It’s possible to be very supportive of Israel as a concept or a de facto reality, to see it as a divine right, a necessary refuge for the Jewish people or as an ill-considered experiment that still should have American support. There’s a wide spectrum of feelings one might have about Israel from a philosophical point of view, and one can certainly consider oneself simultaneously an ally and a critic. But it’s quite a different thing to work in Congress while pushing the Likud line on policy. That’s much more of a political decision than a matter of principle, and allying with right-wing politicians in Israel is hard to reconcile with American progressivism.
Rep. Eliot Engel of New York isn’t just any congressman. He’s the powerful chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. And he has a record on Israel that is hard to distinguish from Benjamin Netanyahu. Long before President Trump made the controversial decision to move the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, Engel the was primary sponsor of a Congressional resolution recognizing Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel. In 2017, he introduced a House resolution repudiating UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which condemned “the construction and expansion of settlements, transfer of Israeli settlers, confiscation of land, demolition of homes and displacement of Palestinian civilians.”
His positions on the Iraq War, which he supported, and the Iran Nuclear Deal, which he opposed, both aligned exactly with Likud’s positions at the time. In 2014, he willingly shared a stage with notorious anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller.
Now that he’s facing a competitive primary from Jamaal Bowman, you can see how important it is to right-wing Americans and Israelis that Engel retain his powerful position in Congress. While Bowman has been endorsed by the Times editorial board and progressives like Elizabeth Warren and Katie Porter, Engel is being bucked up by the Republican/conservative Super PAC Americans for Tomorrow’s Future. Of course, they’re laundering this money through a slightly more palatable source:
The PAC, presumably due to its visible Republican ties, is not spending directly in Engel’s New York primary. Instead, it funneled $100,000 to another super PAC, called Democratic Majority for Israel, on May 27…
…Since cashing the Americans for Tomorrow’s Future check, DMFI has spent more than $600,000 boosting Engel and hitting Bowman on TV, and with digital ads, mailers, and paid phone banking. DMFI has not spent money on any other race since taking money from the GOP operation.
Again, opposing Engel in part for his Middle East policies is not an anti-Israel position. If it were, I doubt Chuck Schumer would be almost alone in the Democratic Establishment in abstaining for an endorsement in the race. Most other committee chairs have backed Engel, and so has Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and the Congressional Black Caucus.
This last endorsement is rich, since Jamaal Bowman is a black progressive who would presumably make a nice addition to the CBC. But the CBC is more interested in the incumbent protection racket at the moment.
Engel has other controversies that are plaguing his campaign, including being caught on tape telling Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr. at a June 2020 press conference on ” the unrest resulting from the killing of George Floyd” that “If I didn’t have a primary, I wouldn’t care” about not being allowed to speak.
He also got caught in a lie about whether or not he’d visited his district during the the height of the Covid-19 outbreak.
It’s a mistake to think the only way to support Israel is to back their right-wing government, and it’s a mistake to think that you can’t be pro-Israel unless you support Eliot Engel.
Some people are supporting him simply because he’s an incumbent and a chairman, and that is what it is. There’s always going to be a continent that acts this way, partly because members of Congress who pay their party membership dues have a right not to have the party turn around and back their primary challengers. But people outside of the official structure of the party have more freedom in who they choose to support, and that’s where you can see a real split.
The left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz explains:
An Engel loss in the primary would be a serious blow to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the most influential lobby group supporting Israel in the United States, which relies on promoting legislation that enjoys bipartisan support. Engel has been one of the Democratic politicians most in line with AIPAC’s positions on issues like Iran, Palestinian statehood and Israeli settlements.
Bowman would be quite a change:
Bowman, if elected, would bring a different approach to Congress. Last October, he told the left-wing website Jacobin that he thinks the United States should consider placing conditions on the military aid it provides to Israel.
“As [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu calls for expanding settlements and annexing the West Bank, we should seriously consider placing conditions on the billions of dollars of military aid our government provides him in order to make sure that the rights and dignity of both the Israeli and Palestinian people are respected,” Bowman said. This position is also being advocated by Sanders.
Bowman added in the same interview: “I just don’t understand why American taxpayers are subsidizing the detention of Palestinian children while Democrats are criticizing child detention at the Mexican border.”
In general, the issue of Israel is percolating below the surface in this campaign, as Bowman is more focused on criticizing Engel for being absent from the district and out of touch. It’s the same playbook Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used in 2018 to defeat Joe Crowley, a 20-year incumbent from a neighboring district who was in line to replace Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House.
But for right-wingers in both American and Israel, this election is entirely about the Middle East, and that’s why they’re funneling money to Engel. They don’t care that Bowman is the principal of a public New York City middle school or that he support Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. They don’t oppose Bowman because he’s a progressive on domestic policy but because they want keep Engel exactly where he is, in a position to craft and influence the Democratic Party’s Middle East policies in a way that aligns with Benjamin Netanyahu.
So, no matter what anyone says or what the constituents of New York’s 16th congressional district might want, this race has become a battle about the United States’ relationship with Likud.
Wishing Bowman the best in his upcoming primary contest. Being out of touch with one’s district in and of itself should be a disqualifier. In reality, it isn’t. I know. I have a congresscritter from the other party who would rather hold what few events he does host outside his DC bubble across state lines in Missouri. There are days I wonder if that guy ever steps foot in my corner of Arkansas. At minimum, constituents deserve representatives who actually spend time in their districts. Getting rid of a Netanyahu ally in the process is gravy.
Engel is looking weak.