Mark Mellman president of the Democratic Majority for Israel said it would focus on congressional races and had no plans to endorse any candidate in the race to be presidential candidate or to pay for any more negative ads against any candidates after Saturday’s Nevada caucus. Sanders is likely to win if polls are accurate.
During a panel discussion on Wednesday Mellman said: “We don’t have plans to be further involved in the presidential race – against Sanders or anyone else for that matter.”
Super Political Action Committees (Super PAC)
A recent Investopedia article briefly describes a super PAC: “Political action committees (PACs) are formed to privately raise money to donate to a political campaign in hopes of influencing the election. Super PACs can raise unlimited amounts of money to influence an election, but they are not permitted to donate directly to a campaign.”
Super PACs are almost a fixture of US political campaign. American individuals, unions or corporations are legally allowed to donate as much money as they want to supposedly to super-PACs supposedly independent organizations that are linked to a particular candidate.
Super PACs have quickly grown into one of the biggest forces influencing US politics. Even back in the 2012 Republican primaries, Super PACs spent more money than the candidates’ campaigns.
The anti-Sanders campaign.
The Super PAC of the Democratic Majority for Israel spent about $1.4 million on ads directed against Senator Sanders both in Iowa and Nevada. After the Iowa caucuses Sanders secured 12 delegates and former South Bend Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg got 13, the super PAC claimed that it had prevented Sanders from achieving a clear win.
Just ahead of the Iowa caucuses Mellman told the New York Times that the ads were aimed at showing that Sanders was in a uniquely bad position to defeat Trump in the November, The polls I have seen show exactly the opposite. Sanders is the only candidate in the running who would get a larger percentage of the vote than Trump.
Mellman’s concerns about Sanders
Mellman complains that Sanders has the endorsement of those who hate Israel. This would include no doubt Representative Iilhan Omar, and Linda Sarsour a Palestinian-American activist. Sanders has urged the US to adopt a pro-Palestinian policy in addition to continued support for Israel.
No doubt Mellman does not welcome Sanders criticism of the present Israeli government. Sanders said at a town hall meeting in Nevada last Tuesday: “To be for the Israeli people and to be for peace in the Middle East does not mean that we have to support right-wing, racist governments that currently exist in Israel. What American foreign policy has got to be about in the Middle East is bringing the Israelis, bringing the Palestinians together under the banner of justice.”
Sanders noted that youth unemployment in Gaza was 70 percent and yet people were not even able to leave the area. He said the US could not simply be pro-Israel but needed to pay attention to the needs of the Palestinian people.
Analysts and the mainstream press are constantly expressing concern about Russian attempts to influence US elections. Yet here we had an obvious attempt to influence the outcome of the choice of the Democratic candidate. Everything is out in the open and yet there no on seems to be warning us about Israeli attempts to influence US politics. The foreign lobby group is openly and with the support of many prominent US members of the Democratic Majority for Israel directly intervening in US politics. So where are all those blaming Israeli influence for the results of US political campaigns among other happenings?
