With the Democratic primary season winding down, members of the Squad are speaking more directly than ever about the role that the pro-Israel lobby played in silencing critics of Israel’s human rights abuses in Congress, as well as Democrats’ complicity.
As the Democratic National Convention entered its final day in Chicago, the topic of the war on Gaza and the role of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in elections had been largely absent from the main stage. No Palestinian speakers got time on the dais, despite the protest efforts from the “Uncommitted” movement this week.
Instead, the conversation among Democrats about pushing for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, an end to U.S. weapons shipments to Israel, and the party’s role in allowing AIPAC to shape its primaries has been taking place outside the United Center, where progressives held protests to hold convention delegates’ feet to the fire.
And victims of AIPAC’s political campaigns were on hand to add their voices to the demonstrations.
“Their role in my primary was egregious,” Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., who was unseated amid an onslaught of millions of dollars from AIPAC, told The Intercept during an interview at the DNC. “It was largely deceptive, because they were trying to hide their affiliation as far as the reason they needed to run someone against me. But after my opponent won, they wanted to boast the win.”
AIPAC spent more than $25 million to unseat Bush and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., in primaries this cycle. The outside spending from AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups made the two races the most expensive Democratic House primaries in history.
AIPAC’s attack ads against Bush concealed the group’s sole policy priority is Israel, Bush said.
“Not one ad spoke about Israel. Not one ad spoke about Palestine,” she said. “Not one ad spoke about antisemitism.”
“They were bigoted, they were racist, and it was allowed.”
The pro-Israel campaigning against members of the Squad has largley focused on Black members of Congress. Bush, Bowman, and Reps. Summer Lee, D-Pa., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., had all emerged as targets of pro-Israel spending, though AIPAC itself begged out of the latter races. In Bush’s race, AIPAC’s super PAC aired an ad that distorted her features by elongating her face — a distortion Bush characterized as racist.
“They were bigoted, they were racist, and it was allowed,” Bush said. “If you’re not racist, don’t do racist things. They have shown themselves to be racist.”
She pushed back against the idea that the group can’t carry out racist campaigning because it backed a Black opponent — St. Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell — in her race and a number of other members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
“To switch out a voice speaking truth to power,” Bush said, “for someone who is more palatable is what they’re doing.”
“The person who ran against me was OK with the lies,” she went on, referring to Bell. “He should have run on who he is, what he plans to do, and the difference between us. But instead, he did not do that. What he did was deceive the people of the 1st District of Missouri.” (Bell did not respond to a request for comment.)
Democrats should be concerned about AIPAC’s role in the party’s primaries, Bush said.
“That was just my race,” she said, “but what will they do next? Because what they’re ultimately trying to do is move Democrats further to the right.”
“I want Democrats to realize, it was Jamaal and I this time, but who is it going to be in two years?”
Scared AIPAC Will “Jamaal” Them
Bush was not the only member of Congress to speak out against AIPAC at the DNC. Lee and Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., gave remarks criticizing the pro-Israel lobby at a Wednesday evening documentary screening about Gaza. Both Lee and Ramirez told The Intercept that it was time for the party to realize the spending by outside groups was a threat to all members, not just progressives.
The event took place at the historic Grace Episcopal Church, as programming started across town at the United Center and delegates and convention attendees awaited speeches from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, former President Bill Clinton, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Inside the film screening, audience members cried while watching a Fault Lines documentary that recounted the stories of Palestinian families trapped in Gaza. The Rajabs had seven members of their family, including their 6-year-old daughter Hind, killed by Israeli forces after being trapped in a car for hours.
“Every single Democrat should be concerned that one or two super PACs were able to concentrate $18 million to take out a Democrat.”
Ramirez told the audience that shortly after Bowman’s loss, her colleagues in Congress voted for a bill that negated the numbers of civilian deaths coming out of Gaza. Ramirez said one colleague told her they voted for the bill because they didn’t want outside groups “to Jamaal” them.
After the event, Ramirez told The Intercept that the party should be worried about the influence AIPAC is having on its primary elections.
“Every single Democrat should be concerned that one or two super PACs were able to concentrate $18 million to take out a Democrat, and that so much of that money came from Republicans,” Ramirez said. “You put $18 million against Leader Jeffries” — Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democrat — “he’s in trouble. Every one of us is in trouble,” she said. “What AIPAC did should be criminal.”
Speaking out, however, can come with a cost: incurring the wrath of AIPAC and its millions. “It puts a lot of us in a really tough position,” Ramirez said. “It makes me wonder: How much do I have to raise before I even start collecting signatures again? Because they will do everything they possibly can to make us vulnerable.”
On an evening stroll after the screening, Lee warned of the influence of big money, in general. “Money in politics, whoever is putting it in, is never your friend,” she told The Intercept. AIPAC spent $4 million against Lee in 2022 and failed to recruit at least two people to run against her this cycle, The Intercept reported.
“The same people who are funding AIPAC are the same people who are behind any other corporate interest, any other interest that’s against the will of working class people, of marginalized people.”
“When we think about why Cori or Jamaal were actually targeted — why me or anyone else, why we’re actually targeted — it’s not just about foreign policy,” she said. “This is less about foreign policy and more about the fact that there is a concerted effort to keep power, to keep influence, to keep democracy out of the hands of communities that have been historically disenfranchised.”
“AIPAC isn’t coming into this district and supporting a member because they want them to be able to advance the causes of Black people,” Lee said. AIPAC has targeted Jewish members of Congress in previous cycles, like former Rep. Andy Levin, D-Mich.; the group also targeted former Rep. Marie Newman, D-Ill., whose husband is Jewish. This cycle, AIPAC’s main targets have been Black members.
“They’re giving money to a politician who will still do their will, who will still advance their policy. So at the end of the day, yes, if you are keeping Black districts, Black communities from being able to self-determine who they want to represent them, what issues they want at the forefront, then that is racism,” she said. “It doesn’t matter whether you have a Black friend. Having a Black friend does not make you anti-racist.”
“It’s AIPAC today, it’s whoever else tomorrow. There will always be another super PAC tomorrow.”
Black districts don’t have the money to fight AIPAC’s war chest, Lee said. “What AIPAC knows is that the Bronx or the Mon Valley where I’m from, or St. Louis and Ferguson, those communities don’t have $20 million sitting in them. They know that, and that’s the reason why they come into those districts.”
The threat facing Democrats isn’t just coming from AIPAC, Lee said. “It’s an arms race,’ she said. “It’s AIPAC today, it’s whoever else tomorrow. There will always be another super PAC tomorrow, because once you create the blueprint, once you pull out the gun, you can’t put it back in the holster.”
Lee said Democrats needed to pick a side. “If we don’t put a stop to this, if we don’t lead people in a different direction, we will lose our democracy — not because of Trumpism and MAGA-ism. We’ll lose our democracy because none of us were courageous enough to stand up to the influences that are undemocratic.”