Memo to AIPAC: Attacking Tom Malinowski Is No Way To Build American – or Democratic – Support for Israel

The problem isn't just the candidate AIPAC has chosen to attack in this race, it's the damage its strategy is doing to American democracy, the US-Israel relationship and the Jewish community.

(J Street has “primary approved” two candidates in the competitive February 5th Democratic primary for New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District: Tom Malinowski and Brendan Gill.

Malinowski, a former Member of Congress and J Street endorsee, has secured endorsements from the Morris County Democratic Committee, Sen. Andy Kim, and Foreign Policy for America, among others. Brendan Gill has the support of Gov. Phil Murphy and the Essex County Democratic Committee, as well as the bulk of labor endorsements.

Both of these frontrunners have submitted aligned J Street questionnaires and earned the “primary approved” designation J Street uses in competitive primaries.)

Over the weekend, AIPAC launched a wave of negative ads attacking former Congressman Tom Malinowski, who is seeking to return to Congress in New Jersey’s open 11th District.

This move continues a now five-year pattern: AIPAC deploying vast financial resources - primarily raised from Republican donors - to intimidate, punish, or defeat Democrats they deem insufficiently pro-Israel. With tens of millions of dollars in the bank, the implicit threat to sitting members of Congress and candidates alike is hard to ignore.

AIPAC’s super PAC, the United Democracy Project, has so far committed over $800,000 – with far more almost certainly coming – to attacking Malinowski.

The issue they’re hitting him on publicly? A 2019 bipartisan vote for a border enforcement bill that included - among many provisions - increased funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The bill - criticized at the time by progressives - won the votes of a majority of members of both parties in both houses.

Given AIPAC’s failure to speak out in opposition to ICE’s shocking deployment and brutal tactics in recent months - or the Trump administration’s broader assault on democratic norms - its use of this issue for a political attack from the left is the height of political hypocrisy.

Will AIPAC now run general election ads against Republicans who support ICE tactics under the Trump administration?

The decision to target Malinowski is particularly troubling. Never at the forefront of challenges to Netanyahu’s policies - his record in Congress was in fact one of strong and consistent support for Israel.

Since leaving Congress he has written eloquently and smartly about these issues:

Americans must speak out on the catastrophe in Gaza

So why is AIPAC going after him?

Are they troubled by the prospect of a seasoned Democrat with serious foreign policy experience and a lifelong commitment to human rights returning to Washington? Are they worried that Tom might bring an additional thoughtful voice to DC in support of oversight and accountability for arms sales to Israel or of the country’s human rights record?

Whatever the motivation, we do know this: as in prior cycles, AIPAC is intervening in a Democratic primary using money primarily contributed by Republican billionaires to attack a candidate on an unrelated domestic issue.

This extends their record of attacking pro-Israel Democrats who oppose Netanyahu, while backing Republicans who voted to overturn a free and fair election on January 6, 2021 just because they support Netanyahu unquestioningly.

Dumping massive sums into competitive Democratic primaries to take down thoughtful pro-Israel Democrats who don’t want to give a blank check to Bibi Netanyahu is not the way to build durable bipartisan support for Israel in the United States.

It weakens bipartisan support, alienates the next generation – Jewish and non-Jewish alike – and ties Israel’s fate to the most corrosive elements of American politics.

In fact, this approach risks generating anger – toward Israel, toward Israel’s friends and, more dangerously, toward the Jewish community broadly - something all of us who care about Israel’s future should find alarming.

There are so many other ways AIPAC could spend down its political war chest – for instance, it could support candidates pushing for implementation of the 20-point ceasefire plan in Gaza. It could simply focus on its stated mission: strengthening the U.S.–Israel relationship itself.

It could even - if it really wanted to reflect American Jewish opinion at this critical moment - use its capital to support those defending American democracy from the existential attacks it faces.

Israel, American democracy, and the Jewish community all deserve better than a strategy that leads AIPAC to launch an attack like this an esteemed public servant and friend of Israel like Tom Malinowski.

P.S. Ilan and I will be discussing this, Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, and developments in Gaza, Greenland, Davos and more at 4 p.m. Eastern TODAY Wednesday January 21 at 4 p.m. Eastern on Word on the Street LIVE. Join us or watch later.