 We recently learned that APAC is planning to spend more than $100 million to unseat progressive members of Congress and that process is already well underway and we're gonna talk about that but first I want to talk about a revelation from Ryan Grimm's new book that gives us some insight into why APAC hates members of the squad and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez so much and spoiler alert, it's because they couldn't be bought. Quote, while in Kansas, the campaign got its first taste of what Washington was going to be like. A representative of APAC called Corbyn Trent and told him there was $100,000 ready to be handed over to Ocasio-Cortez to quote, start a conversation with the organization with much more than that to come. Chuck Robarty and AOC both told me they were shocked at the offer. The campaign was flush with cash and it was rejected out of hand. Quote, I was expecting the corruption to be much more subtle, Trent recalled. This was basically a bag filled with cash. Now this attempt to bribe AOC came after her 2018 appearance on PBS's firing line with Margaret Hoover where she criticized Israel's occupation but admitted that she wasn't an expert on the issue and still needed to learn more. Now that interview sparked controversy specifically because she dared to utter the phrase occupation when referring to Israel's occupation but let's go back and watch what she said. You in the campaign made one tweet or made one statement that referred to a killing by Israeli soldiers of civilians in Gaza and called it a massacre which became a little bit controversial but I haven't seen anywhere. What is your position on Israel? Well, I believe absolutely in Israel's right to exist. I am a proponent of a two-state solution and for me it's not, this is not a referendum I think on the state of Israel. For me the lens through which I saw this incident as an activist, as an organizer, if 60 people were killed in Ferguson, Missouri, if 60 people were killed in the South Bronx unarmed, 60 people were killed in Puerto Rico, I just looked at that incident more through just as an incident and to me it would just be completely unacceptable if that happened on our shores but I am of course the dynamic there in terms of geopolitics and the war in the Middle East is very different than people expressing their First Amendment right to protest. Well, yes but I also think that what people are starting to see at least in the occupation of Palestine is just an increasing crisis of humanitarian condition and that to me is just where I tend to come from on this issue. You use the term the occupation of Palestine, what did you mean by that? Oh, I think what I meant is like the settlements that are increasing in some of these areas and places where Palestinians are experiencing difficulty in access to their housing and homes. Do you think you can expand on that? Yeah, I mean I think I'd also just, I am not the expert on geopolitics on this issue. For me I'm a firm believer in finding a two-state solution in this issue and I'm happy to sit down with leaders on both of these. For me I just look at things through a human rights lens. What do you mean by occupation? I mean what do you mean by what do I mean by occupation? It's pretty self-explanatory, don't you think Margaret? But I mean like a lot of media pundits, she is being purposefully obtuse, she knows what AOC is referring to because it's pretty obvious. Now regardless, APAC saw that and they thought you know what, rather than immediately making an enemy out of her, what if we tried to bribe and brainwash her instead? And that's exactly what they tried to do. HuffPost continues, HuffPost followed up with Trent who confirmed his memory of what occurred. Quote, the implication was that her positions could be repaired with conversations, that her positions were based on a lack of information and lack of proximity to enough of a variety of people Trent recalled. But Ocasio-Cortesa, APAC is one of the special interests whose influence she had run to diminish. And by that time, she was already on her way to being an online fundraising powerhouse thanks to her grassroots appeal. PsyCott Shock-Rabardi, who would become the lawmaker's chief of staff, likewise confirmed his memory of when Trent brought it up. APAC denied to HuffPost that any of its representatives reached out to Ocasio-Cortesa's team this way. Quote, this is the first time APAC is ever hearing of this story, said Marsha Whitman, spokesperson for APAC. To the extent it ever happened, it did not involve APAC. Yes, because why would APAC of all organizations ever lie? It's not like they have a history of being dishonest and lying, so I'm sure they're being perfectly honest and truthful here. That's definitely the case. Now, like all members of Congress, I have my criticisms and disagreements with members of the squad, but I really admire AOC and other progressives for resisting APAC's bribes. And you shouldn't have to give someone credit for denying corruption and rejecting it, but when that's the norm in D.C., it's nice to at least see some members of Congress go against the grain, even if they know they're losing out on a lot of money and they're inevitably going to see money being spent against them. Now, this explains why so many members of Congress are afraid to criticize Israel. It's because APAC calls and they have to answer, otherwise their political career may be short-lived. Now, take Sri Thanadar, for example. So, on December 5th, he tweeted, I can no longer stay silent on the genocide taking place in Palestine. Israel has paid off politicians for far too long. I know this means I'll lose APAC financial support, but I don't need it. We need to come together to free Palestine from the terrorist state of Israel. Now, at first glance, you might think, wow, this is somebody who finally has the courage to do the right thing and condemn APAC, except he deleted that tweet and after he seemingly released that amazing statement, well, he followed up by saying, I was just, I was just hacked. I'm fucking believable. And then this leading tweet was sent from my account. I have deleted the tweet and taken steps to secure my account. My official statement on Israel is below. Now, I'm not going to read the whole statement, but he basically defends Israel uncritically and denounces the idea of conditioning aid to them because God forbid people think you're against genocide even for a second. That would be terrible. Now, look, I don't know if he was actually hacked or if an aide posted that on his behalf or if he momentarily was courageous enough to post that himself and condemn Israel