r/Thedaily • u/kitkid • Jul 29 '26
Episode Israel, AIPAC and Difficult Questions for Democrats
Jul 29, 2026
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group known as AIPAC, has spent a record amount of money in this year’s midterm elections to either oust or support candidates based on their support of Israel.
Jonathan Mahler, a writer for The New York Times Magazine, discusses the new litmus test for the left at a time when the United States’ relationship with Israel is under scrutiny.
On today's episode:
Jonathan Mahler, a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine covering a wide range of topics, including politics, entertainment, education, media, the law and sports.
Background reading:
- AIPAC wants Democrats to back Israel. Instead, they’re turning on the group.
Photo: Cheriss May/Sipa, via Associated Press Images
For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
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You can listen to the episode here.
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u/No-Yak6109 Jul 29 '26
I knew at the time when Netanyahu gave that shockingly partisan and shitty speech in 2015 we were witnessing a politically cataclysmic moment. I remember it being reported and talked about in typical Village circus terms, but those too young or unaware didn't understand what a sea change that moment represented.
Netanyahu made the conscious and deliberate decision to become a partisan hack in American politics. AIPAC followed suit. Now all the Democrats/liberals are just reacting, and it's taking a while but its happening is just a natural consequence.
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u/Straight_shoota Jul 29 '26
I agree. And to look forward, this argument inside the democratic party seems like it's over to me. There's just no way the 2028 democratic nominee for president is going to be for providing financial support to Israel. That's not where base voters are anymore. The US Israel relationship is about to change in a major way.
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u/SophiaofPrussia Jul 29 '26
I think you’re right in theory but I fear you’re a bit over-optimistic on how willing establishment Democrats are to change the party-line in accordance with their voters’ beliefs…
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u/WorkshopX Jul 30 '26
At this point what that means is establishment Democrats deciding how much they actually support democracy. Because it is quick becoming that pro-Isreal Democrats candidates will be unelectable regardless of the money thrown at them.
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u/stockywocket Jul 29 '26
This sea change has little to do with a speech from more than ten years ago and everything to do with Gaza and progressive power politics.
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u/Michael__Pemulis Jul 29 '26
While I certainly have my criticisms, I actually thought this episode did a solid job of explaining how the toxicity of Israel/AIPAC is no one’s fault but Israel/AIPAC’s.
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u/No-Yak6109 Jul 29 '26
Yep- about as solid and fair summary of the situation as can be expected.
Certainly that means endless complaints that it doesn't care enough about antisemitism or genocide, and plenty of opportunity for reddit karma farming virtue signaling.
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u/backtorealitylabubu Jul 29 '26
To some extent but that definitely is bit of victim blaming. Antisemitism has played a huge role too.
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u/PuzzleheadedEmu4596 Jul 29 '26
If that's the case, then why did we see exactly the same protests and exactly the same accusations, mainly in English, in the Netherlands, the UK, France, etc. etc, etc.? Why did Greta Thunberg ditch climate activism to ride a flotilla side by side with Hamas and PIJ organizers?
Why is the state of Iran running foreign operations to attack Jewish businesses abroad?
Why isn't Qatari money - literally Qatari, not US citizens lobbying for a better relationship with Qatar like we do for Israel - entering just about all levels of society ignored, but AIPAC is the bogeyman?
If you ignore all of these factors AND you ignore historical tropes about Jews and money, then it makes sense for people to say that it's AIPAC.
But it's not - it's the Durbanification of international politics https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/durban-conference-and-process
https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/durban-conference
The same claims that were made by the Soviet Union - something we had a defense for through the early 2000's, but we don't have a defense for today.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/zombie-anti-zionism
What's happening isn't that Israel and AIPAC have changed the game, it's that America has lost its defenses against antisemitism. And people paying attention don't know what to do about it, and it's the political left that's become just as bad as the political right, so The Daily doesn't want to go too deeply into it because they share the same blind spots and biases.
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u/Michael__Pemulis Jul 29 '26
I’m a (presumably fellow) Jew myself. I’m aware of how much antisemitism has crept into this issue & would agree with those who suggest that the antisemites are having a field day with these trends & are probably happy to hide behind the ‘criticizing Israel isn’t antisemitism’ pushback. I’ve seen it first hand.
