No, AIPAC Is Not Being "Singled Out"
8 months after promising answers on Palestine, the DNC met in New Orleans with nothing to show.
Folks, I regret to inform you that the Democratic National Committee is back to its usual hijinks. Last week’s spring meeting in New Orleans showed that, despite Democratic voters’ overwhelming antipathy to Israel and sympathy with Palestine, the Democratic establishment is still choosing to anchor itself to the genocidal apartheid state.
During the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting last August, DNC Chair Ken Martin displayed a masterclass in political ratfucking to silence criticism of Israel at the behest of Zionist donors. (I apologize for the language, but “ratfucking” is the actual term for political sabotage associated with Richard Nixon.) At the 2025 summer session, progressive DNC member Allison Minnerly introduced a resolution calling for an arms embargo on Israel and recognition of a Palestinian state. Both proposals were in line with the beliefs of the Democratic base, who were turning away from Israel too quickly for pollsters to track. To circumvent the will of voters, Ken Martin worked with the lobbyist group Democratic Majority for Israel to co-write a competing Israel-Palestine resolution. The text wasn’t made public, but I’d bet my net worth it was the boilerplate statement with many words, but ultimately saying nothing. Something like: “We must find peace in the region… Israel’s right to defend itself… something something Palestinian self-determination…etc. etc.”
Martin introduced his resolution first, and it was passed. Next, the committee voted against Minnerly’s arms embargo resolution, pointing to the first resolution to say hers was repetitive and unnecessary. With the resolution calling for an arms embargo out of the way, Ken Martin withdrew his already-passed resolution, leaving the DNC with nothing to say about the ongoing genocide. Instead, Ken Martin proposed a Middle Eastern working group that would “have the difficult conversation” and “bring solutions back to our party.” At the time, many leftists (including yours truly) suspected that Martin was using this "working group” as a release valve for the anti-Zionist energy building in the Democratic coalition, a place he could send progressive-minded members to waste time and preserve Israel’s position in the Democratic Party. Of course, we were criticized for daring to make such baseless accusations. (“We need a big tent!”) Now, I’ll give you three options to guess what has happened in the eight months since Ken Martin created the Middle East working group:
A) The working group collaborated effectively and suggested an arms embargo on Israel in compliance with international law,
B) After watching another eight months of Israeli crimes in Gaza, Ken Martin personally intervened to ensure Democrats oppose genocide, or
C) The leftists were right, and Ken Martin used the working group as a shell to protect his Zionist donors.
If you guessed “C,” then you’re correct! You’ve won a free, free-tier subscription to JoeWrote! (Click here to claim your prize.)
Not only has Ken Martin’s Middle Eastern working group not produced anything, but it‘s only met four times: once in person in December, twice over Zoom in March, and again in person last week at the meeting in New Orleans. It’s been the exact time-wasting excuse many leftists claimed it would be. One working-group member was so dejected that he didn’t bother to appear in New Orleans, and another said the group isn’t even a group, as there’s been no “consistent progress or even forward motion.” As if killing last year’s resolutions for Palestine wasn’t bad enough, Ken Martin is still using the Middle Eastern working group to hold conscientious members of the Democratic coalition in purgatory.
Undeterred by last year’s shenanigans, Allison Minerly went to New Orleans and introduced three resolutions communicating Democratic voters’ wishes: the first recognized Palestinian statehood, the second called for conditioning military aid to Israel, and the third condemned AIPAC’s dark money expenditure in Democratic primaries. Neither of the first two resolutions is outside the scope of already acceptable Democratic politics. AIPAC-backed Democrats play the “Two-State Solution” like a Get Out of Jail Free Card, so recognizing a Palestinian state, which is the second state in “two-state,” should be no issue. As for conditioning military aid, that’s already required by the Foreign Assistance Act and its Leahy Amendment. It speaks volumes of Ken Martin’s priorities that he sabotages any attempt to hold Democratic politicians to their flimsiest commitments to Palestinian dignity, or even asks them to be in line with American law. Instead, the DNC Chair chose to direct the Democratic base’s energy away from the center of institutional power and into the black, sucking hole of dead-end bureaucracy. While Ken Martin claims the Middle Eastern working group is designed to “find solutions,” his pro-Israel allies don’t even bother to lie about what’s happening. After the spring meeting, Haile Soifer, the head of the Jewish Defense Council of America, was clear about the results, writing:
“The Committee voted in both cases to refer [the resolutions] to the Working Group, effectively defeating them ahead of today’s full DNC meeting.”
