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Bernie Sanders continues to be an intellectually-vacuous amoral stooge of tremendously little substance. This so-called "debate" is actually just a campaign of fear mongering about the influence of Pro-Israel American Jews in the American political system. A thread by me. 1/10
This supposedly terrifying influence is incredibly overstated. The much-ballyhooed AIPAC simply does not appear as a top lobbying firm on any of the lists that Open Secrets puts out gauging various ways that groups influence our politics. See for yourself. opensecrets.org/lobby/
Yes, AIPAC gives money to PAC's to influence our political process. Nobody says they don't. But they do not have a "stranglehold" on Congress, as it's critics often claim. They merely exercise their rights as American citizens to engage in politics. 3/10
But what about other pro-Israel groups besides AIPAC? Pro-Israel lobbying groups spent more "more than $14.8 million, the highest total for them in a midterm since 1990" & "Contributions went predominantly towards Democrats who received 63 percent." opensecrets.org/news/2019/02/a…
And if you look at the top spenders list, you can see how much money was spent on lobbying last year or any other year, and the amount that the American Pro-Israel lobby spends is put in to the proper perspective. opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?… 
So it seems the issue that Rep. Omar and her allies have is that they believe Pro-Israel American Jews have too much influence in American politics, & should have less. And it should of course be acknowledged that those groups do have some level of political influence. 6/10
However, there has been no advancement of any argument stating why it is that Pro-Israel American Jews are an exception to our rules regarding political influence. Why do they deserve to be singled out for criticism by members of Congress? 7/10
Why is it that elected representatives of our republic want the American people to be specifically afraid of the political influence of a faction within a small (around 2% of the US population), largely prosperous, historically oppressed minority group? Well, that's just it. 8/10
It takes quite an effort to believe such fear-mongering has nothing to do with the small size of the American Jewish community, their relative prosperity, & the fact that Jews have always made easy targets & scapegoats for demagogues throughout history. 9/10
The fact that so many people in the media and American politics are willing to go to that effort to explain away blatant antisemitism is a chilling reminder of the lessons history teaches us about the Jewish people and how easy it is to turn a blind eye to their plight. 10/10
In addition, it is very important that you check out this piece by the indispensable @NoahCRothman on how this Rep. Omar business plays into the battle for the future of the Democratic Party.
commentarymagazine.com/politics-ideas…
commentarymagazine.com/politics-ideas…
All this time I've really been hoping that the Democratic Party leadership would deal a powerful blow against the antisemitic views of Rep. Ilhan Omar. Now, it seems clear to me that such a rebuke isn't coming. This is a rather distressing state of affairs.
As a gentile, I find it nonetheless to be a moral imperative to affirm my support to the American Jewish community, whose members are finding themselves increasingly to be victims of hate crimes under our laws.
My hope is that the American people at large will remain steadfast in their support for the American Jewish community and all of the good things that it does for America. However, today has changed my sunny outlook on this matter. Dark times lie ahead.
