Israel, AIPAC and Difficult Questions for Democrats

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**Rachel Abrams** (0:35)
From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily. In this year's midterm elections, Aipac, the pro-Israel lobbying group, has spent a record amount of money, mostly in Democratic primaries, to either oust candidates or support candidates, based on a changing definition of what it means to support Israel. Today, my colleague Jonathan Mahler explains how this has created a new litmus test for the left, at a time perhaps when America's relationship with Israel has never faced more scrutiny. It's Wednesday, July 29
Jonathan Mahler, thank you so much for joining us.

**Jonathan Mahler** (1:31)
Thanks for having me.

**Rachel Abrams** (1:32)
Jonathan, the relationship between the US and Israel has for years been a huge topic in American politics. But what's felt particularly new and notable, to me at least, is how much that relationship is being both questioned and criticized in this year's midterm elections. You have been studying this relationship and how it intersects with our politics for many years and covered it for The New York Times. And so we wanted to turn to you in this moment to understand how you are seeing and thinking about all of this.

**Jonathan Mahler** (2:01)
Well, I have been covering the US Israel relationship kind of in one form or another for decades. Almost embarrassed to say. And this looks to me like a very different moment in the US Israel relationship. I mean, for the first time, you have a lot of politicians coming out very publicly and in some cases like aggressively putting distance between the US and Israel. I mean, that was for decades unheard of. That was political suicide for a politician.
And that is no longer the case, especially on the Democratic side of the aisle. I mean, it's true we've seen some on the right question and challenge their relationship, but the Republican Party is still really by and large pro-Israel.
And that is not so much the case anymore on the Democratic side. And that is a huge paradigm shift. And it's a shift we're seeing in the halls of Congress, but also out on the campaign trail.

**Rachel Abrams** (2:53)
Just give us a couple of examples of what you mean by that.

**Jonathan Mahler** (2:56)
Yeah. So a couple of weeks ago in the House, something like a hundred Democrats voted to end US military aid to Israel.
That's like almost half of all House Democrats.
The effort failed. I mean, only one Republican supported it. And so the aid is going to continue. But the vote was really unprecedented. We've never seen so many Democrats take a vote like that. And on top of that, we're seeing support for Israel become a major issue in Democratic primaries across the country. It's really become a key litmus test in all sorts of races, from New York to Illinois to Michigan.
And it's really manifested in a debate over Aipac or The American Israel Public Affairs Committee. It's the main lobbying group working in support of Israel in the US. And at this point, Aipac has basically become synonymous with Israel.

**Rachel Abrams** (3:41)
Right. When you see people talking or debating Aipac, what they're essentially debating is US support for Israel.

**Jonathan Mahler** (3:47)
Exactly. Aipac is seen as a proxy for Israel. And on top of that, it's also become a stand-in for this larger debate over big money in politics. Because Aipac really has become one of the biggest spenders this election cycle. It's poured huge amounts of money into primaries, trying to support candidates but also to oust them really on the basis of their views toward Israel.

**Rachel Abrams** (4:08)
So just to bring this all together, what we're seeing happening right now is a few different forces colliding at the same time in these midterms via this debate over Aipac. We're seeing both the US-Israel relationship really become front and center, and this debate about the role that money should play in our politics.

**Jonathan Mahler** (4:26)
Exactly. It's really a remarkable political moment. It's one that Aipac helped create probably unintentionally. It's really backed itself into a corner which has forced Democrats to take a side in these big debates.