That’s exactly what Ken Martin did. He defeated the resolutions encouraging the Democratic Party to listen to its own voters and act in accordance with international law. He did it to protect powerful, wealthy Zionist interests in the Democratic Party, many of whom helped him ascend to party chair. The man has no interest in democracy or humanity. He is an empty vessel, a hollow soul who carries water for one of the most murderous regimes on earth.
While the first two resolutions could be comfortably “defeated” by passing them off to the Middle Eastern working group, Ken Martin knew the resolution condemning AIPAC spending in Democratic primaries was too big to ignore. AIPAC has been a helpful ally in the Democratic establishment’s war against insurgent progressive and leftist challengers, so Martin likely felt he had to protect a crucial factional ally. The resolution condemning AIPAC couldn’t be ignored. It had to be destroyed.
Much like he did in August, Ken Martin undercut the resolution condemning AIPAC (which was also authored by Allison Minnerly) by introducing a milquetoat competing resolution. Before Minnerly’s resolution against AIPAC was introduced, a vague resolution condemning “all dark money” spending was approved. Yet again, this watered-down dummy resolution was used as justification to vote down the serious one. Ken Martin said this was done to save time rather than going “one by one,” though it’s not clear that any other dark money group was named by a resolution. So going “one by one” was most likely, “We condemn AIPAC.” And then you’re done.
Predictably, the Israel Lobby responded to Minnerly’s proposed resolution by crying antisemitism, saying the condemnation of AIPAC “singled out” the group.
As Minnerly accurately pointed out, there is no entity in the Democratic tent that does more to single out, and dare I say #cancel, oppositional voices than the Israel Lobby. Specifically, AIPAC.
“Members like to say that we don't want to single out AIPAC, but AIPAC will entirely single out them and all of our different progressive leaders when it comes to primary elections.” — Allison Minnerly speaking to ABC News
This is an undeniable conclusion. Last month, AIPAC and its shadow arms spent heavily against progressive and Muslim candidates in the Illinois Democratic primaries. While no lobbying group is entirely above board, AIPAC used some of the most deceptive campaign tactics in recent memory. Knowing they’re toxic in Democratic circles, AIPAC used three erroneously named Super PACs — United Democracy Project, Elect Chicago Women, and Affordable Chicago Now! — to pump over $14 million into just two races. With names hiding AIPAC’s true intention, the expenditure of these three innocuous-sounding groups accounted for over 60% of all out-of-state spending during the entire Illinois primary season. To add to the deceit, AIPAC scheduled payments through UDP to arrive at ECW and ACN after the reporting deadline, hiding the funding source from voters. So, these AIPAC affiliates were running attack ads against progressive challengers, while their ties to the Israel Lobby weren’t revealed until after the election. Unfortunately, the scheming worked.
During the Illinois primaries, AIPAC won two pro-Israel victories, one loss, and one mixed outcome that they’re not too upset about. Melissa Bean and Donna Miller won their House primaries over progressive opponents, while La Shawn Ford weathered a last-minute influx of attack ads from AIPAC and Crypto SuperPACs. The Israel Lobby got a halfway victory when “progressive Zionist” Daniel Bliss defeated Kat Abughazaleh, who is Palestinian and an outspoken opponent of Israel. Bliss had met with AIPAC early in the race, but they ultimately backed state senator Laura Fine, a more vocal defender of Israel’s militancy. But as Fine faltered and the race came down to Bliss and Abughazaleh, AIPAC-aligned groups stopped airing ads attacking Bliss. Suddenly, a new group, Chicago Progressive Partnership, appeared out of nowhere and began running ads supporting long-shot Bushra Amiwala as the most progressive option in the race. This was a naked attempt to sap support from Abugazaleh, and Amiwala condemned the ad. Speaking to reporters after the results, the United Democracy Project (really AIPAC) showed no shame in their deceit and openly boasted about misleading Illinois voters.
