0:00

Welcome to deconstructed. I'm Ryan Grim.

0:02

Today, we're bringing you something a little bit different.

0:04

An audio version of a recent story I wrote

0:06

for the Intercept. The story is ostensibly

0:09

about the role played by an unusual coalition

0:11

of big money groups, AIPAC, Democratic

0:13

majority for Israel, a super backed

0:16

by LinkedIn billionaire Reid Hoffman and

0:18

another super pack funded by the now indicted

0:20

Sam Bankman Freed. What brought

0:22

them all together though was the goal of

0:24

beating progressive Democratic candidates

0:26

in Democratic primaries. In the story,

0:29

Mark Mailman, the head of DM IFY justifies

0:31

his strategy explicitly on the basis

0:33

of his pro Israel politics, telling

0:35

me that the left in the United States is too

0:37

critical of Israel and that the Israeli right

0:40

uses the American left to fear monger their

0:42

way into power. So he's trying to beat the

0:44

Israeli right by first beating the

0:46

American left. The money behind

0:48

these organizations, of course, has other

0:50

reasons to oppose the wing of the Democratic Party

0:52

that wants higher taxes on billionaires and wealth

0:54

to be redistributed downward. Melman's

0:57

explanation though takes on a different flavor

0:59

now with the extreme right in power in Israel.

1:02

Check out our episode from January sixth titled

1:04

Israel's rightward turned for more background

1:07

on that. I wanted to do an audio version

1:09

of this story because it's increasingly hard for

1:11

people to read super long features and invest litigations

1:13

on a phone or a laptop, and they don't easily

1:15

slot into a Kindle. So this is something

1:17

I'm gonna experiment. And if you like it or you don't

1:20

like it, Email us at podcasts at the

1:22

intercept dot com to let us know what you thought

1:24

of this format. And if you really, really

1:26

liked it, go and leave a review at Apple Podcasts

1:28

or somewhere like that. I also wanted to put

1:30

out a new version of this story because while it's about

1:33

last year's Democratic primary and it uses

1:35

one primary campaign in particular as the

1:37

vehicle to tell the story, It's about much

1:39

more than that and is particularly relevant

1:41

as we head into the next election cycle. And

1:43

with Israel's increasingly rightward shift

1:45

it raises questions about whether Democrats should

1:48

be allowing outside spending to so fundamentally

1:50

shape the process Democratic voters use to

1:52

choose their candidates and by extension decide

1:54

what kind of party they want representing them in

1:56

Washington. The story centers around young

1:59

Democratic house candidate named Maxwell

2:01

Alejandro Frost. In November,

2:03

Frost was elected to his first term representing

2:05

Florida's tenth Congressional District. I've

2:07

heard some readers describe this story as a takedown

2:10

of Max Frost and people are entitled to read

2:12

it however they want. But my own humble opinion

2:14

is that that misses the broader picture.

2:16

As you listen to this story, Consider what

2:18

would have happened if Frost had made different decisions

2:21

along the way, perhaps decisions that many of

2:23

the listeners would have preferred he made. Would

2:25

he then have been elected to congress? Alright.

2:28

But from there, we can say well, it's better

2:30

not to be elected than to compromise

2:32

one's principles. That's a fair ethical

2:34

standard. But if we allow a system to

2:37

prevail that requires a candidate to make

2:39

those compromises just to be considered

2:41

for office, we guarantee we'll

2:43

only get compromised candidates. If

2:45

we allow a system where the choices are

2:47

either to lose nobody or to

2:49

win on the terms of multimillion dollar

2:51

super packs, we are the ones who lose.

2:54

Democrats have it in their power to

2:56

set rules around outside spending and

2:58

primaries, but have simply chosen

3:00

not to do so. This is a story

3:02

on the consequences of that choice.

3:05

Alright? Here it is. As

3:10

Miram al Dada, a thirty four year old aviation

3:13

engineer in Orlando, Florida, prepared to speak

3:15

at a rally in May twenty twenty one,

3:17

he couldn't help but think of his family. One

3:19

particular moment from his childhood in Gaza

3:22

was seared into his memory. His grandmother

3:24

would often walk him as a boy to the border

3:26

fence and point to the property on the other side

3:28

that had been the family's home until nineteen

3:30

sixty seven. When the community was evacuated

3:33

amid the six day war, On the seventh

3:35

day, the family hadn't been allowed to return,

3:37

but his grandparents would sneak out at night

3:39

to tend to their crops, making sure things

3:41

would be in good shape for the family when they eventually

3:43

did make it back. They'd be shot at by

3:45

Israeli troops and sneak back. But

3:48

soon, the fencing went up, leaving

3:50

only the pointing to be done. Then one

3:52

day in the early nineteen nineties, about twenty

3:54

five years after the family had been forced from their

3:56

home. A lighter skinned man speaking

3:59

broken Arabic came to their southern Gaza

4:01

village of Bonnie Suhayla looking for

4:03

Aldara's grandmother. His grandparents

4:06

still held the deed or the paper at

4:08

least. The man was now living on their

4:10

property. Aldada still doesn't understand

4:12

why the man came to see his grandmother or what

4:14

he wanted, but vividly remembers an intensely

4:16

demeaning experience. Now there was

4:18

more fighting, and Aldadad and his fellow Floridians,

4:21

he'd moved to the Sunshine State in twenty eleven,

4:23

were there to protest Israeli evictions and

4:26

shake Jirai and he Jerusalem and air

4:28

strikes on the Gaza Strip during Ramadan

4:30

twenty twenty one. They were the latest

4:32

violent attacks in what had become known as the

4:34

Gaza War. Aldada hadn't been

4:36

back in years. In two thousand and eight,

4:38

as his grandfather was dying, he tried to visit

4:40

through the border with Egypt but was denied. A

4:43

crossing from Israel for a Palestinian is

4:45

effectively impossible given travel restrictions

4:47

that apply only to Palestinians. His

4:50

grandfather died and a follow-up attempt to

4:52

gain humanitarian entrance for the funeral was

4:54

rejected and he hasn't been to Gaza since.

4:57

Aldadha saw those at the rally as another

4:59

type of family. After he'd gotten to the

5:01

US, he joined the Florida Palestine Network,

5:03

a thriving grassroots organization that included

5:06

many Palestinian emigrees and non Palestinian

5:08

kindred spirits. One of the most active

5:10

young men in that group stood next to El Dorado.

5:13

Maxwell Alejandro Frost, who,

5:15

for all appearances, was a true believer

5:17

in the cause. Free Free Palestine,

5:20

he and Aldada chanted as they both got

5:22

ready to address the crowd. When was

5:24

his turn to

5:25

speak, Frost told those gathered quote.

5:27

Man that the man that all of the years

5:29

sees a world through the eyes of the

5:31

most vulnerable.

5:41

Following the rally, Frost, then twenty

5:43

four, posted a photo on Instagram with the

5:45

caption quote, Orlando is in solidarity

5:48

with all facing oppression across the globe.

5:50

From Palestine to Colombia, we denounced

5:52

it all, unquote. He added a thank

5:54

you to his friend, Rasha Mubaric, another

5:56

Palestinian american for leading the organizing

5:58

of the rally. Much love he said.

6:01

The most committed activists were all part of a

6:03

group chat where several dozen of them, including

6:05

Mubaric, Aldada, and Frost, all celebrated

6:08

the successful event. It was also

6:10

the start of something bigger. In the weeks leading

6:12

up to the rally, rumors had swirled around Orlando

6:14

political circles that valdemings, the local

6:16

congresswoman and former Sheriff, was being

6:18

courted by party leaders in Washington to run

6:20

for senate and it would soon take the plunge.