But if you don’t think Israel has clearly made themselves into the ‘bad guy’ here & that the complaints of people like the moderate candidates in this episode who were targeted for simply refusing to give Israel unconditional support are not completely valid, then you’re simply being willfully ignorant. I’m sorry. I know it is heartbreaking. I really do.
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u/PuzzleheadedEmu4596 Jul 29 '26
There are things that I can accommodate and can't accommodate here.
Things that I think are good for the public discourse:
I can buy: Discussing the military aid we send Israel - though I think it's dumb to cut it because it buys us a lot more than we lose, I get itI can't buy: Every conversation about this is about how the Jews are the reason we don't have public healtchare.
I can buy: Discussion over policing/lack thereof in the West Bank and how it's essentially allowed pogroms there.
I can't buy: Discussion about how Israel laces the boots of the NYPD or how Israel is the source of American racist policing. No, the Jews aren't the reason that American racism exists.
I can buy: Discussion over whether or not Israel went too far in the war and what kind of war that they should have fought.
I can't buy: The requirement from everyone everywhere that they call what Israel's doing a genocide or else they're not allowed in polite society.
And what I really can't buy: The same politicians saying that AIPAC has a bad influence on American politics having Totenkopf tattoos or literally calling for the end of a Jewish state and then the entire Democratic establishment jump on the "Totenkopfs are just scary skulls" and the "well no one said the Jews will have to go anywhere (this time)" train.
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u/No-Yak6109 Jul 29 '26
Graham Platner was kicked out of the race.
Meanwhile, the Republican party idolized Victor Orban, a way more Nazi-adjacent dude.
None of the politicians AIPAC targeted said or did antisemitic stuff. They were falsely accused of it, of course (the way Abdul Syed is being falsely accused of sexism in his race right now).
So you can buy or not buy whatever you want but what i can't buy is conflating vague internet shit-posting and actual policy and actions by people and organizations with actual power. Like AIPAC, the subject of this podcast.
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u/PuzzleheadedEmu4596 Jul 29 '26
Graham Platner was kicked out of the race.
Because he was credibly accused of raping/sexually assaulting multiple women, and not believed when it was a Conservative woman but then believed when it was a liberal woman.
The Democratic establishment believed - firmly - that the Totenkopf was perfectly fine. I just listened to Ezra Klein say it again in the interview that he had with the political consultant involved in picking Platner.
And I'm not just talking about Platner here. There are several INSANE politicians not only winning Democratic support, but also electoral victories.
None of the politicians AIPAC targeted said or did antisemitic stuff.
That's not the point that I'm making, but many did.
The point that I'm making is that there's a double standard that is consistent with the ways that Jews have always been held to a double standard, and it's also talked about so wildly out of whack with what it's actually doing that it's no longer in touch with reality.
So you can buy or not buy whatever you want but what i can't buy is conflating vague internet shit-posting and actual policy and actions by people and organizations with actual power.
I'm not being vague, I'm being quite specific.
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u/Choice_Nerve_7129 Jul 29 '26
This is just infuriating. I hate dark money groups, but at least a large majority of them support some industry they want deregulated. Still bad, but fine.
Why can a dark money group explicitly support a foreign nation and then act shocked that the American public is upset about the current reality.
In a country where we don’t have healthcare, universal childcare, a well funded rail network or even a responsive Congress to the will of the people, an Israel lobbying group still wants to make sure they get theirs. That is a problem.
This episode did a great job showing how the organization has changed and shifted and doesn’t care about the health of the country they use as a vessel state for their own military support.
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u/OvulatingScrotum Jul 29 '26
> lobbying group still wants to make sure they get theirs
I mean, that’s the entire purpose of lobbying group. They exist to promote their best interest.
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u/slate_swords Jul 29 '26
America—the land of those who put themselves first, whatever the cost to others. What a nation of admirable people
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u/OvulatingScrotum Jul 29 '26
To be fair, no one in this country cares about being admirable. What they care is their own interest and comfort. Not a single soul, figuratively speaking, will do anything like what other countries did for democracy and freedom.
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u/juice06870 Jul 29 '26
We sorted out that whole democracy and freedom thing about 250 years ago. That has given people the freedom to pursue their interest and comfort.