“Obviously we have our differences with Daniel Biss but at least he’s a Zionist — and he’s far better than Kat Abughazaleh. We are going to use every tool in the toolbox to try to get the best possible, pro-Israel results. Sometimes it means we’ll have an extremely pro-Israel candidate, but in these multi-candidate fields, sometimes it’ll be a pretty good candidate that we can live with.” — Patrick Dorton, spokesperson for United Democracy Project
Dorton was also blatant about what he saw as an unmitigated success for AIPAC, telling the press, “By any measure, the Chicago delegation is more pro-Israel today than it was before the primary election.”
From the Chair of the Democratic National Convention undemocratically killing arms embargo resolutions to AIPAC running ads under the name “Elect Chicago Women,” we’re witnessing a full-throated Zionist campaign to stall, exhaust, and ultimately cheat Democratic voters out of their democratic right to oppose the colonization of Palestine. While it’s clear to any neutral observer that this is obvious ratfucking (again, not my word), those fornicating with the rodents are trying to play their debauchery off as acceptable. Speaking of the resolutions, Hailee Sofer tried to use the opportunity to portray Israel-skeptical Democrats as a “far left minority.”
“There are misconceptions because there is a vocal, far-left faction of our party, but they are in no way leading here. The DNC as a whole has not shifted from where it has been … which is an organization that is inclusive of Jewish Americans and is supportive of the U.S.-Israel security relationship, as well as Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state.”
This one sentence tells us so much. Yes, the DNC party insiders and the Chair, who was installed to protect Zionist interests, have not moved much on Israel policy. But Democratic voters have. Over two-thirds of Democratic voters sympathize more with the Palestinian people, while only 17% favor the Israelis. A plurality of Americans and the majority of Democrats have a negative view of Israel, a drastic shift from just three years ago.
As Hailee Stoifer and Ken Martin have shown us, the Democratic establishment has no plans to accommodate the democratic will of their voters. Instead, they still believe they can suppress the left with political sabotage and accusations of antisemitism. We see signs of this inability across the nations. When Michigan Senator Elisa Slotkin was asked about receiving donations from the Israel Lobby, she immediately accused the participant of being an antisemite.
A child could tell you this is a terrible political strategy. Well, at least for the Democrats. They’re looking like heavy favorites headed into the midterms. But if there’s one way to blow a huge lead, it’s to piss off all your voters by refusing to listen to them and calling them bigots. However, let’s remember that this is not a bad political strategy for AIPAC. The group is largely associated with Republicans, and only spends in Democratic primaries to advance the most Zionist candidate. So, if it comes down to a Zionist Republican and a 90%-as-Zionist Democrat, it makes no difference to the Israel Lobby which one wins.
One would think this very obvious conclusion would cause Ken Martin and his fellow DNC members to want to separate from AIPAC. If for no other reason than just political survival. But as we can see, the Democratic establishment is too trapped in its own echo chamber to recognize its feeding the tiger that plans to eat them. And when fellow members try to warn Ken Martin that he’s only strengthening the beast that will deliver his demise, he tells them to fuck off. Lovely party, Ken! I can’t imagine why you’re less popular than stepping on a rusty nail.
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In Solidarity — Joe
Wait...Democrats are attempting to neutralize the demands of their progressive base with pseudo-responsive platitudes, diaphanous (non)working groups, and craven misrepresentations?? When has that -- [cough] public option [cough] -- ever happened before?