Consider This from NPR - U.S. Stance On Israel Proving Divisive In Congressional Primaries

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

The American response to Israel's war with Hamas could be a major factor in the upcoming Congressional elections.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

President Joe Biden has clinched the Democratic nomination, making a Trump-Biden rematch pretty much assured. ABC News can project President Biden has won the state of Georgia, and that means we can also project Joe Biden has surpassed the delegate threshold to become the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States. But opposition to his policies around Israel and Gaza has led to an emerging protest vote. Hundreds of thousands of Democratic primary voters have chosen uncommitted or similar options instead of checking the box next to Biden's name. We have the power really to make President Biden a one-term president if that is his choice. Shanan Najib is a member of the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine. She spoke to WUWM's Chuck Kornbach in Milwaukee. About 48,000 people who voted in the Wisconsin Democratic primary bypassed the incumbent president on Tuesday and instead

marked their ballot for the uninstructed delegation option. They captured about 8% of the Democratic primary vote. 8% might sound small, but as Kornbach reports, in the swing state of Wisconsin, last night's results were significant. The number of uninstructed Democratic primary votes exceeded the margin of Biden's victory over former President Donald Trump four years ago. In fact, it more than doubled that margin. And while pro-Palestinian voters hope to influence Democratic elections, pro-Israel political groups are doing the same and focusing their efforts on congressional races.

We want to help protect those champions, the pro-Israel champions, that are being threatened by these anti-Israel challengers. Consider this. The war in Gaza and how American politicians have responded to it is becoming a major factor in the upcoming election. It hasn't tilted the direction of the presidential primary, but several upcoming House primaries will test

whether the issue could tip a campaign one way or the other. From NPR, I'm Scott Detrow. It's Consider This from NPR. The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas is dividing Democratic primary voters. Forces normally aligned with the Democratic Party are working to defeat some of the most liberal members of the House over their position on Israel. NPR political correspondent Susan Davis took a look at how it was playing out in the race for the Democratic nomination in a congressional seat in western Pennsylvania, and she has this report. Pennsylvania Democrat Summer Lee is a proud new member of the so-called squad, a term used either as a badge of honor by its members or as an insult by critics to describe a small but growing coalition of the most liberal members in Congress. We put forth the boldest priorities and we fight for them and we show other people how to fight for them.

And I've learned how to fight for them because they were there before. So it's not a pejorative to me at all. First elected in 2022, Lee is the first Black woman to represent Pennsylvania in the House. Her district includes most of Pittsburgh and its surrounding suburbs. And within that city is the historically Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, where Lee's primary opponent, Bhavini Patel, made a point to headquarter her opposing campaign. What we have right now is a representative who has aligned herself with a small minority of the Democratic Party and has taken a lot of votes, who is Jewish, Lee canceled an appearance with the Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy group, after reports that some of the scheduled speakers had previously made anti-Semitic remarks. This record has been fuel for Patel's campaign. We need to ask the

question as to why she wanted to go and share that stage to begin with. Patel has less money and less organization, and Lee is currently favored to win in the April 23rd primary. But it's the first pressure test in a series of Democratic primaries in the coming months in which both wealthy Republican donors and pro-Israel Democrats are focusing on defeating fellow squad members, including Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Cori Bush of Missouri, and Jamal Bowman of New York. We have a small group of anti-Israel members of Congress. It's a small group, but we have to keep it from growing. Mark Melman is a veteran Democratic pollster and strategist who helped form the group Democratic Majority for Israel back in 2019.

His group is already backing primary challengers to Bush and Bowman, and he told NPR more endorsements are coming. The squad's allies are pushing back. Last month, a coalition of nearly two dozen liberal activist groups, including the Democratic Socialists of America, launched Reject AIPAC. Its goal is to try to counter the reported $100 million the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its affiliates are prepared to spend in the 2024 campaign. Usama Andrabi is a spokesman for Justice Democrats, one of the member groups, and he says there's a generational shift happening among younger progressives and how they view the powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington.

AIPAC is our generation's NRA. As they became a right-wing, Republican-aligned lobby against all gun safety legislation, no matter what sort of gun violence was the product, we have seen the exact same thing happen with AIPAC, who has moved farther and further right with the extremism of the Israeli government that it demands its endorsers unconditionally support, and further and further right as its donor base has gotten larger and larger shares of Republican megadonors. It is true that AIPAC takes money from Republicans, but it remains one of the largest PAC contributors to Democrats.

One of their top recipients in this election is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. AIPAC says their sole criteria for endorsing candidates is their position on strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship. Like Melman's group, AIPAC has also endorsed primary challengers to Bush and Bowman. AIPAC spokesman Marshall Whitman told NPR in response to this story that AIPAC, quote, believes it is entirely consistent with progressive values to stand with the Jewish state. Melman acknowledges there is a divide within the party here with no clear resolution in sight. Among Democrats, there is a rift that can be healed, but it can't be healed when people are heaping that kind of invective on Democratic groups like ours or on the state of Israel or on the Jewish people. In an interview with NPR, Lee rejected the premise that progressives like her are out of step on Israel. Just last week, a Gallup poll showed a majority of Americans now disapprove of Israel's handling of the war, compared to the majority who approved shortly after the October 7th attack.