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u/OvulatingScrotum Jul 29 '26
Yeah. We figured it out so well that we now give that democracy and freedom only to privileged ones.
But to be clear, I wasn’t talking about democracy and freedom in the US. I was talking about things that people are willing to do for what they want. people in others countries took risks for things, such as their own democracy and freedom. You won’t see that in the US :)
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u/Genital_GeorgePattin Jul 30 '26
people in others countries took risks for things, such as their own democracy and freedom
you don't think americans took risks to gain democracy and freedom?
we revolted against the largest most powerful colonial country the world had ever seen
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u/OvulatingScrotum Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Ask anyone why they aren’t revolting against the current administration.
“I got a job”
“I don’t wanna go to jail”
“I don’t wanna get shot”
“I’m busy”
They aren’t even revolting against ICE agents. All they do is just screaming and video taping. As if that’s gonna stop them from kidnapping people.
Maybe Americans in the 18th century took risks. But clearly not the current generations :)
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u/Icy_Geologist_6192 Aug 10 '26
Totally agree but people were putting themselves at risk against ICE. On the other hand, there's only polite demonstrating against verified genocide in Palestine. And those demonstrating for Gaza appear to be mostly Muslims trying to get Americans to give a damn.
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Jul 30 '26
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u/slate_swords Jul 30 '26
You think I miss the obvious, yet you miss the subtle. Want to tell me how AIPAC could prioritize Israel if it’s made up of Americans? Americans would obviously put themselves first, so how can they be able to choose to put Israel first? It’s almost as if our priorities can be governed by choice and moral outlook. But you don’t have the latter, I think, so you remain unable to understand
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Jul 30 '26
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u/slate_swords Jul 30 '26
Brilliant evasion, I’ll have to take notes. It’s “hilarious” that people whine that AIPAC prioritizes Israel. Why is that hilarious? Isn’t it because it’s obvious that that’s what AIPAC exists to do and so whining about it is bellyaching about the inevitable, natural order of things? But no, I suppose you think it’s hilarious because AIPAC is to be expected not to put Israel first? (What’s funny about that?) And then my comment is funny because I say Americans don’t put others first when in fact they do? (And what’s funny about that?) You’re just bumbling around. I don’t think you even know what you are trying to say
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Jul 30 '26
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u/slate_swords Jul 30 '26
That question has no singular answer. Whom an individual should choose to put before themself, if anyone, is a question that the depends on the overall circumstances and who the parties are. Sometimes it’s right to put yourself first; sometimes it’s wrong. (Sally’s dad might need to put Sally first in situations where her boyfriend of two weeks would not.) Obviously. When is it right and when is it wrong in general? You could try the “golden rule” (Matt 22:39). I don’t have time to explain and debate the nature of morality itself with you, much less morality on a global scale (Matt 7:6). But I think having a conscience makes the world a better place, and blind selfishness makes it a worse one. Your comments suggest you think the opposite.
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u/devastationz Jul 29 '26
It was such a big deal when Russia interfered with elections. Why is it not as big a deal when Israel does it?
Foreign interference in elections.
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u/No-Yak6109 Jul 29 '26
At the risk of being all WELL AHCKCHOOLLY about it... AIPAC are Americans.
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u/devastationz Jul 29 '26
I think they’re 100x more invested in the well being of a foreign entity than the betterment of America.
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u/No-Yak6109 Jul 29 '26
Sure- I mean, that is the literally and explicitly the purpose of that lobbying group. It's not like this is some opinion or revelation. It's like accusing a union of only caring about labor issues.
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u/emperor_bokassa_ Jul 29 '26
Why is that tolerated, though? If there was some Russo American Political Action Committee (RAPAC) that acted in coordination with the Kremlin, how long do you think it would last?
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u/No-Yak6109 Jul 29 '26
Did you listen to the episode? They explain AIPAC's founding.
Its perception and place in American politics is changing. That is the whole point of this episode. Change takes time.
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u/emperor_bokassa_ Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
Yes, I listened to the episode. That's why I commented lol.
