The Weaponization of Israel/Palestine in US Elections Campaigns

Featuring Rania Batrice (Organizer, communications and legislative strategist, mediator, and advisor to elected officials, candidates, and non-profits both domestic and around the globe) & Peter Beinart (Newmark J-School and CUNY Graduate Center; editor-at-large for Jewish Currents, MSNBC political commentator, and fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace) in conversation with Lara Friedman (President, the Foundation for Middle East Peace). Israel/Palestine has long played an outsized role in US politics and elections. Candidates’ views on issues like aid to Israel, the status of Jerusalem, settlements and the two-state solution, and sympathy for Palestinians and Palestinian rights are actively elicited, to be used as levers to mobilize financial and political support for chosen incumbents and challengers, or as cudgels to to attack their opponents. On the Hill, members who express even mild support for Palestinian rights, or criticism of Israeli policies, or reservations about additional aid for Israel, open themselves up to being attacked as anti-Israel or antisemitic. In the run-up to the 2022 mid-term elections, Israel/Palestine has come up over and over, including with the decision by AIPAC’s new political action committee to endorse a long list of Republicans who sought to overturn the last presidential election; the huge investment by pro-Israel organizations and funders in targeted races, including in Michigan and Ohio; and the controversial recent decision by a Jewish Democratic pro-Israel organization to endorse a (non-Jewish) candidate in a primary battle against a (Jewish) incumbent previously endorsed by that same organization, apparently as retribution for the incumbent’s slightly more progressive views on Israel/Palestine. Original music by Jalal Yacquoub.