Every day, our numbers swell. People who are seeing what's happening on the ground in Gaza and are realizing that that is an untenable situation. And I think that what we see a lot are people who are not shooting the message with the messenger. Retiree Lisa Massinio lives in Lee's district, and she's been canvassing to get out the vote later this month. She personally supports Lee, but she told NPR Lee's position on Israel hurts her in this race. Well, I do think it does, yes. And that complaint is coming from Democrats. Pennsylvania has closed primaries, which means only Democrats can vote in them.

Messinio described it as the, quote, old guard of Democrats who generally dislike criticism of Israel. They don't look at the work that she does. They just want to say she just wants to be a member. I don't like her because she just wants to be a member of the squad. Progressives likely are in turn warning the Democratic Party that efforts to force out progressives like her could have negative repercussions come November. When you see us on ballots, we bring with us our communities. And in a swing state like Pennsylvania, that matters not just for Lee, but for President Biden and Democrats up and down the ballot. You can't say that the Democratic Party is a big tent and then in the

same breast that that tent is big enough for Joe Manchin, but that tent is not big enough for a Black progressive woman. Exactly who is welcome in that tent is one of the many questions to be answered in this year's elections. We want to hear more about Summerlee's primary opponent and how much her campaign is driven by a divide over Israel. So I asked Susan Davis about that. You know, the funny thing here is that Patel actually launched her campaign on October 2nd. But obviously, the events of October 7th created the clearest opportunity to create a contrast with Summer Lee. They're both women of color. Patel is an Indian American. She's first generation. She's also young. She's in her early 30s. Lee is 36. And she also will essentially say she's also a progressive.

She shares many other policy issues. She's like-minded with Lee. But on this question, her argument is, I will be a more loyal Democrat and I will be a more reliable Democrat for Joe Biden and House Democratic leaders in Congress. I'm curious, we've been talking about Democrats here. What role, if any, are Republican donors playing in these races where squad members are being challenged? Yes. And this is a critical point of contention for progressive activists in particular. Even if you look at a race like the Lee Patel race, the largest outside spender is something called the moderate pack, which ostensibly sounds like it's funded by moderate Democrats. But progressives are quick to note that all of the money in this pack is essentially seeded by a man by the name of Jeffrey Yass, who is Pennsylvania's richest man and a Republican mega donor.

He's also Jewish and has a long history of donating to pro-Israel causes. But this is happening across the board. If you look at APAC, again, yes, they do take money from Republicans. Their super PAC has taken money from Republican donors like Paul Singer and Bernie Marcus, also Republicans but also Jewish, and have given money to pro-zero causes. But think about it this way. If you had Democratic mega donors like Tom Steyer or Michael Bloomberg giving money to super PACs who were then waging war within Freedom Caucus or hard right Republican primaries, conservatives would be crying foul. And progressives are pointing to this to say, like, look, these are outside forces trying to meddle with Democratic campaigns. And so the district is key here. I mean, we're talking about a significant Jewish population in the Pittsburgh area. Not only that, but you're talking about a

place where one of the most high profile, terrible anti-Semitic shootings in recent years happened, that 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting killing 11 people. I mean, that has been front and center nationally in the conversation about anti-Semitism. How has the district been viewing this contest? I mean, it's clear that Patel has a footing within the Squirrel Hill community. Just driving around that neighborhood in the city. You can see her campaign signs on lawns throughout the neighborhood. And the rabbi of the Tree of Life Synagogue, his name is Jeffrey Myers, he was one of about 40 rabbis and Jewish leaders to sign an open letter to Summer Lee in early March, essentially saying that she hadn't done enough to temper her rhetoric that these rabbis said at times they perceived as, quote, openly anti-Semitic, and that she hadn't done enough to make their community feel like she had their backs. So obviously, that's going to be an issue in a race like this, with such a, not only a historically

Jewish neighborhood, but one of national consequence as well. And Scott, I reached out to Rabbi Myers to see if he wanted to talk about this race, but through his spokesman, he's declined to give an interview. You spent some time in the district. Any particular conversations with voters jump out to you? Yeah, you know, I had a great conversation with a woman named Kip Dawson. She's 78. She's a retired coal miner and a retired public school teacher. It's very Pittsburgh. And she's Jewish. And she has been canvassing for Summerlee's campaign. She supports her very strongly. But she understands and she spoke in a very empathetic way about this issue and this moment for Jewish voters in a place like Squirrel Hill. Jews see the continued existence of Israel as a Jewish state being threatened now and feel that it's important to do everything possible to keep it in place. And then here's where the divide comes. And there is a divide. At what expense? At what expense? And what she told me is she understands why Jewish people will vote for someone with a stronger position on Israel, because they feel like this is a really existential moment.

And even if they disagree with Israel's handling of the war, the fear for the protection of the state of Israel is just a very present and visceral thing. And she said she's been able to have these sort of one-on-one conversations throughout this neighborhood. And it does seem pretty clear that for Jewish voters in a district like this, it is a top issue, if not the number one issue, that is determining their vote. That's NPR political correspondent Susan Davis. Thank you. You're welcome. This episode was produced by Mark Rivers and Kai McNamee. It was edited by Jeanette Woods and Kelsey Snell. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. Thank you to our Consider This Plus supporters who make the journalism you hear on this show possible.

Supporters also hear every episode without messages from sponsors. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Scott Tetreault.