6:23

Frost reached out to Mubark, who he had met

6:25

amid the street protests in the wake of the murder

6:27

of George Floyd and asked her to be part of his

6:29

kitchen

6:29

cabinet, an informal circle of advisors

6:32

who make up the early infrastructure of a campaign.

6:34

Russia connected me with a few different,

6:36

you know, politicals, people

6:39

here in Florida and stuff like

6:40

that, and then she was a member of the kitchen

6:43

cabinet.

6:44

Mavaric laid out his path to victory.

6:46

It was okay. So

6:48

we're gonna run a really progressive race

6:51

that's inclusive of policy. To my rights.

6:53

Right? Understanding that this is a black

6:55

tea and other candidates will be a

6:57

split vote. Frost is Aprolottino.

7:00

So they thought he would have a shot even if he wasn't

7:02

a shoe in. If he's being able

7:04

to be the progressive bold

7:06

candidate, gonna believe

7:09

in

7:09

that, and it's gonna bring out a different base

7:11

than those other voters. Just

7:13

being the, quote, first Gen Z candidate for

7:15

Congress wouldn't be enough. She said,

7:17

being the first is historic, but changing history

7:20

via policy is entirely different. Being

7:22

the first Gen Z is only surface level,

7:24

and what we need as his residence are

7:26

deeper, a congressional leader in the state

7:28

of Florida that aligns with the notion that

7:30

everyone deserves to move with freedom,

7:32

experience liberation, and live equitable

7:35

lives. congressional leader that did

7:37

not leave any community behind. We do

7:39

not have that in Florida, she said.

7:41

A week after the rally, Deming's made it official.

7:44

Mubaric began connecting frost with donors

7:46

around the country and activist groups in the district.

7:48

Born in Brooklyn and raised in central Florida at

7:50

Mubaric's Palace in and family held largely

7:52

from the West Bank in Jerusalem. A national

7:54

political consultant organizer, she'd become

7:56

a prominent figure in Orlando politics. Frost

7:59

also brought on Rayna Patrice, a progressive

8:01

Palestinian American consultant to do his media

8:04

strategy. Word spread that Frost and

8:06

anti gun violence advocate connected to the Parkland

8:08

survivors was the genuine progressive in

8:10

what was as hoped for becoming a

8:12

crowded field. August twenty twenty

8:14

one, he officially launched his campaign. While

8:17

bombs were raining down on Gaza that May, another

8:19

air war was playing out in Cleveland, Ohio that

8:21

would not just profoundly shape the Orlando election,

8:24

but bend the arc of the Democratic Party in

8:26

a new direction. In a special election to replace

8:28

representative Marsha Fudge in the House after

8:30

Fudge was named HUD Secretary Nina

8:32

Turner, a former state senator and surrogate

8:34

for both of Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns,

8:37

pulling some thirty points ahead of the field.

8:39

Amid the Gaza War, she retweeted

8:41

a Jewish advocacy group, if not now,

8:44

that is the bane of right wing, quote, pro

8:46

Israel groups. Jewish insider

8:48

flagged the post in an article, noting the divergence

8:50

on the issue between Turner and her leading opponent,

8:53

Kahya yoga, Democratic county chair,

8:55

Shantel Brown. Quote, advocacy

8:57

groups such as pro Israel America and

8:59

Democratic majority for Israel reported

9:01

Jewish Insider have also thrown their support

9:04

behind Brown who has had to contend with Turner's

9:06

substantial war chest with less than

9:08

three months remaining until the August third primary,

9:10

according to the latest filings from the Federal

9:12

Election Commission, unquote. Brown would

9:15

not have to contend with that disadvantage for

9:17

long. Two groups. Democratic majority

9:19

for Israel known as DMFI and mainstream

9:22

Democrats AIPAC began spending

9:24

millions pummeling Turner on the airwaves.

9:26

Unified Democrats, Turner said

9:28

no, support Clinton over Trump,

9:31

not me in the Turner. Help Biden to

9:33

feet

9:33

Trump, Turner refused. Instead,

9:36

Turner said voting for Biden was like eating.

9:39

The two were effectively the same organization

9:42

operating out of the same office and employing the

9:44

same consultants. Though mainstream democrats

9:46

claims a broader mission, Strategic and

9:48

targeting decisions for both were made by

9:50

pollster Mark Mailman, according to Dmitry

9:52

Melhorn, a Democratic operative and Silicon

9:55

Valley executive who served as the political adviser

9:57

to LinkedIn billionaire Reid Hoffman who

9:59

funds the mainstream Democrat's pack.

10:01

The MFI has also funneled at least five

10:03

hundred thousand as to mainstream Democrats back.

10:06

Our money is going to the mainstream Democrat

10:08

coalition, which we trust to identify the

10:10

candidates who are most likely to convey to

10:12

Americans broadly an image of Democrat that

10:14

is then electable, Melhorn told

10:16

me, saying he relies on the consultants that

10:18

are linked to the DMFI to make those choices.

10:21

I trust them. I think Brian Goldsmith,

10:24

Mark Mellon, they tend to know that

10:26

stuff. While DMFI is ostensibly

10:28

organized around the politics of Israel. In

10:30

practice, it has become a weapon wielded by the

10:32

party's centrist faction against its progressive

10:34

wing. In fact, DMFI, mainstream

10:37

Democrats AIPAC, and the American Israel public

10:39

affairs committee, have spent so much money

10:41

that the question of Israel Palace nine, now

10:43

dominates Democratic primaries. Across

10:46

the country, progressive candidates who a cycle

10:48

earlier had been loudly vying for national attention

10:50

with bold ideas to attract small donors

10:52

were instead keeping their heads down, hoping

10:55

to stay under the radar of DMFI and

10:57

APAC. When justice Democrats

10:59

in the wake of Bernie Sanders first presidential

11:01

campaign began its effort to pull the

11:03

party to the left by competing in democratic

11:05

primaries, the issue of Israel Palestine was

11:07

not central to its strategy. But its

11:09

candidates tended to be progressive across the

11:11

board rather than what had previously been

11:13

the standard known as PEP for

11:15

progressive except for Palestine. The

11:18

insurgency inside the Democratic Party has since

11:20

produced counter insurgency funded heavily

11:22

by hedge fund executives, private equity

11:24

barons, professional sports team owners and other

11:26

billionaires and multi millionaires. Many of

11:28

them organized under a quote pro Israel

11:31

banner. Quote, it's been a radical transformation

11:33

in the politics of Israel Palestine and the politics

11:35

of Democratic primaries said Logan Beyron,

11:38

director of communications for Jay Street, which

11:40

describes itself as a quote, pro Israel,

11:42

pro peace organization. Last cycle,

11:44

Beorff helped to run Jay Street Action Fund

11:46

and outside spending group designed specifically

11:49

to counter the influence of DMFI and APAC.

11:51

It's meant less than ten percent of the amount its rivals

11:54

were able to put in the field. Melhorn was

11:56

explicit about its

11:57

purpose. I mean, you and her sister, which is like

11:59

a classic case study, where

12:01

the vast majority of voters in that district

12:03

are like Marsh and Hutch voters. They're they're

12:05

they're pretty happy with the Democratic Party.

12:08

And, you know, the insurance record on the Democratic

12:10

Party is she's she's a strong critic.

