A group that\u2019s backing leftist candidates for Congress who want to place conditions on U.S. aid to Israel is hosting a Monday night event aimed at bashing the pro-Israel lobby and \u2018building progressive power in Congress.\u2019<\/p>\n
Our Revolution, an organizing group founded by self-described \u2018democratic socialist\u2019 Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is hosting a town hall featuring Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., along with Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., according to a press release sent Monday morning.<\/p>\n
The group\u2019s new campaign is \u2018Committed to Countering the Rise in Rightwing, Anti-Peace Lobbying, Including AIPAC\u2019s $100 Million Campaign to Unseat Candidates Calling For a Permanent Ceasefire,\u2019 the release said.<\/p>\n
Monday night\u2019s event is part of \u2018a strategic effort to shore up defenses against well-funded corporate lobbyists,\u2019 specifically naming the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) \u2013 an organization that works along bipartisan lines to promote the traditional U.S.-Israel relationship.<\/p>\n
AIPAC has been in the crosshairs of progressive lawmakers in recent months, particularly as it has ratcheted up criticism of those lawmakers for not supporting Israel\u2019s response to Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7, 2023, attack.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s ensuing ground invasion and airstrikes in Gaza have served to bring long-simmering fractures within the Democratic Party to the surface, with a growing number of young leftists in Congress calling for a harsher stance against Israel, including conditioning military aid on its treatment of civilians in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Our Revolution is backing candidates who, among other things, have called for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza. But Republicans and more moderate Democrats warn that a permanent cease-fire will only help Hamas, and could endanger the lives of dozens of Israeli hostages still being held by anti-Israel terrorists since October.<\/p>\n
The group said AIPAC is \u2018targeting some of our most ardent advocates for peace in Congress.\u2019<\/p>\n
Fox News Digital reached out to AIPAC for comment.<\/p>\n
AIPAC is expected to funnel millions of dollars into primary and general election candidates to unseat those progressive lawmakers, including Bowman, who is appearing at the Monday night event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018The candidates Our Revolution is backing have been on the forefront of advocating for a cease-fire in Gaza, as well as voicing their intent to condition U.S. funding of the far-right Netanyahu regime,\u2019 the press release said, referencing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018They have also been at the forefront of the fight for critical progressive issues that will be crucial to driving voter turnout in the 2024 general election, including climate action, student loan relief, affordable housing, comprehensive immigration reform, and racial justice.\u2019<\/p>\n
Asked for a response to the Monday event, AIPAC told Fox News Digital, \u2018We are proud to engage in the democratic process to help elect pro-Israel candidates, and we will not be deterred by an extremist, anti-Israel fringe. We believe that it is entirely consistent with progressive values to stand with the Jewish state as it confronts aggression from Iran and its terrorist proxies.\u2019<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the group also told Fox News Digital that AIPAC is \u2018the largest PAC contributor\u2019 to Democratic candidates.<\/p>\n\n
A group that\u2019s backing leftist candidates for Congress who want to place conditions on U.S. aid to Israel is hosting a Monday night event aimed at bashing the pro-Israel lobby and \u2018building progressive power in Congress.\u2019 Our Revolution, an organizing group founded by self-described \u2018democratic socialist\u2019 Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is hosting a town hall <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":18292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}