'Israel's war is not Biden's war': Democrats struggle to convince Americans

Pro-Israel lobbying groups trying to buy influence in the US are failing to meet their goals, according to a well-known academic and author who had famously condemned Israel's long history of "disproportionate harm" on Gaza's civilian population.

"There are a lot of people upset about the strong and unqualified level of military support and security support that the US government and the Biden administration are providing to Israel," says Prof. Douglas Rossinow, who is currently authoring Promised Land: The Worlds of American Zionism 1942-2022.

Prof Rossinow teaches Ethnic, Gender, Historical, and Philosophical Studies at Metropolitan University in Minnesota and has documented the role played by the lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which he says was "formed to spin positive PR after Israeli atrocities".

In 2014, Rossinow had signed an open letter to then-President Barack Obama highlighting "the disproportionate harm that the Israeli military, which the United States has armed and supported for decades, is inflicting on the population of Gaza".

He says that Israel's punishing military campaign in Gaza, backed by the US, has entered its third month, and public support for it is diminishing in the US, especially among younger Democratic party voters and their senators. Younger and progressive Democrats are pressing for a ceasefire, which President Biden continues to ignore.

"Among the younger voters, the criticism of Israel is far greater than any other generation. You can see it online and offline," Prof Rossinow tells TRT World.

Support for Biden among Muslim Americans is also declining, with about two-thirds of Arab and Muslim Democrats in Michigan, a crucial battleground state, considering voting to replace Biden.

This is bad news for Biden, who is seeking re-election next year. His potential Republican rival, Donald Trump, has 50 percent support to Biden's 40 percent.

According to a recent survey, barely 48 percent of Gen Z and millennials believe the US should publicly voice support of Israel, compared to 63 percent of Gen Xers, 83 percent of baby boomers and 86 percent of members of the Silent Generation.

"It may be a gradual erosion of Biden's position and (in) support for Israel among younger voters and within the Democratic Party. This has been a gradual process for many years, with the strongest support for Israel shifting from the Democrats to the Republicans," the academic says.

"It may be hard for them [the Democratic party] to change the public perception that this is Biden's war, not just Israel's war."

Dissenting voices

Rashida Tlaib, the lone Palestinian voice in the US Senate, is a vocal critic of US policy regarding Israel's ongoing military aggression in Gaza, which has left more than 18,000 people dead, most of them children and women.

She has expressed disapproval of Biden's failure to secure a ceasefire and his reluctance to pressure Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu to cease his campaign.

Tlaib's political activism has garnered criticism from the political establishment, particularly those aligned with Israeli circles. This includes a reprimand for using the pro-Palestinian slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," a chant deemed anti-Semitic by Israel and its Western supporters.

In recent weeks, reports have surfaced of at least two Democratic Senate candidates being urged to run against Tlaib by pro-Israeli lobbyists, AIPAC.

"The censure of her [Rashida Tlaib] was an extreme step. It was also an easy vote for people in the US Congress to take because it did not have any specific effect. It is symbolic," says Prof Rossinow.

Nasser Beydoun, a Democratic Senate candidate, claimed he was offered $20 million by AIPAC to run against Tlaib. Earlier, another Democratic candidate, Hill Harper, reportedly turned down a similar offer from a pro-Israel lobbyist.

Such actions are unprecedented, according to the professor. "I don't think something as gross and massive as those reported actions has been the case before. That sounds like something new, but if it's true, it would be a new tactic in an old strategy."

AIPAC has denied offering money to either Beydoun or Harper to run against Tlaib.

AIPAC's lobbying operations are influential in US domestic policy and also shaped how elected officials in the US respond to the Israel-Palestine conflict since its emergence in the 1950s.

Talking about its history, Professor Rossinow says that it was a lobbying operation that came about as Israel's image was seen negatively in the US "because of Israel's aggressive actions toward Palestinians in the West Bank, which Israel did not occupy at that time, but also toward the Arab states that border Israel."

The then US President Dwight Eisenhower was not particularly warm towards Tel Aviv and only gave financial aid and no weapons. But it was a particular incident that forced Israeli lobbyists to come together in rebranding Israel's image in Washington.

On October 14, 1953, Israeli forces, in a reprisal raid, massacred the village of Qibya in the West Bank, which was then under Jordan's control. The raid was led by the then-future Israeli President Ariel Sharon. The massacre was condemned internationally, with the US expressing sympathies with the victims. Later, the United Nations Security Council passed resolution 101, which expressed the "strongest possible censure of this action".

"AIPAC was formed by supporters of Israel in the US who thought that they needed a better-organised lobbying operation to tell US congressmen and senators why they should support Israel," Rossinow says.

Since its formation, the pro-Israel lobby has recommended candidates it vetted to pro-Israel donors and opposed candidates seen as critical of Israel.

AIPAC wasn't involved in campaign finance as recently as 2021. But in 2022, it became the highest pro-Israel funding group by spending over $2.7 million, according to OpenSecrets, which follows campaign funding in the United States.

The influence and money mean that US politicians affiliated with the Israel lobbying operations will use Tel Aviv's talking points.

Some, according to Professor Rossinow, will repeat Israel's hasbara – explanation in Hebrew – but others will want to speak more independently, "and there may be people further out who are somewhat sympathetic to Israel, but who will place limits on how unequivocal their support is."

The Biden administration recently bolstered Israel's military campaign in Gaza with $14.5 billion in military aid, sidestepping scrutiny from the State Department by bypassing Leahy Laws. These laws, named after retired Senator Patrick Leahy, prohibit US assistance to foreign military units suspected of human rights violations.

"There's a special process in which Israel gets the aid, and then Israel is supposed to report on its own whether it used the aid for any human rights violations. So, it's kind of a blatant exception for Israel that has been the product of long-term support for Israel in the Congress," Professor Rossinow says, adding that this working of foreign military assistance is unknown to many Americans.

At a donors dinner on Tuesday, President Biden admitted that Israel risks losing support due to its relentless bombing in Gaza. This was followed by an unprecedented move when the US stood isolated, as its closest allies Canada, Australia and New Zealand broke off in calling for urgent efforts to agree on a ceasefire.