12:12

And so this group, you

12:14

know, paid money to make sure

12:16

that voters knew what she

12:19

felt about the democratic party. And

12:21

from from my perspective, that

12:23

just makes it easier for me to try to

12:25

do things like give Tim Ryan

12:27

a chance of winning in a

12:29

state like Ohio. Not a big chance, but at least

12:31

a chance, and he's not having to deal

12:33

with, you know, the latest bomb thrown by

12:35

Nino. So anyway, that's the that's the theory

12:38

behind our support from mainstream Democrats.

12:40

Mark Mailman, in an interview with Huffpost,

12:42

acknowledged that his goals extended beyond

12:44

the politics of Israel and Palestine. The

12:47

anti Biden folks and the anti

12:49

Israel folks look to her that's

12:51

need to turn her as a leader, Melman

12:53

said. So she really is a threat to both

12:55

of our goals. Turner told me

12:57

she was told she had to distance herself from

12:59

members of the

13:00

squad, particularly Muslim representative

13:02

Reshida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar

13:05

were facing onslaught. Here's Nita Turner

13:07

speaking earlier in a deconstructed interview.

13:09

And I was told by a prominent Jewish businessman

13:12

that would come in at you with everything you got, you

13:14

need to disavow the squad. If I didn't

13:16

do it, they were coming for me, and it also

13:19

Palestinian community didn't

13:21

have rights that were more important than

13:23

the state of Israel. I even have emails

13:25

right now to this day of local,

13:28

primarily business leaders. In

13:30

the Jewish community where they

13:33

were encouraging Republicans to

13:35

vote -- Mhmm.

13:35

-- you

13:36

know, in this primary, and we're saying

13:38

things like we must support

13:40

Chantel Brown in no way can we

13:42

let Nina Turner win this

13:44

race. Turner then shared some of those emails.

13:46

With me. Quote, this is a very important

13:48

election for our community wrote one Turner opponent

13:50

in an email to neighbors. Chantel's main

13:52

opponent Nina Turner was the honorary co

13:54

chair of the Sanders twenty twenty presidential campaign

13:57

as well as leader of our revolution, the

13:59

post twenty sixteen organization of Sanders

14:01

enthusiasts. She has raised money proclaiming

14:04

her desire to join quote, the squad and has

14:06

been endorsed by congressman Ilhan Omar,

14:08

see Turner fundraising emails attached

14:11

below the email read. Another neighbor

14:13

forwarded the email on to steal more folks adding

14:15

quote, many of us wouldn't bother with this primary

14:17

election, but this one is really important in

14:19

electing Chantel Brown is a must.

14:21

Whether a r or a d, you can elect

14:24

to vote in the D primary. On

14:26

August third twenty twenty one, Turner lost

14:28

to Brown fifty sent to forty five

14:30

percent falling short by roughly four thousand

14:32

votes. The deluge of money, the

14:34

MFI had dropped more than two million dollars

14:37

following the Gaza attacks tilted the

14:39

race. Turner told me later.

14:40

Clearly, Ryan had that race been in May. Right.

14:43

You would be interviewing congresswoman Nina Turner. That's

14:45

irrefutable.

14:46

On election night, Turner said. I

14:50

am going to work hard

14:53

to ensure that something like

14:55

this never happens to a progressive family

14:58

and fourteen. See,

15:01

we didn't lose his race. Evil

15:04

money mandipulate and maligned

15:07

in this election. The

15:10

characterization of the funding is, quote, evil

15:12

mixed with a no of manipulation brought

15:14

out fresh charges of antisemitism. The

15:16

race in Orlando largely stayed off the national

15:19

radar through the rest of twenty twenty one since

15:21

the primary wouldn't held until August of twenty

15:23

twenty two. As the year closed out,

15:25

Mubaric said about posting her end of year

15:27

Instagram shout outs and wanted to highlight the

15:29

work they'd all done the past May in opposing

15:32

gossamer. She went to dig out Frost's

15:34

old post, which had singled Mubarb out for

15:36

organizing that day and discovered it had been taken

15:38

off his feed. Mubarb called Frost

15:40

out on it. She he explained that a social

15:42

media staffer had scoured his accounts

15:45

and archived some posts and that it

15:47

must have been caught up in the sweep. He'd put

15:49

it back up, he said. But the reference

15:51

to Mubark was removed and a subtle

15:53

but meaningful edit was made to the caption.

15:56

Gone were references to, quote, all facing

15:58

oppression across the globe and the pledge

16:00

that, quote, we'd denounce it all. The

16:03

Post now reads simply Orlando

16:05

stands in solidarity from Palestine to

16:08

Columbia. When Mubarb flagged

16:10

the change, Antro mission, she said,

16:12

he explained that, quote, local

16:14

endorsers have a problem with your advocacy.

16:17

Frost told another ally that his goal was to avoid

16:20

getting crushed by DMFI. He

16:22

said, we're just trying to see if we can keep

16:25

them out. And maybe if they come

16:27

in, they won't spend anything. The

16:29

ally recalled him speculating. Frost

16:32

told me that he wasn't really aware of the influence

16:34

of outside spending at that point this

16:36

campaign? I I honestly don't know

16:38

much about outside spending. I didn't

16:40

really learn about the kind of

16:42

the outside money that played into that race

16:44

until, like, months after

16:45

-- Okay. -- to be done. So

16:47

even as it was going on, I mean, I saw the results

16:49

in, I looked at my side. I remember I was, like,

16:51

sitting in my head head, and I was just, like, damn,

16:54

you know, in, you know, Boston.

16:57

I remember being surprised and being

16:59

upset and then kind of saying,

17:01

this is, you know, not you know, I need to win. Right?

17:04

Like -- Right. -- more progress. Congress. So

17:06

I hadn't really connected those dots, to

17:08

be honest, and wasn't really fully

17:11

aware of kind of the role of

17:13

outside my team in general.

17:16

Campaign sources, however, say the issue was

17:18

front and center with questions about what type

17:20

of positioning might keep the outside money

17:22

out. When allies in the free Palestine

17:24

movement warned him that DMFI and APAC

17:26

wouldn't let up even after he was

17:28

elected, whether he capitulated or not,

17:31

they recall Frost saying, quote,

17:33

I'll figure that out when I get there. On

17:35

January thirty first, kickstarting the primary

17:38

season, Jewish Insider published list of

17:40

fifty team DMFI house endorsements. Among

17:42

them was Randolph Bracey, a local

17:45

state senator who was considered one of the most

17:47

competitive moderates in Frost's race.

17:49

Mubaric texted Frost the news. Didn't

17:52

think they would hop in so early, Frost replied.

