Afrasianet - Raed Salha - Aisha Wahab and Karishma Manzoor have become prominent voices in the Democratic movement that criticizes Israel's war on the Gaza Strip and rejects the continuation of unconditional U.S. aid to Israel, as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) steps up its political and financial moves to counter this trend within the party, in a number of the last electoral races ahead of the November elections.
Wahab in California and Manzoor in New Hampshire stand out in this confrontation, where their positions on the war on Gaza, U.S. aid to Israel, and the influence of pro-Israel lobbyists have become a key part of the electoral battle.
In California, AIPAC's superpolitical arm, the United Democracy Project (UDP), spent about $2.5 million to support Melissa Hernandez and attack Wahab, despite the latter leading by a wide margin in the primary.
Wahab, a California state senator, is running for the 14th District seat held by former Rep. Eric Swalwell: the first on Tuesday to finish the remainder of his term and the second in November to win a full two-year term.
Wahab had a 26 percentage point lead over Hernandez in the special primary and 21 points in the full state primary, but AIPAC continued to pump millions of dollars into trying to turn the race around.
Wahab has taken a clear stance on the war on Gaza, opposing U.S. aid to Israel, calling the war a "genocide" and last year introducing a resolution in the California state legislature calling for an end to the war between Israel and Hamas.
Wahab accused influential political forces in Washington of trying to control voices on sensitive issues, and said her positions on human rights and what she saw as the interests of Americans made her the target of attack.
Bold America, which received money from UDP, spent about $1.8 million in the race, bringing the amount of spending associated with anti-Wahab efforts to an additional million.
In Florida, activist and Social Democrat Oliver Larkin is facing Rep. Jared Moskowitz in the 25th District, after AIPAC endorsed Moskowitz.
Larkin has been highly critical of AIPAC and unconditional U.S. support for Israel, and has made the war on Gaza and the influence of pro-Israel lobbyists part of his campaign, arguing that the Gaza issue has become at the heart of the struggle within the Democratic Party over the influence of money in U.S. policy.
In New Hampshire, the showdown is different with Karishma Manzoor, who is running in the Democratic Senate primary against Rep. Chris Pappas to succeed Senator Jeanne Shaheen.
She criticizes Pappas' perspective for having the support of interest groups, including AIPAC, and puts political money and pressure at the center of her campaign.
Manzoor also opposes unconditional U.S. aid to Israel, calling the war in Gaza a "genocide," arguing that a candidate who accepts corporate money or their political action committees risks transforming himself from a "public servant" to a representative of the interests of his or her financiers.
On the other hand, the Pappas camp says Manzoor is overestimating AIPAC's support for him, stressing that he does not accept donations from corporate political action committees and pointing to legislation he has introduced aimed at limiting electoral spending for foreigners.
The clashes come after AIPAC spent tens of millions of dollars in the Michigan Senate primary to support Rep. Haley Stevens, who narrowly lost to progressive candidate Abdulrahman al-Sayed.
The races reveal a broader battle within the Democratic Party over AIPAC's influence, political money and the future of U.S. support for Israel, as more outspoken voices in support of the Palestinians and criticism of the Gaza war try to turn the issue into an influential electoral factor ahead of the November election.
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