[Peace] Intercept: old DC I-P consensus faces reckoning in 3 NY House races

[Robert Naiman]

Let Justice Democrats roll down like waters,
And righteousness like an overflowing stream.

==============

https://theintercept.com/2019/11/25/democrats-israel-new-york-primaries/

WASHINGTON’S RIGHT-WING CONSENSUS ON ISRAEL FACES A RECKONING IN THREE NEW
YORK CONGRESSIONAL RACES
Alex Kane
November 25 2019, 6:00 a.m.

IN MAY 2018, Ivanka Trump celebrated the U.S. embassy opening in Jerusalem
against the backdrop of Israeli troops gunning down 60 Palestinians in Gaza.

In some quarters of the Democratic Party, the killings were sharply
condemned. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., called the shootings a “horrific
slaughter” and added, “We are witnessing the use of unabated brutality and
force against civilians to stifle civil unrest.”

Other Democrats, however, reacted much differently.

Among them was Rep. *Eliot Engel*, a 30-year member of Congress from New
York. *He applauded President Donald Trump’s move* to break with decades of
U.S. policy and effectively recognize full Israeli control of Jerusalem, *a
city whose Palestinian eastern half is under military occupation*.

*“This move is long overdue,” Engel said in a statement
<https://engel.house.gov/latest-news/engel-statement-on-us-embassy-in-jerusalem/>*,
“and I look forward to visiting.” He did not mention the scores of
Palestinians slain by Israeli soldiers on the same day as the embassy
opening.

The statement, in its praise for Israel and *lack of concern for
Palestinian human rights*, was *classic Engel* rhetoric.

Engel, who *chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee*, is one of the most
pro-Israel hawks in the House of Representatives. His alignment with the
right-wing on Israel is increasingly out of step with a Democratic base
that is younger, more diverse, and more willing to call out Israel for its
violations of international law. U.S. military aid to Israel is no longer
being accepted without question. A *Center for American Progress poll
<https://cdn.americanprogress.org/content/uploads/2019/10/29133831/NSIP-pollsheet-israel1.pdf>*
released
this year found that *71 percent of Democrats support conditioning aid to
Israel* if the Jewish state continues to build illegal settlements on
Palestinian land. A *Data for Progress poll
<http://filesforprogress.org/memos/israel_palestine_2020_candidates/israel_palestine_polling_memo.pdf>*
found
something similar: *Sixty-four percent of Democrats support reducing aid to
Israel over human rights abuses*.

“There are issues that *divide the leadership of the party from the base*,
a lot of which is also generational. You see it on health care, you see it
on climate, you see it on criminal justice, you see it on immigration,”
said *Waleed Shahid, communications director for Justice Democrats, a group
that backs primary challengers to establishment Democrats, including a
challenge to Engel*. “Over the past two years, *you’ve begun to see it on
foreign policy, most specifically around Israel-Palestine*.”

Now, heading into the 2020 election, Engel is one of three staunchly
pro-Israel members of New York’s congressional delegation who may — or, in
one case, will definitely — be replaced in 2021, creating an opportunity
for pro-Palestinian advocates on Capitol Hill.

In New York’s 16th Congressional District, which stretches from the tony
suburbs of Scarsdale to the busy streets of the Bronx, Engel is facing a
spirited primary challenge from two insurgent Democrats, Andom
Ghebreghiorgis and Jamaal Bowman, both of whom are critical of Israel’s
human rights record and Engel’s positions on Israel.

Jerry Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee who represents the
10th District, is also facing a primary from the left by Lindsey Boylan, a
former New York state economic official. Nita Lowey, chair of the House
Appropriations Committee, meanwhile, announced her retirement from her 17th
District seat in October, and Mondaire Jones is running on a progressive
platform to replace her. New York Democrats go to the polls for primaries
on June 23, 2020.

All three Jewish lawmakers have played key roles in building the Washington
consensus on Israel, and Engel and Lowey, in particular, have been helped
by millions of dollars in campaign contributions from pro-Israel lobby
groups *and the weapons industry*. They rose to power in an age when Israel
was seen principally as a post-Holocaust haven for Jews, an indispensable
U.S. ally, and a democracy, and they represent districts with substantial
populations of Jewish Americans who share those views. As a result, they
have spent their long careers ensuring that Israel receives billions of
dollars in U.S. military aid and criticizing efforts to hold Israel
accountable for human rights abuses. Engel, Nadler, and Lowey’s offices did
not respond to requests for comment for this article.