before changing his mind. I don't know. But that right there, that coward behavior is the norm in DC. Coward politicians being complicit with genocide is just kind of what we've come to expect. And they refuse to criticize Israel under any circumstance. And in fact, they will reiterate that Israel is good despite the war crimes that they're committing. And they can say that because they don't even acknowledge the existence of war crimes in the first place case in point. There are some real questions about what's happening on the ground in Gaza, about the really extraordinary civilian death toll that has happened as a result of this war. Do you believe that anything that Israel has done in these six weeks of fighting has amounted to a war crime? Of course not. Of course not. Stunning, right? But again, this is the power of lobbying in action. It turns politicians into drones. It turns them into NPCs. And their dialogue tree is limited. What they can say and can't say is going to be determined by the interest groups who are funding them. It's the same way that the NRA buys Republican complicity and gun violence. APAC does the same thing. The Israel lobby does the same thing to both Democrats and Republicans. They buy complicity and sometimes enthusiastic support when it comes to Republicans in their genocide of Gaza. Now, if you go against the grain, you'll be punished for it, which is why so few members of Congress do this. And that's what's happening to Jamal Belman. He went against the grain. And as 538 Jeffrey Skelly reports, Westchester co-executive George Latimer has filed to run against Jamal Belman in New York's 16th congressional district Democratic Party primary next year. Belman is definitely one of the more endangered squad members, although mid-cycle redistricting could affect things. Now, Alex Salmon of Slate reacted to the news writing, there it is, after weeks of unnecessary hemming and hawing during which he stockpiled an extra helping of cash from the Israel lobby. George Latimer is challenging Jamal Belman, aiming to replace one of the party's rising stars as a 70-year-old white freshman congressman. Now, unsurprisingly, this news comes after Latimer returned from a trip to Israel. In Common Dream's ads, Latimer suggested to The Washington Post early last month that if he ran against Belman, it might be that this becomes a proxy argument between the left and the far left. He later told Politico that Israel would be a big issue, but not the whole issue and its campaign would focus on his record as the most progressive county official in the state. Sure, and I'm sure you'll all be totally surprised to learn that Latimer does not support a ceasefire. Jamal Belman does. Joking, right? Now, the sad part is that this is actually going to be a heated primary, and next to Ilhan Omar, I think that Jamal Belman is probably the next person in the most danger of losing his seat. In Common Dream's ads, Belman is the fourth squad member to face a serious primary challenger for 2024, joining representatives Cory Bush, Summer Lee, and Ilhan Omar. They are all among the eight progressives who, in October, voted against the bipartisan House resolution, expressing unconditional support for Israel's government as it waged war on Gaza. Now, on top of that, members of the squad were among just 14 members of the House of Representatives to vote against, a fascist-sponsored resolution equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. This is why APAC hates them so much. Now, AOC is already putting in the work to save for embattled colleagues and sent out a fundraising email on behalf of Jamal Belman, letting people know that APAC's $100 million effort to defeat members of the squad is already underway. So, I'm really glad to see her have his back already, and I assume that members of the squad will continue to stand in solidarity with one another, because that's really the only chance that they have at thwarting this attempt by APAC to sink all of their political careers. Now, in an interview with Mehdi Hassan about his book, Ryan Grimm explains how these attacks by APAC in this effort has kind of reinvigorated members of the squad, and they're now motivated to fight back, and they're not going to take this lying down, and other progressive organizations are trying to figure out some way to stop APAC from being successful here. You say in the book, and you talk a great deal in the book, and it's very timely given the war in Gaza, how APAC has targeted members of the squad over their pro-Palestinian views, their anti-Israeli views, as early back as 2021, when they denounced Israel's bombing of Gaza back then. There's now this reported $100 million push to primary them because of their call for a ceasefire. What's their reaction being to this push by APAC? So Justice Democrats has, I think, become reinvigorated. Justice Democrats is the organization that kind of was spawned by the staffers from the first Bernie Sanders campaign. They recruited and supported a lot of the squad. They supported all the squad, recruited some of them, and have continued to elect further squad members since. They've been a bit in retreat in recent years, both in terms of fundraising, staffing, a profile. But I think this, there's a phrase that nothing focuses the mind like the hangman's news, and the question has been called by APAC. The threat is out there that there's, like you said, $100 million is going to be spent to purge the party of critics of Israel. And so the only choice is to organize and fight back. And from my understanding, there is a broad based effort underway with a broad coalition of progressive groups to figure out how they can push back against this storm of money that they know is coming the next primary cycle. So look, I'm glad to know that progressive groups are forming a plan because that's the only way to defeat this serious threat. And look, to be real, in 2024 we could lose one, if not multiple members of the squad. That's a real possibility. I don't want to be too tumor, but I'm just being real with you all. So what we need to do is support them in any way we possibly can. If you live in one of their districts, consider signing up to volunteer. And if you don't live in one of their districts, then send them a couple of bucks if you have it. The squad is by no means perfect. No politician is, but they are by far the most progressive members of Congress we've had in my lifetime. And losing them would be a huge step backwards for the left. So we need to defend the gains that we've made. And that includes protecting members of the squad from these primary challenges funded by APEC.