17:54

They hate Progressives LLP. The

17:57

names on DMFI's endorsement list and

17:59

the names left off. Tell a story of the group's

18:01

commitment to fighting back against the party's left

18:03

flank and democratic primaries and an

18:05

increasingly extremist view of what

18:07

being pro Israel meant. Quote,

18:10

in Michigan and Illinois representatives Haley

18:12

Stevens and Sean Castan r with support

18:14

from DMFI, waging respective battles

18:16

against progress of representatives Andy Levin

18:18

and Marie Newman who have frequently clashed

18:20

with the pro Israel establishment over their criticism

18:23

of the Jewish state, the Jewish Insider

18:25

Peace Red, Leaven was an incumbent

18:27

member of Congress and a sigh of a powerhouse

18:29

Michigan family that included Carl Levin,

18:31

his uncle, and former line of the senate,

18:34

and former houseways and Means Chair,

18:36

Sandra Levin, his father. Levin

18:38

had been Deconstructed into a primary against

18:40

another incumbent, Stevens, who became

18:42

conspicuously outspoken about her unwavering

18:45

support for Israel, becoming one of just

18:47

eighteen Democrats casting public doubt

18:49

on the wisdom of president Joe Biden reentering

18:51

the Iran nuclear deal. To include

18:54

Lebanon among an anti Israel cohort

18:56

stretch the definition to a breaking point,

18:58

Here's how Jewish Insider put it. While

19:00

Levin, a former synagogue president, describes

19:03

himself as a Zionist and opposes BDS,

19:05

the Michigan political giant has frequently

19:07

clashed with the pro Israel establishment over his

19:09

criticism of the Israeli government, including

19:12

the recent introduction of legislation that would

19:14

among other things condemn Israeli settlements

19:16

while placing strictions on USA

19:18

to Israel. The AIPAC on Lebanon

19:20

helped define what DMFI meant by pro

19:23

Israel and included port for expanding

19:25

settlements and ruled out criticism of the Israeli

19:27

government. That Levin couldn't be written

19:29

off as anti Semitic made him that much

19:31

more of a threat, that he was willing to defend

19:34

his colleagues like Omar and Tlaib was intolerable.

19:37

Accusing Tlaib of antisemitism is

19:39

made difficult a former synagogue president

19:41

has her back. APAC CEO

19:43

Howard Kors asked by the Washington Post

19:45

in a rare interview why Levin was targeted

19:47

said, quote, it was Congress in Lebanon willingness

19:50

to defend and endorse some of the largest

19:52

and most vocal detractors of the US

19:54

Israel relationship, unquote. The

19:56

list also included Summer Lee.

19:58

In twenty eighteen, as an unapologetic Democratic

20:00

socialist. She unseated a member of

20:02

a powerhouse Pittsburgh political family in

20:05

a state house race. Her win made

20:07

national news. Now was running

20:09

for an open congressional seat with the backing of

20:11

justice Democrats and Jewish Insider

20:13

noted was a member of quote, the Democratic

20:15

socialist of America, which formed only

20:17

endorsed the BDS movement in twenty seventeen,

20:20

unquote. BDS, which is modeled

20:22

after the effort to boycott South Africa's apartheid

20:24

government stands for boycott, divestment, and

20:27

sanctions, was launched in two thousand and

20:29

five by Palestinian civil society groups

20:31

in response to Israel's construction of a wall

20:33

that cut deep into occupied Palestinian

20:35

territory. DMFI came

20:37

out early for her opponent, attorney Steve

20:40

Irwin. Quote, There's a

20:42

context here that I think we ought to take

20:44

cognizance of, which is to say that

20:46

we have had some organized groups out

20:48

there that have said they are attempting to

20:50

execute, in their words, a hostile

20:52

takeover of the Democratic Party, Mailman

20:54

told Jewish Insider, referring to the

20:56

organization Justice Democrats, which

20:58

cultivates progressive congressional candidates to

21:01

primary moderate democrats, but expanded

21:03

his discussion to include DSA. Freshman

21:06

representative Marie Newman had also been

21:08

backed by justice Democrats in her campaign to

21:10

unseat a conservative Democrat the previous cycle.

21:13

Mailman said, quote, a number of those groups

21:15

have moved anti see is realism from a

21:17

peripheral part of their issue agenda to a

21:19

central part of their issue agenda. Their

21:21

strategy is to go into deep blue districts

21:23

that the party doesn't care about because it's

21:25

going to be a Democrat no matter who wins.

21:28

Lee had early on heard that her campaign

21:30

was going to have a quote, Israel problem

21:33

she told

21:33

me. Know, we heard people, you know,

21:35

in the establishment, you know, talk about

21:37

it. You know, someone's gonna have gonna have

21:39

an integral problem. Right? That was kind of the

21:41

first. Mhmm. Ignite with her if we

21:43

from folks that she's gonna have an internal problem.

21:46

You know, it's an issue that we knew was

21:48

going to to come up or rate.

21:50

And I think it's really funny because, you know,

21:52

for me, you know, as a as a black woman

21:54

who was a progressive, you know, Israel

21:57

is is not at the state

21:58

level. It's not an issue we ever had

22:00

to talk about. Lee's Pointe

22:02

echoes a similar one made by representative Alexandria

22:04

Ocasio Cortez, a Democrat from New York

22:07

in twenty teen when she was getting knocked around

22:09

in the press for flubbing an answer on the Israel

22:11

Palestinian

22:11

question. I come from the South Bronx, I come

22:14

from Puerto Rican background, and Middle

22:17

Eastern politics is not exactly

22:20

what's at my kitchen table every

22:21

night.

22:22

But during the Gaza War in twenty twenty one,

22:24

Lee had once posted support for the Palestinian

22:26

plight. It was really one tweet that

22:29

that kind of caught the attention of folks.

22:31

And what they, you know, I guess, they kind of use, those

22:33

are, like, here. This is it. We got you. It was really

22:36

a tweet talking about on how it's better

22:38

and talking about how as a as an

22:40

impressed person, that view -- Mhmm. -- and foresee

22:42

a AIPAC. The topic. Right? It reality

22:45

is is that in in that services with a lot

22:47

of black and and brown progresses. Right?

22:49

We view even even topics that

22:51

they'll seeing connected. We still view them

22:53

through the injustice that we face with black

22:55

folks here and the politics that we see and

22:57

experience here are able to make connections

23:00

brew up connections to

23:01

that. We tried to do that in a very good faith way.

23:03

Her tweet read, Treyvon, a

23:05

kid, was walking in his own neighborhood going

23:08

home. George didn't like the way he

23:10

looked and assaulted him. Treyvon

23:12

fought back with his fists. George

23:14

drew a gun and killed him. American

23:16

government, quote, George had a

23:18

right to defend himself, unquote. She

23:21

went on. When I hear America and Paul's used

23:23

the refrain, quote, Israel has the right

23:25

to defend itself in response to undeniable

23:28

atrocities on a marginalized pop relation,

23:30

I can't help but think of how the West

23:32

has always justified indiscriminate and

23:34

disproportionate force and power on

23:37

weakened and marginalized people she

23:39

tweeted. The comment was shocking to

23:41

some in Pittsburgh. Charles Saul,

23:43

a member of Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicles Board

23:45

of Trustees, was later quoted by

23:47

the papers saying he was concerned about Lee

23:49

because quote, she's endorsed by some

23:51

people I believe are anti Semites like

23:53

Rashida Tlaib. He also said,

23:56

another thing that worried me was her equating

23:58

the suffering of the gazons and Palestinians to

24:00

the suffering of African Americans. That's

24:02

one of these intersectional things. If

24:05

that's her take on the Middle East, that's very

24:07

dangerous, he said. Lee had

24:09

no doubt she would be hit. She just

24:11

didn't know when or how

24:12

hard.

24:13

There was no world in which and and I'm being very

24:15

honest, there's no world in which I did not think this was

24:17

not this wasn't gonna happen. Mhmm.

24:20

You know, so I I knew that this

24:22

was gonna happen from the moment I

24:24

saw the ways in which the four,

24:26

you know, black and brown women who came in

24:28

in twenty eighteen, which is that say here that came

24:30

in the same house -- Mhmm. -- watching, you

24:33

know, the way

24:35

that they've had to navigate

24:40

the issue -- Mhmm. -- knowing the

24:42

way that they've had to navigate, you know, money

24:44

in politics, and seeing neither

24:46

Turner, it was a very clear trend

24:48

to me. So we honestly knew

24:50

on day one. Right? And before so on day zero,

24:53

it was something that we were thinking about having

24:55

to think about how do we navigate

24:57

it. When will it come? Yeah. The question

24:59

was always, like, when does it come in? But

25:01

I didn't think that I would have the privilege

25:03

of avoiding it.

