[Peace] Saeb Erekat Is Dead. Nancy Pelosi Is Still House Speaker, Blocking Palestinian Freedom

[Robert Naiman]

Saeb Erekat Is Dead. Nancy Pelosi Is Still House Speaker, Blocking
Palestinian Freedom

The passing of Palestinian diplomat Saeb Erekat is an opportunity to
acknowledge how little has been accomplished by Palestinian diplomacy for
Palestinian self-determination since Palestinian diplomacy became a wholly
owned subsidiary of U.S.-Saudi diplomacy after the First Gulf War. I knew
Saeb Erekat before he became a Palestinian diplomat, when he was a leading
Palestinian public intellectual in the West Bank, when he taught at
An-Najah and wrote for Al-Quds. Erekat’s passing is an opportunity to
reflect, for those of us who still harbor hopes of accomplishing something
on this front before we sail off to join Saeb Erekat in Elvenhome.

Palestinians have their own discussions. Israelis have their own
discussions. The primary reason for failure to resolve the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and achieve Palestinian freedom from a U.S.
point of view has been the unchallenged relationship between AIPAC and the
Democratic Congressional leadership, personified in the “leadership” of
Nancy Pelosi. AIPAC has never missed an opportunity to sabotage an
opportunity to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict and achieve
Palestinian freedom. AIPAC did the same thing to the Oslo Accords that they
did to Obama’s Iran deal. They sandbagged. They sabotaged. They were able
to do this because until now “progressive” Democrats in DC have refused to
engage on the question of the relationship between AIPAC and Nancy Pelosi.
Until now, “progressive” Democrats in DC drank the Kool-Aid that this issue
is taboo.

There’s no time like the present to smash this taboo into a thousand
pieces. Here’s why.

1. Following the Congressional election, House Democrats are going to vote
on their leadership for the next Congress. There is a bloc of Democrats in
the House who care about Israeli-Palestinian peace and Palestinian freedom.
It’s not a yuuuge bloc. But it does exist. The dynamics of the race for
Speaker are such that even small blocs will have leverage if they decide to
use it. The bloc of House Democrats who care about Israeli-Palestinian
peace and Palestinian freedom will use their leverage for this issue if
their constituents who care about this issue hold their feet to the fire.

2. Nancy Pelosi’s leadership of House Democrats is more vulnerable now than
it was when it was challenged two years ago, because of the unprecedented
fiasco of her spectacular failure to successfully lead House Democrats in
the Congressional election, typified by her failure to successfully lead
House Democrats in the negotiations with Trump and McConnell on the
Covid-19 economic relief package. House Democrats just lost seats in the
same election that Biden won. The address for accountability for this
spectacular failure is Nancy Pelosi.

3. If a candidate like Congressional Black Caucus Chair and former
California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass runs for Speaker, she can unite the
House Democratic opposition to Pelosi, because Karen Bass has good
relations with all the House Democrats who oppose Pelosi, including the
ones who are not “progressive.”

4. The broader issue of the relationship of AIPAC to the national
Democratic Party leadership is no longer taboo for “progressive” Democrats,
even in DC. Only the Nancy Pelosi piece remains taboo until this moment.

Consider:

A. The progressive anti-AIPAC forces defeated AIPAC in the Jamaal Bowman
primary against AIPAC’s man, now outgoing House Foreign Affairs Chair Eliot
Engel. Of course, curbing AIPAC’s power in the House wasn’t the only issue
in the race. So what? This is how the anti-AIPAC progressive Democrats make
progress on this front, by picking and joining fights where our interests
are aligned with the interests of other progressive Democrats. That’s a key
reason why the progressive anti-AIPAC forces stand up and salute for
Medicare for All and Green New Deal. One hand washes the other. Injury to
one, injury to all. Victory for one, victory for all.

B. In the race to succeed Eliot Engel as HFAC Chair, the progressive
anti-AIPAC forces blocked AIPAC’s “Ted Deutch is inevitable” play. What was
Ted Deutch’s Achilles’ Heel? He voted against Obama’s Iran deal. Why did
Ted Deutch vote against Obama’s Iran deal? Because Ted Deutch is AIPAC’s
man, just like Eliot Engel.

C. In the Dem Primary for POTUS, the progressive anti-AIPAC forces defeated
AIPAC in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada.

D. During the Dem Primary for POTUS, MoveOn led a successful boycott of the
AIPAC policy conference by leading Dem candidates for POTUS. Even Amy
Klobuchar and Kamala Harris didn’t go. [Biden hadn’t announced for POTUS
yet.] But Nancy Pelosi was a keynote speaker at AIPAC. MoveOn said nothing
about the fact that Nancy Pelosi was a keynote speaker at the AIPAC policy
conference on which they were leading a successful boycott of leading
candidates for Dem POTUS. But that was that political moment. This is this
one.

E. When Bibi, Trump and Jared were pushing towards formal Bibi annexation
of the West Bank, before the US-Bibi-UAE deal, Murphy, Kaine, and Van
Hollen led Senate Democrats in pushing for language on the Pentagon bill
that would block any U.S. tax dollars from being used to recognize formal
Bibi annexation of the West Bank. J Street supported Murphy-Kaine-Van
Hollen, first privately, then publicly. This idea, the idea of negative
public Congressional Democratic consequences for Bibi, was previously
taboo. This was previously an AIPAC red line. The AIPAC line was that
Congressional Democrats were allowed to oppose Bibi’s threatened formal
annexation of the West Bank rhetorically, but they were not allowed to
publicly support any negative consequences for Bibi if he went forward.
Murphy, Kaine, Van Hollen and J Street sauntered right across the purported
Rubicon of AIPAC’s red line. And they lived to tell the tale.

The time is ripe to Call the Question on Nancy Pelosi’s relationship to
AIPAC before she can be re-anointed by AIPAC as Speaker of the House. And
to block Chris “AIPAC forever” Coons from becoming Secretary of State for
the extra point. The iron is hot. Strike. The sea is behind us and the
enemy in front.
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