed Shahid, a former communications director of the Justice Democrats. They will either stay at home or go to a third party.
The Gaza Crisis: A Memorino with a Republican Senator and a Demonstration Against the Israeli–Hamas War
While Biden’s commitment to Israel has remained consistent, Americans’ feelings toward the country’s actions in Gaza are changing. According to the latest poll, large shares of Democrats and independents now say that the Israeli military response to the Hamas attack has been too much.
The way settlement expansion is making a contiguous Palestinian state virtually impossible was something he saw firsthand. “I left feeling pretty overwhelmed and pretty depressed, because the rhetoric at home did not match reality on the ground there,” he said. Bowman still believes in two states, but said, “The policies of the Israeli government haven’t gotten us there, and the U.S. hasn’t held Israel accountable towards helping us to get there.”
It was familiar to him as well. According to the congressman, it is hard not to see the parallels.
But Lovett, who’d recently been hanging posters of kidnapped Israelis around town only to see them being torn down, had come to believe that their views on the Middle East are irreconcilable. “I think he sees what he believes to be an injustice, a grave injustice,” and that his votes are coming from a deep “moral consciousness,” she said. “And I think the pain and suffering he is causing to his constituents is some kind of collateral damage to that higher principle.”
If he was a more transactional politician, he would have made compromises on the issue. He is sincere, for better or worse. Lovett was dreading “an insanely divisive primary,” but didn’t see any way around it. She said that he wouldn’t convince them and that they wouldn’t convince him.
It is less than a minute from the White House to where Prachi Jhawar stands in a crowd of demonstrators. The 23-year-old is one of the thousands calling on President Biden to demand a cease-fire in Gaza and halt additional aid to Israel.
Jhawar’s comments come as a faction of progressive lawmakers and youth voter organizations are voicing anger and dissatisfaction with Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
After pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched on November 4 for a cease-fire, tens of thousands of people gathered in support of Israel on the National Mall.
“We want to continue to have generations of Jewish people stay alive and the Jewish faith stay alive,” said 23-year-old Sheindl Spitzer-Tilchin, a Jewish student who attended the march on Nov. 14.
“I appreciate him standing up for Israel and understanding how atrocious and how scary this can be for college students, families, everywhere in the world, not even just Israel,” she says.
As the war rages on in the Middle East, young Americans are weighing in on how the White House’s response may affect their own view of politics. The Israel-Hamas war is making some voters switch to the other side of the political spectrum.
The White House and Israel have both opposed demands for a cease-fire. The U.S. and Israel think it’s a good idea to give Hamas time to regroup and plan new attacks.
Israeli military offensive in Gaza: A tale of two protests, a stark divide among young voters on the Israel-Hamas war-gaza
Now, Shalabi says he’ll likely vote for a third-party candidate. Political experts think that voting for another party in protest can help Republicans, if Democrats sit out the election.
Pro-Palestinian protesters are angry about Biden’s consistently strong levels of support for Israel and his commitment to send the country $14 billion in aid. This march comes almost a month after Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza following a Hamas-led attack on the country on Oct. 7, which killed around 1,200 people. Hamas also took more than 240 hostages.
Since then, the president has expressed increasing concern for the safety of the Palestinian people living in areas affected by Israeli military offensives. The Health Ministry in Gaza has reported more than 11,000 people have been killed there.
“I’m pretty against not voting at all, but I don’t think that we should have to pick the lesser of two evils,” said Teddi Shalabi, Laith Shalabi’s cousin-in-law.
Considering that Muslim voters have historically been aligned with Democrats, it’s difficult for Alam to back Biden now.
Biden has a lot to do. She said he has lost the trust of many Muslim Americans who were raised to identify with the party.
“I felt like I needed to be here,” Gitlan said, who is now the President of the Jewish organization, Hillel, at Muhlenberg College, “to both support my friends who are here and also to show support that this could be over.”
Gitlan, a Democrat, is happy with Biden’s response so far and took note of Democratic leaders attending the march, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. was also on stage and gave remarks.
The Palestinians and Israel can break up the unity in the U.S.: A Holocaust survivor’s grandson says the left doesn’t support Israel
The far left doesn’t support Israel. And Israel is an important part of who I am as a person,” Levin said. “I don’t know if I can really associate with that party anymore.”
“I think the Jewish people have always stood by every other group, and now it feels like people aren’t standing by them,” said the grandson of a holocaust survivor.
It’s a sentiment echoed across the country in Jewish communities that identify as Democrats and have long supported progressive movements related to civil rights in the U.S.
Political experts believe that the Democratic party has been politically united regardless of whether or not you’re older.
“Older and younger Democrats agree on issues that are important to them and where they want to go in the future,” said a Democratic researcher who has studied youth politics for decades.
According to his research, the Democrats agree on the importance of major social issues, such as protecting abortion, gay rights and addressing climate change. The issue of the Palestinians and Israel could break up the unity.