25:04

Right. Tweet or no tweet. Lee

25:06

is convinced that she would have been targeted regardless

25:09

because the issue of Israel Palestine is a cover

25:11

for a broader assault on the progressive

25:13

wing of the

25:13

party. There's a different between having

25:16

controversial views. There's difference between having problematic

25:19

views. But with this does is it says

25:21

she can't have any views. Right? This

25:23

is a way to chill and to keep

25:25

the progressive movement from growing as

25:27

a whole. This is a way to temper

25:29

a movement that centers particularly

25:32

black and brown women who are progressive

25:35

and stopped him from building power.

25:37

Marshall Whitman, a spokesperson for APAC,

25:39

denied the group targeted progressive, specifically

25:41

saying, quote, The sole factor for supporting

25:43

Democratic and Republican candidates is their support for

25:46

strengthening the US Israel relationship. Indeed,

25:48

our packs have supported scores of pro Israel

25:50

progressive candidates, including over half

25:52

of the congressional black caucus and Hispanic caucus

25:55

and almost half of the progressive caucus. Our

25:57

political involvement has shown that it is entirely consistent

25:59

with progressive values to support America's alliance

26:01

with our Democratic ally Israel unquote.

26:04

Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, another braddock

26:06

president was looking for a way to dodge DMFI's

26:09

fire. Lieutenant governor John Federman

26:11

was locked in what threatened to be a tight race with

26:13

representative Connor Lam for a senate nomination

26:16

and Lam's campaign was openly pleading

26:18

for super support to put him over the top.

26:21

Early in the year, Jewish Insider reported

26:23

mailman had reached out to Federman with

26:25

questions about his position on Israel. Democratic

26:28

activist Brett Goldman told Jewish insider,

26:30

quote, he's never come out and said that he's not a

26:32

supporter of Israel, but exception

26:34

is that he aligns with a squad more than anything

26:36

else unquote. Nelman said the campaign

26:39

responded to his inquiry and quote came with an

26:41

interest in learning about the issues on quote.

26:44

Following a meeting, the Federman campaign

26:46

reached back out to mailman quote,

26:48

then they sent us a position paper, which we

26:50

thought was very strong, Mailman said,

26:52

but it wasn't quite strong enough. Jewish

26:55

insider later reported that DMFI emailed

26:57

back some comments on the paper, which

26:59

quote, Federman was receptive to addressing

27:01

in a second draft unquote. In

27:03

April, Betterman agreed to do an interview

27:06

with Jewish Insider. Betterman said,

27:08

quote, I wanna go out of way to make sure

27:10

that it's absolutely clear that the views

27:12

that I hold in no way go along

27:14

the lines of some of the more fringe or extreme

27:16

wings of our party, he said. I would

27:19

also suspectfully say that I'm not

27:21

really a progressive in that sense. Benjamin

27:24

unprompted stressed there should be zero

27:26

conditions on military aid to Israel

27:28

that BDS is wrong, and so on

27:30

and so forth. Federman said,

27:32

quote, let me just say this, even if

27:34

I'm asked or not. I was dismayed

27:37

by the iron dome vote. DMFI

27:39

and APAC stayed out of the race.

27:42

Does the campaign wore on aggressive forces

27:45

consolidated around frost. It

27:47

was a meaningful achievement since the left is

27:49

often hobbled by multiple progressive candidates

27:51

that splitting the vote and allowing a centrist candidate

27:53

to slip through. Levi Strauss aired

27:55

Dan Goldman winning a Manhattan Primarily with

27:58

less than thirty percent of vote is just the

28:00

latest example. The field initially

28:02

included not just Frost, but also

28:04

populous firebrand former representative Alan

28:06

Grayson and Aramasell, a

28:08

popular former progressive prosecutor in

28:11

Orange County, Florida, who had repeatedly

28:13

clashed with state Republicans. Grayson

28:15

had a dedicated but diminished base in the

28:17

district but frost, and significant part

28:19

thanks to the alliance movement organizer in the district

28:22

that Mubark helped him build began emerging

28:24

as the leading progressive. A truce

28:26

was brokered with Ayala drop out of the

28:28

race in early March and winning the nomination

28:30

for state attorney general instead. Consolidating

28:33

support was key but so was fending off

28:35

DMFI. Critical question

28:37

was whether they or APAC would put money

28:40

against him. Quote, it was a conversation

28:42

from the jump, honestly, because DMFI endorsed

28:45

Braze so early recalled Mubaric. Every

28:47

progressive under the sun who has even a little sympathy

28:50

for Palestine, the question of DMFI

28:52

comes up because they just dumped so much

28:54

money unquote. Frost, according to people

28:56

on his campaign, made it his mission to keep them

28:58

at bay or find a way to neutralize them,

29:00

but he had a balance to strike. Until

29:03

March, Ayala was still on the race, so he needed

29:05

to keep the full support of the progressive wing of

29:07

the party without inviting a multimillion dollar

29:09

onslaught. The answer came in form

29:11

of Ritchie Torres, bronchic congressman

29:14

in his first term and also after Latino.

29:16

Torres had made a name for himself in

29:18

three overlapping areas. He

29:20

was at war with the progressive wing, an

29:23

outspoken ally of right wing pro Israel

29:25

groups and a cryptocurrency evangelist.

29:28

In a private meeting with DMFI, after

29:30

winning his twenty twenty primary. Audio

29:32

of which was leaked to me,

29:33

Torres said this. You know, in New

29:35

York City, you know, we've seen

29:38

the rise of the Democratic Democratic socialist

29:40

America, which is explicitly pro

29:42

BDS. The Democratic

29:45

socialist left's endorsed in

29:48

about eleven races and one

29:50

every single one except

29:52

mine. So it's important to be effective

29:54

at winning elections. And I worry about

29:57

the normalization of of

29:59

antisemitism

30:01

within progressive politics.

30:03

Torres went on to say that his own identity

30:05

as a gay man influenced how he approached

30:07

the question of Israel.

30:09

A message to those who are both aggressive

30:12

and pro Israel, especially people Jewish

30:14

sense. Then in order for you to be part of

30:16

the progressive community, you have to renounce your

30:18

identity and your history and

30:21

your ties to your own homeland. And

30:23

you have to be in the closet. That Timmy

30:25

is profoundly evil. That's a perversion

30:27

of progressivism. A

30:29

DMFI board member said

30:31

It was just so beautiful and almost not otherworldly

30:33

but amazing the way you speak with

30:36

such honesty and conviction about

30:38

about Israel. Just be sure we could

30:40

clone you. So there were million Ritchie's running

30:42

around talking about Israel.

30:44

Another DMFI member on the call asked how

30:47

progressive pro Israel squad could be built,

30:49

and Torres told them it was all about building

30:51

infrastructure and support for progressive candidates

30:53

willing to side with Israel. When the January

30:56

list of races DMFI was building infrastructure

30:58

around came out, progressive campaign

31:00

ecosystem breathed a sigh of relief

31:02

that Austin, Texas was not on it.

31:04

Progressives were backing a would be squad member

31:07

in the form of thirty three year old city council

31:09

member Gregorio

31:10

Kasar. Frost said he watched Kassar's

31:12

race. We watched all the races.