If the members lose their seats, *Democratic leadership will likely appoint
other pro-Israel Democrats as their replacements to head powerful
committees like Foreign Affairs and Appropriations*. [*Really? This is a
forgone conclusion?*] Still, because of the influence Engel, Nadler, and
Lowey wield on congressional Israel policy, their exit from Congress would
give the Palestinian rights movement a bigger opportunity to press its
agenda on Capitol Hill, particularly around conditioning U.S. military aid
to Israel to ensure that aid does not get used by Israel’s military to
commit human rights abuses, and to beat back attacks on Boycott,
Divestment, and Sanctions, or BDS, the nonviolent movement to pressure
Israel to end its human rights violations against Palestinians.

“*A Congress without the three of them would have a big impact*,” said Beth
Miller, government affairs manager for Jewish Voice for Peace Action, the
electoral campaign arm of Palestine solidarity group *Jewish Voice for
Peace*. “It would open opportunities to center human rights in the
conversation, *so* *when we’re talking about Israel and Palestine, we’re
talking about human rights and justice*, and *not other concerns that those
three insert to get away from talking about human rights*.”

ENGEL IS ONE of the Democratic Party’s most powerful foreign policy voices.
First elected to Congress in 1988, he has served on the House Foreign
Affairs Committee since 1994. In 2012, Engel became the ranking Democratic
member of that committee, and this year, after the Democrats took control
of the House, Engel became chair.

Though he has recently voiced support for progressive domestic policies —
he signed on to the Green New Deal and joined the newly formed Medicare for
All caucus — he has consistently advanced a right-wing agenda on Israel. *He
has long said
<https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Democrat-Engel-prepares-to-work-with-Trump-on-Israel-484405>
he
does not believe that Israel’s settlements, built on Palestinian land in
violation of international law, pose an obstacle to peace.* In 2014, as
Israel’s army was in the middle of a punishing assault on Gaza that
ultimately killed 500 children, Engel spoke at a New York rally
<https://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/democrat-featuring-activist/> boosting
Israel’s operation. Pamela Geller, a vociferously anti-Muslim activist,
spoke at the same rally. Earlier this year, he spoke at a Capitol Hill event
<https://zoa.org/2019/07/10410800-zoa-capitol-hill-mission-addresses-anti-semitism-and-iran-jewish-exponent/>
sponsored
by the Zionist Organization of America, a far-right group helmed by Mort
Klein, who has come under fierce criticism for racist comments about black
people
<https://forward.com/news/368721/president-of-leading-us-zionist-group-everyone-knows-that-blacks-arebetter/>
 and Arabs
<https://forward.com/news/national/410931/mort-klein-stands-by-filthy-arab-slur-as-condemnation-grows/>
.

“Eliot is arguably the best friend to U.S.-Israel relations, and Israel,
among the Democrats,” Klein told The Intercept.

While Engel supports a two-state solution — a Palestinian state alongside
Israel as a way to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — *in 1990, he
authored legislation
<https://www.congress.gov/bill/101st-congress/house-concurrent-resolution/290/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22Eliot+Engel%22%5D%7D&r=147&s=8>
that
would put Congress on record as endorsing Israeli control over all of
Jerusalem. That precludes the possibility that Palestinians would use East
Jerusalem as its capital, something that would be key to a viable
Palestinian state.*

In 2004, Engel led
<https://web.archive.org/web/20061022231030/http:/www.house.gov:80/apps/list/press/ny17_engel/pr111704.html>
a
group of congressional Democrats and Republicans in calling for a *suspension
of U.S. aid to UNRWA*, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, because
the agency had acknowledged that Hamas members were on its payroll. Such
aid cuts — which Trump enacted 15 years later — *pose a serious threat to
Palestinian access to health care and schooling*, which UNRWA provides to
some of the most impoverished Palestinians.

Among the 21 other Democratic signatories on that letter were two New York
representatives who today have reputations as staunch liberals: Nita Lowey
and Jerry Nadler.

Lowey and Engel have teamed up on other pro-Israel initiatives. In 2015,
they co-sponsored, along with Republican Reps. Ed Royce and Peter Roskam, a
resolution *decrying
<https://lowey.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/lowey-roskam-engel-and-royce-introduce-resolution-denouncing-european>
the
European Union’s efforts to accurately label Israeli products from the
occupied West Bank as settlement products*. Lowey also supported Trump’s
embassy move.

“Their roles cannot be understated. They’re not only supportive of Israel,
but in positions of power where that support can be translated into
action,” said Halie Soifer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic
Council of America.

Lowey’s impact has been felt most on the House Appropriations Committee, on
which she has been the ranking Democrat since 2013, and became chair of
this year.