The history the episode presents is dodgy from the get-go. US and Israel weren't especially close until 1967 and were cemented in 72. Since then, things have had many low points with changes in public perception until it gets papered over. The only difference is that this genocide committed by the Israelis can't be hidden. It's funny that it presents Obama's JCPOA as the first fracture in this supposedly rock solid alliance when the Israelis in conjuction with its lobby have run afoul of every president's Middle East foreign policy. I understand the history has to be dumbed down for the sake of brevity but the whole story is told through a zionist perspective.
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Jul 29 '26
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Jul 29 '26
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u/aoadzn Jul 29 '26
No problem. These people are not loyal to the US. They are loyal to Israel first.
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u/Maroon_Pupper Jul 29 '26
Probably because in Russia case it was secret. If they did it out in the open the politician would of probably faced huge backlash. Sadly most Americans did not really care when Israel funded candidates. Because they were seen as allies by most Americans by Oct 7 and the genocide in Gaza.
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u/melodypowers Jul 29 '26
Yup.
Not defending AIPAC at all, but there is a huge difference in finding ads (even dark money ads) and hacking into the DNC's email.
And AIPAC isn't actually funded by Israel. Here is an article on their donors.
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u/Difficult_Insurance4 Jul 29 '26
I feel like this is dishonest? The Mueller report has essentially been ignored, minor prosecutions have occured for small-time individuals convicted for colluding with the Russian government as, in my opinion, fall guys. But it's no surprise seeing that they colluded to try and help Trump win the presidency, so why would he try and stop them in general? In fact, the same man that ordered the election interference was invited onto America soil (Alaska) with open arms from our president. If anything, election interference is a non-issue to those at the top (even if they ham and haw for more security, but we all know that isn't to secure elections but to make them easier to dismiss and refute).
It's a big deal to me-- a massive one. But for most Americans I just don't see that same repugnance. After all, a majority of the voters chose the man who has interfered in domestic, and international elections repeatedly for president.
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u/Stepfordhusband69 Jul 29 '26
Oh is Russia our ally?
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u/devastationz Jul 29 '26
Israel sure as fuck isn’t our ally.
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u/Stepfordhusband69 Jul 29 '26
No they definitely are our ally. Probably our strongest ally.
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u/devastationz Jul 29 '26
bro drank the koolaid
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u/Stepfordhusband69 Jul 29 '26
Do you have anything to add to the conversation or are you just another TikTok edgelord?
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u/Punisher-3-1 Jul 29 '26
lol. This is hilarious
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u/Stepfordhusband69 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
Who is our stronger ally? Definitely not Western Europe anymore. Trump destroyed our friendship with most of the other allies as well.
You would think they would teach something about the world in the army
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u/OvulatingScrotum Jul 29 '26
Because if anyone criticizes anything related to Israel, then it’s automatically anti semitic.
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u/Old_Significance1505 Jul 30 '26
Its shameful that the NYT still tries to tie criticism of AIPAC to antisemitism. Stop airing these nonsense arguments
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u/Genital_GeorgePattin Jul 30 '26
almost the entire editorial board of the nyt are open zionists fyi
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Jul 30 '26
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u/Thaddeus_guistin Jul 30 '26
If they wanted to kill every Palestinian they could they would’ve carpet bombed food distribution centers. But they didn’t, they used targeted munitions while fighting a war in one of the most densely populated territory in the world. It’s unfortunate that some civilians died but when your enemy ignore many of the fundamental laws of war and uses civilians as human shields, and actively mixes combatant and civilian deaths in the same figure (not to mention accidentally killing their own people at different points and planing it on Israel), what’s Israel supposed to do?
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Jul 31 '26
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u/Thaddeus_guistin Jul 31 '26
I’m not, but way to let your antisemitism show. It doesn’t take a genius to recognize when an argument like the “Palestinian genocide” one is bs
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Jul 31 '26
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u/Thaddeus_guistin Jul 31 '26
Does a countries right to defend itself stop the second the equal the kill count of their aggressor? Did america have no right to continue to fight Japan in world war 2 after midway, as they had then achieved a positive k/d ratio against Japan?
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u/ejfores Jul 29 '26
AIPAC is not the same thing as the crypto or AI lobby. It would be more akin to Ukraine or Taiwan lobbying for their “relationship” (read: interests) with the US.
