Noam Dworman@noam_dworman
On Bowman and AIPAC.
Everything is code and plausible deniability these days. The Left, which for years heard "dog whistles" that only their exquisitely sensitive auditory system could decipher, has gone deaf when it comes to things that scream anti-Semitism. As long as they choose their words carefully - say "Zionist," never define "intifada," or "river to the sea," or the precise meaning of any strategically ambiguous phrase (no matter the tone or menacing vibe) - how dare we accuse? It's declassé to assume anything but the best in people!
Immediately after 10/7, anti-Semitic incidents tripled. And in liberal social circles, the pressure to declare our positions (or excommunicate ourselves gracefully) is palpable. "Where do you stand?," looms over us. (I know Jews who are almost leading double lives.)
For Jews (whose heads are not in their asses), Israel is no longer simply a foreign policy matter. or a concern for "our people" overseas; the issue directly affects our day-to-day lives as American citizens. Forget the hateful dual-loyalty accusations, this is about life at home.
My grammar school children sense that being Jewish has become an issue. (I've said before) it's like an acid rain on the Jewish psyche; it wears us down, gets into our very soil, and even affects what grows.
Of all the accusations, nothing is more dangerous than the outrageously slanderous and legally illiterate charge of genocide. Once Israel is equated with the Nazis, every Jew is suspected of thought crimes. ("hmmm, does he or doesn't he?"). And we are very close to the point of no return.
"The Germans did it to them, and now they've done it to the Palestinians..." It becomes like a psychological algebra problem in which all Jewish historical and moral arguments on one side of the equation can somehow be canceled out and nullified by the other side.
All of which to say that when a member of Congress accuses the Jewish State of genocide, dismisses claims of sexual assaults as "propaganda," and embraces the "all about the Benjamins," "allegiance to a foreign country," Squad - it is perfectly proper for concerned Americans to organize against him (and all his ideological fellow travelers; local, state and federal).
(When he (and they) push school curricula based on intersectionality and anti-racism, ideologies in which Jews are axiomatically the villain of any conflict, and which seem to make the unequivocal condemnation of Hamas and even 10/7 impossible... For Jews in 2024, I think it's essential.)
Did AIPAC swing a Bowman victory into a 17-20 point loss??? Who could honestly believe that??? Especially when Lattimer was leading 6 months ago (and there are so many significant non-Israel issues that Bowman faces).
If lobbying has that kind of juice, every election can be bought, right? Which brings to mind one final point. Lobbying - not the type where special rules are slipped into arcane legislation, but the type that appeals directly to the voters - can only succeed to the extent that it reaches an already sympathetic ear. The NRA can lobby all it wants against AOC; literally, a billion dollars of pro-gun ads will not flip a bright-blue district red.
Jews, their sympathizers, lobbying groups, et al. organized in the most American and democratic of ways. The conscience of the community spoke unambiguously, not because it was bought or fooled in some deceptive nefarious way, but because it reacted with wisdom, in exigent times, to the clear factual record brought before it.
