The Zionist lobby has struck boldly and dastardly once again. AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, pumped in millions of dollars to defeat Cori Bush, a Black female congresswoman from St. Louis. She had the audacity to believe she should be able to speak her mind, act on her political beliefs and serve her constituents in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District.
AIPAC reportedly spent $8.5 million to crush Rep. Bush’s bid to win a Democratic primary and retain her seat in the House of Representatives. She is the second member of the progressive group known as “The Squad” to be defeated by AIPAC money in recent months. The rabidly pro-Israel group spent even more to defeat Rep. Jamaal Bowman in New York and lay the groundwork for a conservative White Democrat to take his seat. AIPAC’s United Democracy Project spent a reported $15 million to $23 million to defeat Rep. Bowman.
AIPAC has proudly and publicly proclaimed its $100 million budget to politically eliminate any voice that dares question Israel’s behavior, especially in Gaza where we see genocide and where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of war crimes by the International Court of Justice. And that’s spending for elections at different levels in 2024 alone.
Lawmakers Bush and Bowman were viciously targeted because they opposed Israel’s genocide in Gaza and called for a ceasefire. Their refusal to go along with the murderous acts of the Jewish state put them in AIPAC’s crosshairs. Many condemn AIPAC as a foreign agent for Israel.
“Devastating news! Rep. @CoriBush has been defeated in her primary, thanks to the $9 million AIPAC threw at her opponent. AIPAC is a disgrace, hijacking our electoral system and targeting progressive people of color, including Jamaal Bowman. All to support Israel’s genocide,” tweeted Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, a pro-peace group, who is also Jewish, on “X” Twitter.
“While multiple agencies accuse Russia of interfering in elections, a government-sanctioned Lobby is literally buying up congressional seat after seat in broad daylight,” tweeted Abdulrazak Alhisnawi on X/Twitter.
“Americans are the biggest losers. You have a foreign country owning Congress. Netanyahu gets to pass any bills he wants with a 98-2 margin now. If people can’t see a problem, maybe WW3 will change that. The world has an AIPAC problem,” added Joe Kawaja on X/Twitter.
St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell, a Black man, was recruited by AIPAC in the Cori Bush political assault. He has been a disappointment to many activists and many Blacks hoping for justice in an area known for the repression and killing of Black people.
According to KSDK a St. Louis-based NBC news affiliate, Mr. Bell, who in a leaked phone call assured Rep. Bush that he would not run against her, was elected prosecutor in a wave of outrage and Black organizing after the August 2014 police killing of Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson, Mo. Mr. Bell took part in activities at the time, as did Rep. Bush, which propelled him into office.
But he has not been the justice seeking prosecutor that many Blacks had hoped for. Michael Brown Sr. has been vocal in calling Mr. Bell out. He has blasted Mr. Bell for lying and breaking a promise to seek charges against Darren Wilson, the now former Ferguson cop who killed his unarmed son. His disgust at Mr. Bell led him to do an ad in support of Rep. Bush.
Rep. Bush, who is a nurse, a pastor and activist, has vowed to stay true to her roots despite the election loss. She wasn’t cowed by election results. “Pulling me away from my position as congresswoman, all you did was take some of the strings off. Let’s be clear,” she said in a passionate speech Aug. 6 after polls closed.
“Now I don’t have to worry about some strings that I have attached to me. As much as I love my job, but all they did was radicalize me and so now they must be afraid. They about to see this other Cori, this other side. I just grew up a whole lot more over the last few weeks. Just grew up a whole different way. And so, what they are about to get,” she continued to applause. “AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down,” she vowed. “And let me put all of these corporations on notice: I’m coming after you too. But I’m not coming by myself. I’m coming with all the people that’s in here, that’s doing the work.”
According to CommonDreams.org, Mr. Bell “raised money directly from Republican billionaires and previously served as campaign manager for a GOP candidate, narrowly defeated Bush, winning 51.2 percent of the vote compared to the incumbent’s 45.6 percent a margin of fewer than 7,000 votes.”
Justice Democrats, which supported Rep. Bush and her election victory in 2020, said “no matter what a singular super PAC can spend to try and buy an election, nothing can take away from the transformational effect Cori Bush has directly had on the people of St. Louis.”
“That power—of everyday people to transform what we can expect from our political system—is such a threat to right-wing power, corporate interests, and AIPAC’s influence, that a coalition of GOP-funded Super PACs had to spend over $12 million to even have a chance at defeating it,” said Justice Democrats, in a CommonDreams.org report.
That’s an apt observation but at the end of the day, AIPAC won. Their unmitigated money assault on “American democracy” shows the group has no bounds when it comes to defending and bolstering the Zionist state. Every time AIPAC wins, it cows and eliminates voices that question Israel’s actions and U.S. support of actions that have killed some 40,000 Palestinians.
The AIPAC assaults only make politicians more afraid and unwilling to challenge Israel’s evil and wrongheaded American foreign policy that sends billions to the Zionist state. Don’t think the assaults will stop with Israel, you are going to find these attacks will encompass any deviation from policy or position that AIPAC and monied interests deem out of bounds. You are watching the destruction of Black political power right before your eyes.
Consider the Congressional Black Caucus and what looks like paid-for silence. According to a 2023 article by The Intercept: “The CBC has been silent on the AIPAC bid to challenge at least three of its members who are part of the so-called Squad, a loose group of progressive representatives. According to media reports and The Intercept’s investigation, the only incumbents AIPAC has targeted so far in this election cycle are CBC members.”
“The AIPAC-backed members of the caucus, some 31 lawmakers, have received a previously unreported total of at least $3.6 million from AIPAC since February 2022, according to Federal Election Commission records,” The Intercept reported. “House Democratic Caucus Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has taken $485,300 and is a close ally of AIPAC,” The Intercept noted.
Rep. Bush, who has candidly shared her struggle as a Black woman with surviving harsh circumstances, wasn’t ousted because she failed her constituents. “Bush’s campaign focused on what she’s accomplished for St. Louis. She said her efforts have brought $2 billion to the 1st District and that it was her protest on the steps of the Capitol in 2021 that helped extend the federal eviction moratorium as part of the COVID-19 pandemic, aiding thousands of St. Louisans,” noted the Associated Press.
She was defeated by millions of dollars pumped into her district by people who live far from her district and who couldn’t care less about her district. She is another sign of the vicious, relentless enemies that we have. We can’t remain silent, inactive or unorganized as our community is under assault. When will we accept the program of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and separate and build a nation for ourselves?
—Naba’a Muhammad, editor, The Final Call