Under her watch, the U.S. has appropriated billions of dollars in
unconditional military aid to Israel, as well as hundreds of millions of
dollars in security assistance for the Palestinian Authority, which has
used the money to create a police state bent on crushing dissent and crack
down on Palestinian armed action against Israel. When Lowey announced that
she would retire in 2020, she got a personal shoutout from the Israeli
prime minister’s office on Twitter
<https://twitter.com/israelipm/status/1182658021647962112>: “On behalf of
the State of Israel and the Jewish People,” Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted, “I
would like to thank you for decades of dedicated public service and for
your steadfast support for Israel.”

*Like Engel, Lowey voted against President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with
Iran, siding with the GOP and Netanyahu against her own party leader’s
signature foreign policy effort.*

Nadler has taken a somewhat different tact on foreign policy than Engel and
Lowey. While he’s a staunch proponent of the U.S.-Israel relationship, he
broke from his New York colleagues by voting against the Iraq War — which
Engel and Lowey supported — and for the Iran nuclear deal.

Still, Nadler has taken a hard line on efforts to condemn Israel for
settlement building. *In 2016, he condemned
<https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2016/12/27/u-n-anti-israel-vote-finds-contempt-from-both-sides-of-house/>
Obama’s
decision to abstain from voting on a U.N. resolution decrying Israeli
settlements as illegal under international law.* And this year, he was a
lead Democratic co-sponsor on a House resolution condemning BDS. That
resolution, which falsely linked BDS to anti-Semitism, passed by a 398-17
margin.

As Palestinian rights advocates try to push legislation on Capitol
Hill, *members
of Congress often cite Nadler and Lowey as reasons they cannot sponsor a
particular bill*, said Brad Parker, senior adviser on policy and advocacy
for Defense Children International-Palestine. He has spent the last six
months advocating for members of Congress to sign on to Rep. Betty
McCollum’s bill
<https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2407/text> to
prevent Israel from using U.S. military aid to detain Palestinian children.

“In our work, specifically, with the New York delegation, the response by
most of the New York members of Congress and their staff is, *‘What’s
Nadler think? If you bring on Nadler, we’ll get on the bill,’*” Parker told
The Intercept. “Lowey presents that obstacle as well. They look to both
Lowey and Nadler as the guideposts.”

Even though many Democrats consider Engel too far to the right on Israel, *he
maintains influence because he chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee*.
Parker said that Democrats like Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who sits on the
committee alongside Engel, *would likely co-sponsor McCollum’s bill if
Engel was not the chair*. As committee chair, *Engel controls who heads
subcommittees and has influence over which bills the committee takes up*.
Connolly’s office did not respond to requests for comment from The
Intercept.

*Engel is a “formidable obstacle to anything that’s not the decades-old
establishment line,”* said Parker. *“Engel has been very hostile,
aggressive, and outspoken to demonize activism targeting Israeli policies.”*

ENGEL IS NOW facing the most credible challenge to his power since 2000,
when state Sen. Larry Seabrook primaried him and garnered 42 percent of the
vote. Since then, Engel has coasted back to Washington again and again, but
a *poll released in October by Data for Progress
<https://theintercept.com/2019/10/20/eliot-engel-jamaal-bowman-progressive-new-york-primary/>
found
that 60 percent of registered Democrats in the district were not sure who
they’d vote for in the primary — a foreboding sign*.

Jamaal Bowman, a Bronx middle school principal known for his education
activism, is *forcing Engel to take the 2020 race seriously*. A day after
the Data for Progress poll was published, Engel sent out a fundraising
letter
<https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-eliot-engel-poll-fundraiser-20191022-tbluupw7njbqnfaokm2ljpypvi-story.html>
to
supporters, calling his opponents “special interests” trying to “divide”
the Democratic Party. *Bowman has been endorsed by Justice Democrats and
Brand New Congress*, groups that made their names backing New York Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, along with the environmental group 350 Action,
and former New York gubernatorial candidates Zephyr Teachout and Cynthia
Nixon. He has raised $190,000 to Engel’s $566,000, mostly in small-dollar
donations, and has rejected taking corporate PAC money.

Bowman’s path to victory will require turning out new voters in a district
that had about a 10 percent turnout in the 2018 primary race. He plans to
do outreach in minority communities — *which make up over half of the
district’s population* — and peel off votes in some areas that could be
considered Engel territory, like *Riverdale*, the *affluent Bronx enclave*
with a *large Jewish community*. Voters in Riverdale were *key to
Alessandra Biaggi’s upset win* over state Sen. Jeff Klein in 2018. Biaggi
supporters successfully painted Klein, who caucused with the GOP in Albany
as part of the Independent Democratic Conference, as someone who advanced a
right-wing agenda — a *message that Engel’s primary opponents are echoing
in pointing out his support for military intervention in the Middle East
and his coziness with Netanyahu*.

