On Tuesday, Congressman Jamaal Bowman of New York lost a Democratic primary race—an upset Bowman, his supporters, and the New York Times were quick to blame on money spent by AIPAC to support his less-hostile-to-Israel opponent George Latimer. While this explanation is dubious for various reasons, there is much reason to believe that Bowman alienated the sizeable Jewish population in his district, and alienated many others with such antics as pulling a fire alarm in the House office building to avoid a vote.

Seth Mandel observes how Bowman’s ideological allies “plan to scapegoat Jewish Americans in districts that do not contain a significant number of Jewish voters,” citing a recent article by Rashida Tlaib and Nina Turner:

Tlaib, a current [member, like Bowman, of the anti-Israel congressional clique known as the Squad], and Turner, who has twice now lost bids for Congress, have declared a war. Specifically, a race war.

The model, according to the progressive darlings, is as follows: anywhere there are minority voters—this will particularly target black voters—the ills affecting the district will be blamed on the Jews. This way, Jewish involvement in any one campaign is irrelevant: the bogeyman is the Universal Jew.

“Since 1948,” Tlaib and Turner write in the Nation, “the U.S. has approved more than $141 billion in weapons to the Israeli government as it continues to carry out ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Just imagine what $141 billion invested in our communities could do instead. By one estimate, it would take about $177 billion to lift every American out of poverty.”

There’s a strong chance we will see similar rhetoric unleashed by Cori Bush, another Squad member who faces a primary challenge on August 6:

The interesting thing about Bush’s competitive primary race with her challenger Wesley Bell is that it isn’t specifically about Israel or Jewish voters, yet the candidates’ respective attitudes toward Jew-baiting and incitement are a key part of their political personas. Bush has Jews on the brain—like Jamaal Bowman in New York, she can only be made interested in issues local to her district if they can be connected to Israel. Bowman’s opponent George Latimer, and Bush’s opponent Wesley Bell, have structured their campaigns around serving their actual constituents. The anti-Zionist obsessives in Congress are far too busy with Israel to take care of the people they represent.

Recent reports suggest that the White House has at last acted to allow the shipments of weapons that had been withheld from Israel and to end further the delays. On this topic, Elliott Abrams comments, “I don’t know what and how much has been held up, but it shouldn’t have happened. The level of delay should be zero.”

In this interview with Ariel Kahana, Abrams also comments on the failings of U.S. policy toward Iran, and the Biden administration’s refusal to enforce existing sanctions:

According to Abrams, Iran has indeed halted the advancement of its nuclear program on rare occasions. “This happened when Bush invaded Iraq in 2003, and when [President] Trump eliminated Qassem Suleimani in 2020. The U.S. needs to be ready to use force in Iran, but credibility is critical here. Only if [Iran’s leaders] are convinced that the U.S. is willing to act will they stop.”

Abrams claims that the U.S. president tried for two-and-a-half years to revive the nuclear deal with Iran until he realized it wasn’t interested. “Iran has benefited from this situation, and everyone outside the administration sees it as a failure.”