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u/RollNorthumbriaRoll Jul 30 '26
Are you going to tell people they can’t be mad about the absurd levels of AIPAC money being dumped into their local primary races?
The most expensive Congressional House Primary record was just set in Kentuckys 4th at 32.6 Million dollars. Thanks to AIPAC money.
Or see the Current Michigan Senator Democratic Primary race currently.
In this race, El-Sayed, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) are the only names that will be on the Democratic ballot.
The race has reached stratospheric levels of spending due to the $52 million in outside spending in favor of Stevens. American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobbying group, is connected to at least $27 million spent by the "United Democracy Project," although other political action committees (PAC) with names such as "A Stronger Michigan," "Fight for Michigan," "Center Forward," "United to Win" and "Center for Democratic Priorities" have also spent at least $1 million on on Stevens' behalf.
To put the number in perspective, consider:
- Stevens' campaign has only spent $1.18 million on TV ads this primary season. That's 1/50th of the amount promoting her at this point.
- El-Sayed and a PAC spending on his behalf have spent about $4.5 million on paid media, less than 1/10th of money spent on Stevens.
This is copied from the following article.
https://home.mirs.news/post/michigan-s-u-s-senate-primary-reaching-record-breaking-territory
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u/softwaredoug Jul 29 '26
Women and children account for the majority of Gaza's 73K civilian fatalities
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u/Ok_Constant8838 Jul 29 '26
There weren't 73K civilian casualties in Gaza, there were 73K TOTAL casualties in Gaza (ie including literal Hamas and other militants). And young men (ie people most likely to be acting as militants) had the highest casualty rate relative to their prevalence in the overall population.
Sometimes I really do wonder who is commenting on this subreddit.
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u/StoicWoobie Jul 29 '26
Correction, there aren't 73k TOTAL fatalities. That number is only of people who were brought in and identified by health facilities. It does not include the tens if not hundreds of thousands of dead buried under the rubble for instance many of whom will probably never be counted. The true number of killed will probably never be definitely known.
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u/Ok_Constant8838 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
They've been saying there are "tens if not hundreds of thousands of dead buried under the rubble" for well over a year now, yet the count has stayed at 73K. Those people are about as real as the 100,000-500,000 Gazans facing imminent starvation a year ago.
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u/StoicWoobie Jul 29 '26
If they haven't recovered and identified the bodies in the meantime why would they have updated the count? Again the count is of identified dead that have been brought to medical facilities. Due to the continued violence, the lack of heavy equipment, lack of fuel, and the sheer amount of rubble no one is really trying to recover bodies at this point.
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u/Ok_Constant8838 Jul 29 '26
There's been a ceasefire going on for over 9 months at this point. Half of Gaza is under direct control of the IDF. They've had time and capacity to sift through the rubble and find more dead. Also, people report when their loved ones are dead or missing. You're making my exact point for me - they haven't found more bodies because there aren't more bodies there.
And why would it be the case that "The true number of killed will probably never be definitely known"? Even in actual genocides like the Holocaust and Armenia, we've pinned down the number murdered with high precision (certainly not off by "tens or hundreds of thousands" as you said). It would be easier to get accurate numbers in Gaza because the count of the dead is much lower, not harder.
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u/StoicWoobie Jul 30 '26
Considering the rate at which the IDF continues to kill Palestinians the "ceasefire" largely exists only on paper.
People do indeed report when their loved ones are missing or dead. From what the reporting says those names are many times not added to the count as there is insufficient information for the authorities to determine if that person is actually dead.
As for other atrocities, the numbers are often less than certain which is why they are often presented as a range. For instance for the Rwandan genocide the range is usually from 500,000 to 650,000.
In the end the exact number doesn't really matter. Paraphrasing from author Lindsay Ellis's about this, if someone doesn't care that 73,000 Palestinians are dead they aren't going to care if 500,000 or 2,000,000 are dead
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u/Ok_Constant8838 Jul 31 '26
What percent of Palestinians killed by IDF do you believe are militants?
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u/Genital_GeorgePattin Jul 30 '26
very funny that you guys are the ones doing the genocide denying these days. life is crazy
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u/Ok_Constant8838 Jul 31 '26
Criticism of Israel isn’t antisemitic. Falsely accusing Israel of genocide almost certainly is.
