[Peace-discuss] [Peace] Jewish Insider: AIPAC pouring 100K into attack ads against young Jew Alex Morse

[David Green]

It's good that Alex Morse supports Palestine, whatever that might mean in
practical terms, both in terms of his own goals and that of the legislature
at large.

It's also good that Morse withstood a slanderous attack by the Woke: Here
is an entertaining and informative podcast on the subject of the political
effects of me-too-ism, which provides more support for the idea that
feminist and gay have seen their day, while black and trans are at the head
of the Woke Pack.
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5maXJlc2lkZS5mbS9iYXJwb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw/episode/ODFhNmQ0OWEtYjkxYi00Yjg4LWJlY2QtYmNhZWE0ZDA1NDU5?hl=en&ved=2ahUKEwijn6v3nqrrAhU5AZ0JHaM2CkYQieUEegQICxAE&ep=6


Regarding Israel, it's good that Israel is seen with a more open mind; this
has been at least a 20-year process in the current iteration, dating back
to the 2nd intifada in the Fall of 2000.

Nevertheless, Wokeness has folded the Palestinian rights movement and
strategy into another check on the Wokelist, related of course to virtue
signalling support for BDS. In other words, there's not much to be excited
about here in realistic terms, in relation to the Squad, Democratic Party
politics, or foreign policy.

When Palestine was added to the Woke checklist, any real, sustained
interest subsided into the background. Locally, that would coincide with
the rise and fall of Steven Salaita.

I do, however, wish Alex Morse well; hopefully he is more intelligent and
savvy than AOC, however low a bar she has set for him.

DG


On Thu, Aug 20, 2020 at 7:22 AM Robert Naiman via Peace <
peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

