Is Israel Losing the Argument – and Its Supporters?
Benjamin Netanyahu may have the unwavering support of Donald Trump, but one-time AIPAC loyalists are beginning to jump ship while European allies are also turning against him.
In 2022, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee pumped $2 million into a House Democratic primary, to help North Carolina politician Valerie Foushee beat a young Muslim pro-Palestinian woman, Nida Allam.
Two years later, Foushee flew to Israel on an AIPAC-planned trip to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But this week, Foushee, along with another Democratic beneficiary of AIPAC, Oregon Rep. Maxine Dexter, announced she wants the US to stop sending offensive weapons to Israel and that she will no longer take money from AIPAC for the upcoming campaign season.
Foushee is now part of at least 30 members of Congress who have signed onto Illinois Rep. Delia Ramirez’s “Block the Bombs” Act to halt offensive weapon transfers to Israel. The rise comes after a historic vote last week, when a majority of Democratic senators voted in support of at least one resolution to stop weapons transfers to Israel (19 Democrats who signed a letter calling for more aid into Gaza did not vote for either resolution, including Sens. Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff, and Cory Booker, who all fraternized with indicted war crimes suspect Netanyahu last month).
Then there is the other side of the aisle, where no Republican senator voted for the two resolutions, and no House Republican has signed on to Ramirez’s measure. Republicans, by and large, have maintained unconditional, unceasing loyalty to a foreign nation that has taken billions of US tax dollars for the sole purpose of inflicting violence.
Elected Republicans’ slavish support for the Netanyahu government was only underscored when they fled Washington early to avoid voting on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files. Some then almost immediately began their summer vacation, meant for members to return to their districts and serve the people who pay their salaries, on an AIPAC-funded trip to Israel.
House Speaker Mike Johnson even visited an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank, becoming the high-ranking US official to ever do so. (There was also the yearly Democratic freshman member trip to Israel too, but multiple Democrats refused to go on it, according to a source familiar with the arrangements.)
On the Republican side, however, there are two dramatic, high-profile exceptions to the pro-Israel sycophancy.