London: A number of Democratic members of the US Congress have come under fire for travelling to Israel on a trip that was paid for by a staunchly pro-Israel lobby organisation.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was among those criticised. He was accused of using the trip organised by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or Aipac, to support Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu politically as pressure mounted over a number of judicial reforms.
After claiming that Netanyahu had made it "clear to us that he doesn't condone violence, no matter where it originates" in the wake of the recent death of a Palestinian teenager, Jeffries—who had met with Netanyahu during the trip—was also accused of downplaying Israeli settler violence against Palestinians.
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After his meeting with the prime minister, Jeffries defended the conditions of the US's current $3.4 billion annual military assistance to Israel. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and several other senior US diplomats expressed the opinion that it was time to reevaluate the agreement to stop money from being used to repress common Palestinians, which has raised questions about this.
Whatever the outcome of Israel's judicial reform effort, Jeffries said, "the need to ensure we maintain Israel's qualitative military edge will still be with us."
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"Our continued security cooperation must remain unwavering because the stakes are too high in such a dangerous world to consider anything else."
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Jeffries also made claims about widespread opposition to the nation's judicial reforms during the trip "that echo the emerging Republican talking points on the matter, rather than the growing number of Democrats voicing concern."
The president of Americans for Peace Now, Hadar Susskind, told The Guardian that it was improper for Democratic members of Congress to work with Aipac because the organisation supported pro-Israel Republican candidates running against Democrats nationwide, including some who have questioned the legitimacy of President Joe Biden.
He mentioned that Shri Thanedar, another Democrat travelling with them, had previously declared Israel to be a "apartheid state," and that Aipac had spent $4 million trying to defeat him in the previous election.
It is absurd, according to Susskind, for Democrats to travel with a group that fundamentally opposes the policies of their president and party and which directly criticises the other Democrats on the trip.
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It is a failure of Democratic leadership to continue working in any capacity with Aipac, according to Usamah Andrabi, a spokesperson for Justice Democrats, who was speaking to The Guardian.
Every Democratic member who participated in the trip is supporting Aipac's right-wing primary challenges against their fellow Democrats, the more than 100 Republicans who voted to void the election, and the brutal apartheid system in place in Israel.
President of the "pro-Israel, pro-peace" organisation J Street, Jeremy Ben-Ami, told The Guardian: "Our concern is that US tax dollars shouldn't be funding material and arms that facilitate the deepening of occupation and the permanent demise of a potential Palestinian state. Nobody's security is served by that.