>
> If you're an American who cares about Palestinian rights, the most
> important thing happening in America right now is the Showdown between
> Jewish Insurgency and Jewish Establishment in Massachusetts One.
>
>
> https://jewishinsider.com/2020/08/can-rep-richard-neal-fend-off-a-challenge-from-alex-morse/
>
> Can Rep. Richard Neal fend off a challenge from Alex Morse?
> The longtime Massachusetts congressman is facing a formidable Democratic
> primary challenger
> By Matthew Kassel
> Jewish Insider
> August 20, 2020
>
> With less than two weeks remaining until Massachusetts’s primary election
> on September 1, Democratic Majority for Israel is pouring more than
> $100,000 into advertising against Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, a young
> progressive challenger running against longtime incumbent Rep. Richard Neal
> (D-MA) in the state’s 1st congressional district.
>
> If that sounds familiar, it may be because DMFI, a pro-Israel group,
> recently reared its head in another race, spending nearly $2 million on
> attack ads targeting Jamaal Bowman, a former middle school principal who
> defeated Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) in New York’s June 23 primary by 15
> percentage points.
>
> Mark Mellman, DMFI’s president and CEO, isn’t cowed by Engel’s loss, and
> defended his organization’s effort to boost Neal in an email statement.
> “Chairman Neal has consistently supported a strong U.S.-Israel
> relationship. Mayor Morse does not,” Mellman told Jewish Insider. According
> to Mellman, Morse — who supports conditioning aid to Israel — “fails to
> meet the standard set by over 95% of House Democrats.” Mellman added that
> Morse had “enthusiastically accepted support from IfNotNow,” a group that
> Mellman characterized as “an organization that refuses to recognize
> Israel’s right to exist, in any borders.”
>
> Mellman did not respond to a follow-up question asking how DMFI would
> spend the money.
> IfNotNow, for its part, did not hesitate to taunt DMFI’s failure in New
> York. “They spent $2 million trying to defeat Jamaal Bowman,” said Yonah
> Lieberman, a co-founder of IfNotNow. “This is another last-ditch effort
> that will fail again.”
>
> Morse himself, who is Jewish, appeared unbothered by the ad spend at a
> moment when pro-Israel donors are struggling to adapt to a new campaign
> finance and advertising landscape.
>
> “As a congressman, I will use my voice to amplify the grassroots activism
> of Palestinians and Jewish Israelis to achieve a just future for both
> peoples, as well as make sure that U.S. support for Israel is used to
> address security concerns, not perpetuate human rights violations,” Morse
> told JI through a spokesperson on Wednesday.
>
> The 31-year-old upstart congressional candidate, who has served as the
> mayor of Holyoke since 2012, has reason to think that he can dethrone Neal,
> the powerful chair of the House Ways and Means Committee.
>
> This cycle, a number of upstart challengers — including Bowman in the
> Bronx, Cori Bush in St. Louis and Marie Newman in the Chicago suburbs —
> have succeeded in toppling long-serving Democratic incumbents. Each
> candidate was backed by Justice Democrats, the progressive political action
> committee that previously described Israel as a “human rights violator.”
>
> Morse, who was endorsed by Justice Democrats when he launched his campaign
> last summer, is hoping he can join his compatriots in the House.
>
> “I certainly admire the members of ‘The Squad,’” Morse told JI in an early
> August interview, referring to the quartet of left-leaning congresswomen
> including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida
> Tlaib (D-MI) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA). He added that he “would be proud
> to be among their progressive voices in Washington.”
>
> Though there is scant publicly available data on the race, an internal
> poll from Morse’s campaign, released this week, put Morse just 5 points
> behind his opponent, with 41% of the vote and 13% of voters still
> undecided. “We’re confident we have a pathway to victory,” Morse declared.
>
> Still, Morse’s campaign, which has pulled in approximately $841,000, was
> nearly upended about two weeks ago, when the College Democrats of
> Massachusetts alleged in a letter that Morse, who is gay, and worked as an
> adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, had taken
> advantage of “his position of power for romantic or sexual gain.”
>
> Since then, reporting from The Intercept has challenged that narrative,
> suggesting that the College Democrats were in cahoots with the state
> Democratic Party to sabotage Morse’s campaign. Neal has denied that he knew
> anything about such plans.
>
> Rather than tanking his prospects, the scandal only appears to have
> increased Morse’s profile.
>
> “It drew more attention to Morse, not just within the district but from
> people outside,” said Robert Boatright, a professor in the department of
> political science at Clark University in Worcester. “Before the scandal, I
> think he would have probably come up a little bit short,” Boatright told
> JI. “Now, it’s pretty hard to predict.”
>
> Morse, who supports Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, cites his
> nearly decade-long tenure serving Holyoke as evidence that he is prepared
> to represent the 1st district, a vast swath that includes western and
> central Massachusetts.
>
> “I would arrive with nine years of governing executive experience on so
> many issues that people think are reserved for the federal government or
> national issues,” he said, alluding, among other things, to his support for
> recreational cannabis use as well as his efforts weaning Holyoke off of
> fossil fuels.
>
> When it comes to foreign policy, Morse holds views that have become de
> rigueur among members of his far-left cohort — particularly as they relate
> to Israel. He supports, for instance, conditioning aid to the Jewish state.
>
> “As an American, I believe our foreign policy must be grounded in our
> values, and U.S. support for Israel must be used to address security
> concerns,” he said, adding, “We should be very clear about not allowing our
> tax dollars to be used to subsidize the expansion of settlements, the
> destruction of Palestinian homes or the detention of Palestinian children.”
>
> Morse has visited Israel once, on a Birthright trip in 2008 during his
> freshman year at Brown University. His brief visit to the Jewish state, he
> said, was a meaningful one.
>
> “The Holocaust museum, in particular, was a really powerful experience,”
> he said of his visit to Yad Vashem. “It made me feel more connected to
> fellow Jews in a way that I hadn’t been connected before, just given our
> people’s common struggle for freedom and humanity and what happened in
> history and just knowing and realizing the evil that humans can perpetuate
> against others. I think that’s a lesson that we have to live with every
> day.”
>
> While he doesn’t back the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
> movement, Morse told JI that he would not take action, if he is elected to
> Congress, to legislate against the views of those who do. “Despite my
> personal position,” he said, “I would continue to oppose legislation that
> would criminalize or prevent other folks from exercising their free speech
> and First Amendment rights in regards to BDS.”
>
> Neal positions himself as a firm supporter of the Jewish state. “Israel is
> a representative democracy,” he told JI in a recent interview. “They
> embrace the tenets of a constitutional democracy, free speech, freedom of
> the press and the right to assemble. And I’ve seen the debate in the
> Knesset. It’s pretty stormy.”
>
> Candy Glazer, a longtime Democratic activist in Massachusetts and an AIPAC
> national council member, said Neal has been a reliable ally of the Jewish
> community in western Massachusetts.
>
> “We can always depend on Richie Neal,” she told JI, noting that the
> congressman has been a strong advocate against the BDS movement. “He has
> just been a very loyal supporter on almost every issue.”
>
> [...]
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