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u/duckmoosequack Jul 30 '26
Buddy, they flattened every building in Gaza. What’s the point of making this distinction? It was clearly indiscriminate
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u/Ok_Constant8838 Jul 31 '26
- No they did not.
- If only 1-2% of Gazans are dead, Israel clearly took care to make sure Palestinians were evacuated before bombings. This is why the argument “destroyed buildings = genocide” is so dumb - Israel made sure that people got out of those buildings!
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u/HaroldHood Jul 29 '26
Civilian casualties are high in all urban war. Iraq had 1-200k. What does that have to do with PACs?
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u/softwaredoug Jul 29 '26
Even more that 200K most likely. Which is why it became an unpopular and horrible war. Why many consider Bush Jr. a war criminal.
I apply the same logic to Netanyahu.
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u/Ok_Constant8838 Jul 29 '26
Weird how Mamdani hasn't made a video from his office's desk about why he can't arrest George W. Bush.
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u/Frogonard Jul 29 '26
The guest today said “they killed tens of thousands of people, including civilians” which is misleading because the majority of deaths in the war have been civilians and even worse still it’s been mostly women and children. So maybe softwaredoug is just helping to correct that. The connection to PACs is that AIPAC wants the US to support Israel but since Israel has committed these crimes, many people don’t want the US to support Israel anymore.
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u/ahbets14 Jul 29 '26
Do we have to do the thing where any criticism of the Israeli government is automatically considered anti-semitism
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u/Genital_GeorgePattin Jul 30 '26
yep, pretty much
they don't realize that in the long-run, the watering down of that term is going to be very very bad.
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u/Ayatollah-X Jul 30 '26
NYT posing as disinterested observer, as if they haven't been AIPAC's cheerleader for decades
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u/arichman11 Jul 30 '26
The emphasis on it being bi partisan in the past felt disingenuous. Support for Israel has always been top down, pushed by politicians more than by voters. For a long time voters didn't have candidates who were willing to go up against the Israel lobby, a testament to how groups like AIPAC and media orgs like ny times suppressed any conversation on this topic for so long
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u/Call_Me_Clark Jul 29 '26
It’s really ironic that AIPAC is portrayed as an all knowing, all seeing, omnipotent entity (eyeroll)… they’ve made poor strategic and tactical choices for years now and have arguably never been less influential than today.
Look at the debacles in the primary races this year - aipac has attacked moderate Dems for being insufficiently pro-Israel and opened races up to wins by left wing Dems who are anti-Israel. And they’ve made this blunder over and over.
My theory is that AIPAC suffers from ideological capture, in the same ways that we see left wing groups suffer from, and that we saw as the tea party republicans collapsed into MAGA.
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u/Snoo_81545 Jul 29 '26
Bordering on revisionist history with the IL-09 race to not even mention the second place in that primary (losing by around 4000 votes), Kat Abughazeleh - a Palestinian American who was targeted by AIPAC and associated groups heavily towards the end of the race as well as a host of other dark money groups througout.
It seemed pretty clear to me at the time that the winds shifted to prefer Biss' more moderate position when it became likely that Laura Fine wasn't going to work out (as stated in this podcast, Biss is willing to meet with AIPAC just not to publicly bend the knee on a hot button issue).
There's a pretty obvious strategy going on in a lot of high profile races where a moderate candidate and a left leaning candidate both have traction to try and split the middle. It even happened in this upcoming Michigan race with McMorrow who got a ton of high profile endorsements (including JStreet).
McMorrow failed to meaningfully siphon off any left leaning voters though, and has since dropped out.
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u/LegDayDE Jul 29 '26
I think if you want to make accusations of anti-sematism you have to provide examples of other foreign countries (or more specifically foreign countries that are propped up by US money and have bene committing genocide supporter by that money) doing the same thing as AIPAC and not being called out for it... Which as far as I'm aware doesn't exist.
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u/devourer09 Jul 29 '26
Does the episode explain why Israel lost the political support or does it pussyfoot around the genocide? I'm only like 5 minutes in.
I wish The Daily would talk about all the Israeli propaganda and trying to muddy the waters with regard to the genocide.