31:14

Okay. You know, we're keeping up to date on

31:16

kind of everything that is going on across

31:19

the country as far as

31:21

voting trends, especially looking

31:23

at the USO different stuff

31:25

like that that we thought could might make that

31:27

might give us some trend information

31:29

to help at our race.

31:31

Kasar's absence on the list it turned out

31:34

came after a letter he had sent that month to a

31:36

local rabbi laying out his position on Israel.

31:38

He was opposed BDS he promised

31:41

supportive of a two state solution and

31:43

in support of military aid to Israel.

31:45

He also wrote quote, the humanitarian crisis

31:47

in Gaza and indefinite occupation in the

31:50

West Bank are untenable for Israelis' Palestinians

31:52

and our collective conscience. And he

31:54

added that he was against, quote, unchecked settlement

31:57

expansion. Qatar's letter to the

31:59

rabbi was published by Jewish insider the day

32:01

after DMFI's endorsement list was

32:03

unveiled. You

32:04

know, ultimately, the letter was in response

32:06

to a lot of people continuing

32:08

to insinuate that progressives

32:11

are, you know, I think that cynical

32:13

actors that insinuate the progressives or anti

32:15

tobacco.

32:15

Right. No. It's just not true.

32:18

You know? And and then particular,

32:20

I also mean, like, really progressive members

32:22

of congress who fight

32:24

for a policy that writes, I do not believe

32:27

are I semitic. Mhmm. But I

32:29

I have certain policy position which

32:31

is, you know, we should I do not believe

32:33

we should, like, be writing a blank check on

32:36

military aid. I think that we should. Provide

32:39

some amount of aid, but we should also

32:41

make sure we're not funding human rights violations anywhere

32:44

in the

32:44

world. Right? Like, that's just kind of a summary position

32:46

that I take at this whole time.

32:47

So he decided to put that position down on

32:49

paper. So I said, you know what? Well, let's just

32:52

write this down so that rabbi

32:54

Freeman can share this with people. And

32:57

that means that, likely, there's very decent chance

32:59

it'll come public. Mhmm. No. I did not

33:01

share it with

33:02

JI, but I'm not you know, I don't

33:04

-- Right. -- don't hold it against journalists

33:07

to hold the things. Yeah. Until we do. Whatever

33:09

you guys do it. His colleagues in

33:11

DSA were shocked and began

33:13

the process of rescinding their endorsements. To

33:15

avoid a nasty fight, Kassar voluntarily

33:18

sended his request for DSA backing.

33:20

The Austin chapter said in a statement quote,

33:22

we have long history of working with Greg Gessar

33:25

on healthcare, paid sick time, police

33:27

budgets, homelessness, housing justice,

33:29

union rights, and more. We will continue

33:31

to discuss this issue within our chapter,

33:33

and many individual members will continue to

33:35

support pain, but we will no longer be working

33:37

on this campaign as an organization unquote.

33:40

Justice Democrats, which does not have an

33:42

Israel Palestine litmus test, despite

33:44

the protest day agents of DMFI continued

33:46

to back him spending just over hundred thousand

33:48

dollars in support. An infrastructure

33:51

around Democratic candidates who sided with Israel

33:53

was more or less already the stated vision

33:55

of DMFI. In late January

33:57

twenty nineteen, in the wake of the election of the

33:59

first two Muslim women to congress Omar and

34:01

to leave, mailman announced the formation

34:03

of a new hybrid super saying in a

34:05

statement that he would stand up for Israel inside

34:08

quote, the progressive movement. Nelman

34:10

had been the leading poster for John Carey's presidential

34:13

campaign in two thousand and four and was a longtime

34:15

AIPAC strategist. The MFI was an

34:17

effort to do something of a rebrand for

34:19

APAC. Within Democratic circles.

34:21

APAC itself had become a toxic brand

34:23

inside the Democratic Party after the organization

34:26

worked to torpedo Barack Obama's signature

34:28

foreign policy achievement, the Iran nuclear

34:30

deal. Mailman's firm, the Mailman

34:32

group, had consulted for APAC's dark

34:34

money group, citizens for a nuclear

34:36

free Iran. The Mailman group was

34:38

also the second largest contract for APAC's

34:41

educational arm, the American Israel

34:43

Education Fund, which organized congressional

34:45

trips to Israel in the year that fought the Iran

34:47

deal. The biggest contractor that year

34:50

was a travel business then owned by Shell

34:52

and Adelson, a casino mogul and Republican

34:54

mega donor. DMFI would

34:56

also be able to deploy tactics APAC

34:59

wasn't yet ready for. Before

35:01

citizen united, APAC had grown its power

35:03

not simply with the wealth of handful of mega

35:05

donors, but through genuine and sustained grassroots

35:07

organizing. Synagogue to synagogue

35:09

from the nineteen eighties onward, APAC

35:11

organized powerful local support for politicians

35:14

who voiced unqualified support for Israel

35:16

and Iran high profile campaigns against those

35:18

who deviated. APAC's informal slogan

35:20

was that it didn't have enemies in Congress but had,

35:22

quote, friends and potential friends. David

35:26

Ox, founder of Hallev, which

35:28

helped send young people to AIPAC Annual Conference,

35:30

described in twenty sixteen how Apex

35:32

and its donors organized fundraisers outside

35:34

the official umbrella of the organization said

35:37

the money doesn't show up on disclosures as

35:39

coming specifically from APAC. Quote,

35:42

In New York, with hedge fund Titan, Jeff

35:44

Talpens, we don't ask a goddamn

35:46

thing about the fucking Palestinians. You

35:48

know why? Because it's a tiny issue.

35:50

It's a small insignificant issue.

35:53

The big issue is Iran. We want

35:55

everything focused on Iran, Oakes said.

35:57

What happens is Jeff meets with the congressman,

35:59

in the back room tells him exactly what his goals

36:02

are. And by the way, Jeff Talbott's worth two

36:04

hundred and fifty million dollars. Basically,

36:06

they hand him an envelope with twenty credit cards

36:08

and say, You can swipe each of these credit

36:10

cards for a thousand dollars each unquote.

36:13

Much like the National Rifle Association, its

36:16

strength was in numbers and a narrow focus

36:18

on a particular issue. After Citizens

36:20

United, DMFI could skip the grassroots

36:23

organizing component and go straight to big

36:25

money efforts directed through AIPAC.

36:27

At least eleven of the MFI's fourteen

36:30

board members had links to APAC. The

36:32

MFI's founding chair, Wall Street banker

36:34

Todd Richmond, also set on APAC's

36:36

national council and so on. Mailman

36:39

told me that his work against the party's left

36:41

was meant to undermine the Israeli right,

36:44

quote, I have sub substantial direct experience

36:46

in Israeli politics having helped

36:49

bring down Netanyahu. He told me in an

36:51

email referring to former prime minister

36:53

Benjamin Netanyahu. Nelman had

36:55

worked as a key election consultant for

36:57

Yair Lapides political campaign, serving

36:59

as a paid advisor, consulting with him in Washington

37:02

and meeting with his deputy minister of foreign

37:04

affairs, Lapides center right political

37:06

party, Yesha Thide, would surge under

37:08

Melman's guidance making Lapides Prime

37:11

Minister of Israel. Mailman told

37:13

me the simple fact of Israeli politics

37:15

is that the right uses attacks from

37:17

the US and Europe to its great and

37:19

assistant benefit. That's correct.

