Aipac is losing its grip

JVL Introduction

This article dates from November last year but it identifies a trend we can only hope continues.

Quite simply, loyalty to Israel is no longer the defining issue it was until so recently in political life in the States, shown graphically by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s recent victory.

The vice-like grip of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) on the selection of candidates has begun to falter as Jacob Kornbluh makes clear in this account of Michael Blake’s campaign to enter Congress in New York’s 15th Congressional District.

We hold no particular candle for Blake who was until quite recently an Israel firster. But times have changed and expediency if not principle now makes an Israel-critical position possible.

Blake’s campaign launch video said of his opponent for the Democratic nomination: “Ritchie Torres cares more about Bibi than he cares about the Bronx…”

He has made AIPAC’s support for Torres  one prong of his challenge to the sitting representative, betting, as Kornbluh puts it, “that criticism about the lobby’s influence now resonates with a diverse, younger electorate.”

Inevitably, he has been accused of using antisemitic tropes…

It will be interesting to watch how all this plays out.

Time will tell.

RK

This article was originally published by the Forward on Tue 11 Nov 2025. Read the original here.