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

[Robert Naiman]

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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