America’s pro-Israel lobby is facing a backlash (The Economist)
“Mr Malinowski was seen by many as relatively moderate on Israel. ‘They are being absolutists and it’s backfiring,’ says Matt Bennett of Third Way, a think-tank. Top Democrats are swearing off AIPAC money. None of this appears to faze the group. In a social-media post celebrating its victories in Illinois, it declared that ‘being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics’. If that were so, says Lara Friedman of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, another think-tank, it would not shy away from making that case to voters. AIPAC says that “like many groups” it will “continue to use different tools to engage in races this cycle”. But its use of front groups places it alongside industries such as oil, tobacco and crypto, which have deployed similar tactics. The added risk for AIPAC is that this approach may reinforce antisemitic tropes about covert influence over policymaking—at a time when such views are already gaining ground.”