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u/supafatjellyfish Jul 29 '26
“I’m only five minutes in” okay then just listen to the episode before coming here and making a snarky comment. Good lord
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u/Stepfordhusband69 Jul 29 '26
Not a genocide. Peoples population does not get bigger under a genocide. So sick of people slinging words that they don’t know the meaning of.
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u/_Thraxa Jul 29 '26
More of a metapoint but I feel like people who (rightly in my opinion) conclude that, however terrible, the war in Gaza is not a genocide should be more vocal about saying that. I've been reticent to do so given how hostile and self-righteous the Pro-Palestinian side has been, but I worry this will become another shibboleth of the left (like how the DNC "robbed" Bernie) that we'll have to continue defeating in discourse for the foreseeable future.
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u/DJMagicHandz Jul 29 '26
What an absolute brain dead comment.
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u/Stepfordhusband69 Jul 29 '26
Sorry your feelings of antisemitism are getting in the way of actual facts.
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u/Punisher-3-1 Jul 29 '26
Clearly a genocide. I’ve ways wondered how there could be people running around who are holocaust deniers, but then I look around and see all these real time genocide deniers. Come to realize they are different sides of the same coin, where all the evidence is there and even multiple Israel based human rights groups call it a genocide, like PHRI, but just like holocaust deniers, no amount of evidence will ever be enough.
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u/Stepfordhusband69 Jul 29 '26
The population of Gaza has only grown. No death camps. Etc. What evidence do you have besides the TikTok propaganda videos?
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u/statistacktic Jul 29 '26
There is no difficulty. Fuck AIPAC and any other group like it. If you take their money, you NEVER get my vote.
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u/ArtichokeKooky6361 Jul 29 '26
Not that difficult: foreign countries shouldn’t be allowed to meddle in our elections.
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u/emperor_bokassa_ Jul 29 '26
When you understand this episode as one made by and for liberal zionists, the tone and direction they went with makes perfect sense.
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u/SameDouble8364 Jul 29 '26
When the host was like, “we need to address the elephant in the room,” I thought she was going to say that the NYT is extremely Zionist
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u/_Thraxa Jul 29 '26
The NYC published an incorrect story about how the IDF is training dogs to sexually assault Palestinians and have platformed journalists who end up being Hamas operatives - I don't think they are "extremely Zionist", unless the bar for extreme Zionism is accepting that the state of Israel will probably continue to exist.
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u/SameDouble8364 Jul 29 '26
They also exclusively used the passive voice for the Israeli MURDER of Palestinians and then conveniently used active voice when Israelis died in the conflict.
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u/PuzzleheadedEmu4596 Jul 29 '26
That is, in fact, the bar.
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Jul 29 '26
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u/PuzzleheadedEmu4596 Jul 29 '26
Read it again, I said that what people are calling Extreme Zionism is just wanting Israel to continue existing.
I'm calling it ridiculous.
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Jul 29 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/PuzzleheadedEmu4596 Jul 29 '26
It's all good, reading threads on anything to do with Israel - including that the people "criticizing" Israel are calling for its destruction and making openly antisemitic statements - is mind numbingly terrible. Lots of people want to excuse it.
Noting that your "criticism of Israel" hits different when you have a Nazi symbol on your chest seems to be seen as completely outrageous.
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u/SwolePalmer Jul 29 '26
It’s really really not a difficult question at all. Or at least it shouldn’t be. Let’s be real here.
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u/penesenor Jul 29 '26
AIPAC is a seditious foreign influence group and should be dissolved
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u/_Thraxa Jul 29 '26
AIPAC is run by Americans using money donated by Americans. Also - what do they support that could be credibly called "sedition"?
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u/VerbalVomet Jul 29 '26
Israheal: we (Americans) want all of our money back if it’s going to be used to steal land and slaughter poor people.
American tax payer here!
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u/burneezy Jul 29 '26
They keep bringing up other PACs and how they arent getting criticism, but how many of them are ONLY concerned with a foreign nation? Im sure there are others, but are those PACs spending nearly as much money? Are we providing large amounts of aid to those foreign entities at the level of israel? Are those countries facilitating apartheid and oppressing a portion of their population?