37:22

Anti Israel forces in the US do

37:24

vastly more to help the right than to

37:26

hurt it, he said. They enable Phoebe to

37:28

run as the guy who will stand up to the

37:30

US and the world to protect his country.

37:32

That has been a key element of most of his campaigns

37:35

The anti Israel far left has propped

37:37

up the Israeli right and done tremendous damage

37:39

to the prospects for peace between Israel and the

37:41

Palestinians unquote. Dmitry

37:44

Melhorn made a similar argument about

37:46

mainstream Democrats AIPAC interventions against

37:48

progressives that they were actually targeting

37:50

the left to beat the right.

37:53

Like, if you look at America as a whole and

37:55

you want the fascists not to take power, what

37:57

you need to do is trade a little bit

37:59

of your enthusiasm in

38:01

urban districts, enthusiasm that

38:04

does not generally translate into being

38:06

told out, because a lot less people help out.

38:09

And if they do, it's often in a safe district, but

38:11

they all have to vote. Transfer some

38:13

of that enthusiasm and energy. Just

38:16

trade it for people who are actual

38:18

student voters. Mhmm. Ho vote, but make

38:20

up their mind kind of the last minute. And it's, like,

38:22

not a big part of your leadership, maybe ten percent

38:24

big plus now as things get crazy. But

38:28

if you're going after the populist turnout

38:30

by going for a populist, and you're

38:32

also handing a message that is gonna motivate

38:34

the shit out of the other side. So remember, they're

38:36

already amp to be motivated out of

38:38

fear. If you need to turn or would have formed

38:40

that race, she would have been twenty percent of Sean had

38:42

these crayons out of the gate. Just,

38:45

you know, it just makes their job easier if some of

38:47

the shit they're saying is actually based in some

38:49

fact of some sort.

38:50

Mailman's new organization was rolled out with a

38:52

splashy New York times profile and supportive

38:55

comments from majority leader, Steny Hoyer,

38:57

who leads the APAC sponsored congressional trips,

38:59

Democratic caucus chair embassy jeffrey's

39:02

Senate Foreign Relations Chair Bob Menendez and

39:04

Arizona's freshman Democratic senator

39:06

Kirsten Cinema. DMFI provided

39:08

a forum for lapit first call with an American

39:11

Zionist Organization after his election,

39:13

during which he declared his intention to

39:15

reinvigorate his real ties to American

39:17

political parties. But DMFI's

39:20

first cycle hit obstacles. The

39:22

group's first play for power in effort to persuade

39:24

Bernie Sanders a dismiss to Muslim advisers

39:26

from his presidential campaign was unsuccessful

39:29

as was DMFI's later effort hit him

39:31

with TV ads in Iowa and New Hampshire.

39:34

Next, would be squad member Jamal Bowman of

39:36

New York overcame more than two million dollars

39:38

in DMFI's spending in twenty twenty to

39:40

oust representative Elliot Engel, the Chair

39:42

of the House foreign affairs committee and one of the most

39:44

outspoken Israel Hawks in Congress.

39:47

That Bowman won in a landslide and even carried

39:49

heavily Jewish precincts was a stinging

39:51

defeat for DMFI and back as

39:53

Bowman had refused to back off his support

39:55

of Palestinian human rights. On

39:57

May thirteenth twenty twenty one, around

39:59

the same time Frost was rallying in Orlando.

40:02

History was made on the floor of the House of Representatives

40:05

as Democrat after Democrat paraded

40:07

for an hour to denounce Israel's assault

40:09

on Gaza.

40:10

I feel the pain of every child who's

40:13

forced to hide under their beds because

40:15

they fear for their life and

40:17

every parent who deals with that anguish.

40:20

This is our business because

40:23

we are playing a role in it. And the United

40:25

States must acknowledge

40:27

its role in the injustice and

40:30

human rights violations of

40:32

Palestinians. Throughout

40:34

the twenty twenty cycle, APAC had been

40:36

content to let DMFI run the big money

40:38

operation and like primaries. To

40:40

encourage support for it, APAC donors

40:43

were even allowed to count money given to DMFI

40:45

as a credit toward their APAC contributions,

40:48

which then won them higher to your parks at conferences

40:50

and other events. But the unprecedented display

40:53

of progressive Democratic support for Palestinians

40:55

amid the Gaza War on the House floor was

40:57

triggering. AIPAC Howard Core

40:59

told the Washington Post, quote, we're seeing

41:02

much more vocal detractors of the US'

41:04

Israel relationship who are having an

41:06

impact on the discussion, and we need

41:08

to bond. The problem he

41:10

said was quote, the rise of a very vocal

41:12

minority on the far left of the Democratic Party

41:14

that is anti is real and seeks to weaken

41:16

and diminish the relationship. Our view is

41:18

that support for the US Israel relationship is

41:21

both good policy and good politics. We

41:23

wanted to defend our friends and to

41:25

a message to detractors that there's a

41:27

group of individuals that will oppose them unquote.

41:30

That group of individuals began coming together

41:32

in January twenty two. APAC

41:34

transferred eight point five million dollars

41:36

to the super packet set up called United

41:38

Democracy Project. Private equity

41:41

mogul and Republican donor Paul Singer

41:43

kicked in a million dollars as did Republican

41:45

Bernard Marcus, the former CEO of

41:47

Home Depot. Dozens of other big donors,

41:49

many of them also Republicans kick in big

41:51

checks to give UDP a thirty million

41:54

dollar war chest. By the end of March,

41:56

it had spent eighty thousand dollars on polling

41:58

as it targeted races and honed its messaging

42:00

according to disclosures. In April, it

42:02

dropped its first ads of the cycle, tag

42:04

teaming with DMFI to make sure Turner's

42:07

second run against Brown never got off the

42:09

ground. That same month, it launched

42:11

its assault on NIDA Alam, a Durham

42:13

County Commissioner in the first Muslim woman elected

42:15

in North Carolina. She ran for office

42:17

after three of her Muslim friends were murdered in

42:19

the gruesome Chapel Hill hate crime that drew

42:21

national attention. AIPAC spent

42:23

millions to stop her rise, backing

42:26

state senator Valerie Fusier in

42:28

the May primary. Elsewhere in the state,

42:30

APAC spent two million dollars plus against

42:32

progressive Erica Smith in another

42:34

open primary. United democracy

42:37

project also began hammering away at Lee

42:39

who was running in an open primary to be held

42:41

the same day as North Carolina's. Jay

42:43

Street's new outside money group had been planning

42:45

to raise and spend about two million dollars to

42:47

compete with DMFI which they guessed

42:50

would spend somewhere between five million

42:52

dollars and ten million dollars That

42:54

said Jay Street's Logan Beorff would

42:56

at least be something of fair fight, given

42:58

that APAC and DMFI had to overcome

43:00

the fact that what they were advocating for

43:02

unchecked limitless support for the Israeli

43:05

government regardless of abuses was

43:07

unpopular in democratic primaries. Quote,

43:10

we're always gonna expect the right to have more

43:12

money given that they're operating off of basis

43:14

of big donors, but that's a little bit

43:16

more of a fair fight instead of the disparity

43:18

between Jay Street and DMFI. But

43:20

now you add what DMFI is doing

43:22

thirty million dollars from AIPAC, that's

43:24

just in a whole other realm. Justice

43:27

Democrats, the working family lease party, Indivisible,

43:30

the congressional progressive caucus AIPAC, and the

43:32

sunrise movement worked in coalition with

43:34

Jay Street on a number of races DMFI

43:36

and APAC played in. And where they could muster

43:38

enough money, the candidates had a

43:40

shot. Joe Dinken, national

43:42

campaigns director the WFP said,

43:44

quote, if you look at the races we lost,

43:47

we were outspent by the bad guys six,

43:49

eight, ten to one If you look at summer's

43:51

race, it was more like two:one. In

43:54

a Chicago area district, DMFI, AIPAC,

43:56

and Main Street DIMS backed Gilbert

43:58

VEGUS against progressive DELURA mirrors.

