Obama aide Ben Rhodes told a press briefing yesterday, "I wouldn't rule out the President taking any particular step on the issue," but he dampened expectations, with pointed reference to settlements:
"In terms of our own plans going forward, we don't have plans for the President to pursue a new initiative at this point. We do want to raise our concerns directly with the Israeli government, and the President said in his speech today that he does not believe that, ultimately, it's in the interests of Israel to continue an occupation and to continue settlement activities."
At Tablet, Yair Rosenberg reports that Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Ben Sasse all did not sign the letter because it didn't go far enough in support of Israel (and against the two-state solution, in Cruz's case). All three are being drawn right by Sheldon Adelson's financial contributions to Republicans. Tom Cotton of Arkansas is another firebreather who did not sign the letter.
The collapse of so many progressive Democrats can also be laid at the feet of campaign finance.
Emily's List founder Stephanie Schriock explained the influence of AIPAC on progressive congressional candidates at a J Street event in June:
"[W]here [are] you are going to go to raise the money that you needed to raise to win a race. And you went to labor, you went to the choice community, and you went to the Jewish community. But before you went to the Jewish community, you had a conversation with the lead AIPAC person in your state and they made it clear that you needed a paper on Israel. And so you called all of your friends who already had a paper on Israel -- that was designed by AIPAC -- and we made that your paper."
JJ Goldberg of the Forward said at that same public session that of the 14 biggest donors to Democrats, only one is not Jewish. "That's gigantic in the terms of American politics." He also said:
"You ask a Democratic fundraiser, where do you get the money from? 'Well from trial lawyers, from toys, from generic drugs, from Hollywood. From Jews.... Those are all essentially Jewish industries... When you are raising money, you need to find rich people who are not right wing, and there are not -- pardon me for saying this, there are not many rich goyim who are not right wing. Forgive me for saying that.'"
Elizabeth Warren ran away from questions about the Gaza slaughter of 2014. Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy has led the noble effort to cut off aid to Saudi Arabia because of atrocities committed in Yemen. But he refuses to say a word against Israeli atrocities in occupied territory. Chris Murphy and Rand Paul joined in this effort at the Center for the National Interest two days ago. There was no mention of Israeli war crimes there either. Though Rand Paul did not sign the AIPAC letter.
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