Bowman is running on a message of progressive change, endorsing Medicare
for All and the Green New Deal and telling voters that he will fight to end
the crises of poverty and opioid addiction in his district. He says that *while
Engel has sat comfortable taking hundreds of thousands in campaign
donations from weapons companies, his district has suffered*.

Bowman has also set himself apart from Engel on the Mideast conflict.
He *supports
imposing human rights conditions on U.S. military funding for Israel,
echoing a policy position that Sen. Bernie Sanders has repeatedly amplified
on the presidential trail*, and *making sure that the U.S. is enforcing the
Leahy Law*, which prohibits sending military aid to foreign security units
that abuse human rights, on Israel. In an interview with Jacobin
<https://jacobinmag.com/2019/10/jamaal-bowman-eliot-engel-democratic-party>,
Bowman indicated support for McCollum’s bill, saying, *“I just don’t
understand why American taxpayers are subsidizing the detention of
Palestinian children while Democrats are criticizing child detention at the
Mexican border.”*

“Engel … [has] not [been] calling out Netanyahu with some of his policies
as they move to the right and have been more destructive in that region. *Engel
hasn’t really held Netanyahu accountable*,” Bowman told The Intercept.

*Bowman also said he disagrees with Congress passing any legislation that
would impose penalties on supporters of the BDS movement.* Though he does
not support BDS, he also considers it a form of free speech, he said.

Andom Ghebreghiorgis, Engel’s second progressive challenger, is an Eritrean
American who goes even further than Bowman on Israel. Ghebreghiorgis, who
has spent time in the occupied West Bank teaching English, is a supporter
of the BDS movement and a former member of Yale’s chapter of Students for
Justice in Palestine, the flagship pro-Palestinian campus group.

Ghebreghiorgis doesn’t see problems in Israel as reducible to Netanyahu. He
told The Intercept that Israel’s policies of settlement building, expansion
into Palestinian territory, and occupation are “something that has been
part of Israel’s institutional fabric.” Ghebreghiorgis, however, has raised
nearly $70,000 — $120,000 less than Bowman — and has not garnered big-name
progressive support, though he has been endorsed by the group People for
Bernie.

Lindsey Boylan, the former chief of staff for New York state’s economic
development arm now gunning for Nadler’s seat, has staked out similar
positions to Bowman as she runs in the congressional district with the most
Jews in the country. In her first extensive remarks on Israel with a news
outlet, Boylan told The Intercept that she supports imposing conditions on
U.S. military aid to Israel, a policy Nadler called “wrong” in early
November.

“As a good friend would, we have to be able to say, ‘You cannot use
military aid against children, you cannot use military aid to further the
cause of annexation in the West Bank.’ We have to be willing and open to
those conversations,” Boylan said, before adding that Israeli policy toward
Gaza, “known as an open-air prison,” is “never going to produce safety for
everyday Israelis.”

Mondaire Jones, the former Obama administration lawyer whose pro-Green New
Deal and Medicare for All positions have garnered the most progressive
excitement in the district Lowey currently represents, has taken a far more
cautious stance than the other insurgents challenging pro-Israel stalwarts.
He told The Intercept that he did not get in the race to challenge Lowey’s
foreign policy stances, has not studied Lowey’s record on Israel, and does
not currently support imposing conditions on U.S. military aid to Israel.
Asked by The Intercept about whether he believes there’s a human rights
crisis in the occupied Palestinian territories, he did not give a straight
answer and instead decried humanitarian conditions there. He also said he
had no problem with the House condemning the BDS movement, calling the vote
an exercise in free speech, much as advocating the boycotts of Israel is.

Still, Jones, who would make history as the first black and openly gay
member of Congress, did stake out positions to the left of Lowey’s in an
interview with The Intercept. He said he supported the Iran deal from the
outset — Lowey opposed it and praised Netanyahu’s 2015 speech to Congress
to torpedo Obama’s signature foreign policy achievement — and said no U.S.
taxpayer dollars should be used by Israel in any future annexation of the
occupied West Bank.

For pro-Israel advocates, the primary races and Lowey’s retirement are a
troubling sign for the future of the Democratic Party, and pro-Israel lobby
groups are now beginning to back their favored incumbents for next year’s
primary race. Already this election cycle, NORPAC, one of the most
well-funded Israel lobby groups in the country, has given Engel nearly
$40,000
<https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/toprecips.php?id=D000022158&type=P&sort=A&cycle=2020>,
its largest donation to any House member.

“There’s limited history between the newcomers, the new people we’re
sending to power, and Jews and the state of Israel,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a
longtime Democratic consultant and pro-Israel advocate. “If you look at
demographic shifts, everybody should be concerned. The loss of any of those
three would be likely a tremendous loss for the pro-Israel community.”
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