Opinion

Islamist group’s antisemitic report blames election losses on the Jews

Americans for Justice in Palestine Action declares “millions of dollars from right-wing Zionist organizations” defeated anti-Israel candidates.

Cuyahoga County Council member Shontel Brown (left) and former State Sen. Nina Turner square off in the Democratic Parrty primary to fill Ohio's 11th District congressional seat, Aug. 3, 2021. Source: Facebook.
Cuyahoga County Council member Shontel Brown (left) and former State Sen. Nina Turner square off in the Democratic Parrty primary to fill Ohio's 11th District congressional seat, Aug. 3, 2021. Source: Facebook.
Steven Emerson, founder and executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism. Credit: Courtesy.
Steven Emerson
Steven Emerson is founder and executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

You are not going to believe this: During the midterm elections, advocacy groups gave money—a lot of money—to candidates they thought would be good on the issues they care about.

Shocking, right?

The anti-Israel group Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action) seems to think so. Last week, it touted a “groundbreaking report” that showed pro-Israel groups gave money to pro-Israel candidates.

You will be equally shocked to learn that the report blames Jewish money, a reference lightly sanitized as “right-wing Zionist” donations, for election outcomes it doesn’t like. It also casts money donated by Americans and American organizations as some form of alien, inappropriate interference.

“Races across the United States also saw the injection of millions of dollars from right-wing Zionist organizations into our electoral politics,” the report said. “Millions were spent to crush candidates deemed as ‘insufficiently pro-Israel’ and millions more were spent to punish candidates that intended to stand up for Palestinian rights.”

Not very subtle, is it?

“Our electoral process” has been sullied by sinister elements seeking to “crush” and “punish” others. What kind of country is this when people we don’t like get to participate in the political process?

The report points to the group Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) as one of the awful, no good “right-wing Zionist” donors. That’s a lazy and misleading label, as DMFI President Mark Mellman is a veteran pollster and consultant for Democrats. DFI co-Chair Ann Lewis has spent more than 45 years in politics, working for both Bill and Hillary Clinton. You know, “right-wingers.”

Ironically, AJP Action only exists in order to influence elected officials and policymakers. It is an arm of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), which routinely sponsors events in which speakers call for Israel’s elimination and urge Muslims to shun all supporters of the Jewish state.

There are “three Ds” that define antisemitism directed at Israel and those who support it, said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and Global Social Action director for the Simon Wiesenthal Center: Double standards, delegitimization and demonization.

“AMP’s attack checks all the boxes,” Cooper told the Investigative Project on Terrorism. “Seems that everyone has the right to back candidates in the U.S. except Jews who support candidates who support our ally the State of Israel.”

Consider the Source

If the motivation behind political donations merits what AJP Action touts as a “groundbreaking election report,” so does the motivation behind the report itself. AMP Executive Director Osama Abuirshaid, for example, has said his organization seeks “to challenge the legitimacy of the State of Israel.”

Moreover, AJP Action and AMP are front groups for a Hamas support network in the United States, pending litigation in an Illinois federal court alleges. In 2015, the Investigative Project on Terrorism first reported that AMP shared many of the same leaders and carried out much of the same work as the Palestine Committee, a Muslim Brotherhood-created Hamas support network in the United States.

Abuirshaid was heavily involved in this. He edited Al-Zaytounah, a mouthpiece for a pro-Hamas propaganda network, published by the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP). IAP was a key Palestine Committee branch, internal records seized by the FBI have shown. It shut down around 2004 after a $156 million civil judgment was awarded to Stanley and Joyce Boim, whose son David was killed in a 1996 Hamas terrorist attack.

Attorneys for the Boims have persuasively argued that IAP and other groups found liable shut down to avoid paying the damages. AMP, they claim in ongoing litigation, has “largely the same core leadership as IAP/AMS; it serves the same function and purpose.”

Now, the complaint says, “Abuirshaid set up a replacement newspaper, which he published under the name Al-Meezan … [which] continued the publication and advocacy of pro-Hamas positions. The content, target audience, website and many of the advertisers of Al-Meezan were essentially identical to those of Al-Zaytounah.”

A federal judge allowed the lawsuit to continue in May, agreeing with an appellate court’s finding that the Boims’ “complaint is replete with factual allegations” and shows that AMP and other defendants are “a disguised continuance” of IAP and other Palestine Committee branches.

Sour Grapes

The AJP Action report appears somewhat hastily assembled and thin on examples of donations the group finds inappropriate. And many of those showcased in the report are among the most progressive members of the House of Representatives.

For example, the report spotlights a spring Democratic primary in Ohio’s 11th congressional district. Incumbent Shontel Brown defeated Nina Turner for the second time in a year. Brown received more than $1 million—the largest donation—from “pro-Zionist” donors, the report claims.

It notes that “Brown won with 66% of the vote,” but somehow paints a 2-1 romp as an outcome that could easily have gone the other way. “The result was heavily influenced by money from DMFI pouring in.”

Brown defeated Turner in a 2021 special election by just five points. Her easy rematch win came after voters had a chance to know her better. But AJP Action could not bring itself to consider other factors, including Brown’s own accomplishments. It just had to be the “right-wing Zionists” who were responsible.

During her year in office, Brown joined the House Progressive Caucus and earned a 98.4% vote rating from the group Progressive Punch. That’s far from the right-wing darling AJP Action tries to portray her as.

Of course, Turner blamed her 2021 primary defeat on “evil money [which] manipulated and maligned this election.”

Turner, a Bernie Sanders surrogate, did herself no favors when she touted her solidarity with Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of Britain’s Labour Party, who was forced out in 2020, partly due to rampant antisemitism under his leadership.

Remarkably, AJP Action spins the midterms as a sign that anti-Israel forces have the “right-wing Zionists” on their heels. Israel supporters, the report says, are “hoping to bully their way and scare members of Congress from advocating for Palestinian human rights. In a way, their actions this last election are an admission that they’re losing.”

While there are a few dozen anti-Israel voices in the House, they have yet to pass any meaningful legislation. An effort last year to oppose arms sales to Israel went nowhere.

In 2019, the House voted 398-17 to approve a resolution criticizing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement that seeks to isolate Israel politically, economically and culturally. BDS is promoted by AMP and AJP Action, along with most American Islamist groups.

BDS “does not recognize, and many of its supporters explicitly deny, the right of the Jewish people to national self-determination,” the resolution said. It “promotes principles of collective guilt, mass punishment and group isolation, which are destructive of prospects for progress towards peace and a two-state solution.”

AJP Action certainly has a right to issue its misleading, antisemitic report about Jewish money in American politics. And “right-wing Zionist” groups have the right to “[inject] millions of dollars into our electoral system” to benefit candidates they agree with.

Sadly, such antisemitism from AJP Action and AMP is far from “groundbreaking.”

Steven Emerson is executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, the author of eight books on national security and terrorism, the producer of two documentaries and the author of hundreds of articles in national and international publications.

The opinions and facts presented in this article are those of the author, and neither JNS nor its partners assume any responsibility for them.
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