44:01

But DMFI put in only hundred and fifty

44:03

seven thousand dollars. Hoffman's pack chipped

44:05

in sixty five thousand dollars and UDP

44:08

didn't run an independent expenditure Vote

44:10

vets, an organization that almost exclusively

44:13

backs centrist veteran candidates against progressives

44:15

when it comes to Democratic Mary's was the

44:17

big spender putting more than nine hundred and fifty

44:19

thousand dollars in. With support

44:21

from WFP, which dumped more than six

44:24

hundred thousand dollars of the race, the CPC

44:26

AIPAC, which put in four hundred thousand,

44:28

Emily's list, which put in two hundred and sixty

44:30

two thousand, into Vis which put

44:32

in two hundred and forty and j Street which

44:34

put in forty five. Along with the slew

44:36

of progressive members of Congress, Bernie Sanders,

44:38

Elizabeth Warren, AOC, Ayanna Pressley,

44:41

Ramirez won by more than forty points

44:43

and is poised to become a squad

44:46

adjacent member of Congress. All

44:48

told, Ramirez had more outside

44:50

support. One point seven million dollars

44:52

then did Villegas at more than one point

44:54

two million dollars according to data compiled

44:57

by the Center for responsive politics. Villegas'

45:00

campaign, however, outraged Ramirez

45:02

directly by about four hundred thousand dollars.

45:04

In other words, it was a pretty fair fight.

45:07

And in one case, where the packs found

45:09

themselves up against somebody with pockets

45:11

as deep as theirs, they fell short.

45:13

In Michigan, APAC spent more than four

45:16

million dollars against Sri Fanadar,

45:18

an eccentric self funder, who didn't

45:20

even know what party he wanted to join before

45:22

he funded a bizarre run for governor in twenty

45:24

eighteen, followed by a successful buying

45:27

of a state house seat in twenty twenty, then

45:29

followed by his twenty twenty two house bid.

45:31

DMFI didn't run an independent expenditure,

45:34

but Apex Evert was backed up by

45:36

a million dollars from protect our future.

45:39

Their candidate, state senator Adam

45:41

Hollier, fell short by five percentage

45:43

points. Danadar had loaned his

45:45

camp campaign more than eight million dollars

45:47

and spent around four million dollars of

45:49

it to win. In

45:54

the wake of DMFI's endorsement of Frost's

45:56

opponent, Torres and Frost began

45:58

talking. Mubarb warned him away

46:01

saying, quote, Do you know that this person is

46:03

not progressive at all? He seems

46:05

progressive, but he's actually very problematic,

46:07

not just on Palestine unquote. She

46:09

pointed out that he had been dodging other candidate

46:11

questionnaires yet had made time for Torres.

46:13

Frost replied, quote, oh, I know.

46:16

But he just took me under his wing because I'm after

46:18

a Latino unquote. To reassure his

46:20

early and most energetic supporters, Frost

46:22

sat down on a Zoom call on March ninth with

46:24

several dozen activists with the Florida Palestine

46:26

Network for a conversation about his views.

46:29

A former state senator, Dwight Bullard,

46:31

joined the call as well. Bullard told me,

46:33

quote, my hope was in being on that

46:35

call that he would feel a sense of camaraderie,

46:37

if you will. I'm letting you know publicly

46:39

I'm an ally of Florida Palestine Network

46:41

and it's okay to speak your mind unquote. In

46:44

the legislature, Bullard had been introduced

46:46

to the issue of BDS when Florida lawmakers

46:48

pushed to strip state contracts from any

46:50

company that endorsed the boycott. Boyd

46:52

was not himself a BDS supporter, but

46:55

believe the right to boycott was central to

46:57

any struggle for dignity or civil rights

46:59

and certainly was no business of the Florida

47:01

State Senate. Quote, To me, just on its

47:03

face, it sounded like a repressive anti first

47:05

amendment kind of thing. If students at Florida

47:07

state wanted to boycott Coca Cola, we wouldn't even

47:09

be having this conversation. But here we are

47:12

making this part of our legislation unquote.

47:14

He took enormous heat for voting against the measure

47:16

and began looking into the issue further. The

47:18

organization dreamed defenders affiliated

47:20

with the FPN invited him to visit

47:22

the region, and he took them up on it in

47:24

twenty sixteen. Quote, you can't unsee

47:27

what you saw and to come back and have people

47:29

be like, no, it wasn't that. I had people

47:31

trying to tell me that everything I had experienced was

47:33

a complete staged exercise, he said.

47:35

That year, thanks to the Supreme Court's gutting

47:38

of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County voter

47:40

voter, Bullard's district was redrawn.

47:42

And he spent the twenty sixteen campaign not

47:45

just fending off charges of antisemitism, but

47:47

also of terrorism. One of the tour

47:49

guides at Powell's Sydian had previously been affiliated

47:52

with the popular front for the liberation of Palestine,

47:54

which the state department labels a terrorist

47:56

group. And an attack ad overlaid

47:58

images of buildings collapsing on

48:01

nine eleven with Bullard. Seventy

48:03

percent of the district is new voters, Bullard

48:06

told me, and you have to reintroduce yourself

48:08

to people while they're putting up television ads,

48:10

saying you're a terrorist. So that was my

48:12

journey. On the Zoom call,

48:14

Boyd came away believing Frost was in sync.

48:17

I heard him say he was in alignment with that

48:19

group that he would be an ally if elected

48:21

to congress Boulevard said, a year

48:23

earlier, Frost had signed a Palestinian

48:25

feminist collective pledge and another Florida

48:28

Palestine Network petition that was

48:30

to be delivered to Demings. Among their propositions,

48:32

the latter called to, quote, end the US military

48:35

aid to Israel, unquote, and the former pledge

48:37

to, quote, heed the call of Palestinian civil

48:39

society for boycott, divestment, and

48:41

sanctions, BDS. According

48:44

to four Florida Palestine Network members

48:46

and allies on the call, Frost was clear,

48:48

he still stood with them, quote, I

48:50

support BDS, which is a grassroots

48:52

movement, Frost said. Though there was

48:54

no recording of the call, Akma

48:56

Daroldik, who was on it, added

48:59

the quote to a group text that was going

49:01

on at the time, and others on the call

49:03

remember him saying it as well. Miramal

49:05

data texted the group in response to DialDIC's

49:08

transcription. Awesome. Good job, everyone.

49:11

Perhaps even more importantly, Frost has said

49:13

that as he craft his official Israel Palestine

49:15

policy position, he would do it in direct

49:18

collaboration with his longtime allies in the

49:20

Florida Palestine Network. Far

49:22

as political organizing in America is supposed

49:24

to go, the Florida Palestine Network had

49:26

done everything right, build an association

49:29

of like minded people, project power

49:31

through rallies and lobbying of local officials

49:34

and back a candidate for Congress holding him accountable

49:36

to the positions he staked out. Alexis

49:38

State Toqueville would have easily recognized their

49:40

work as a quintessential element of democracy

49:43

in America in action, but Toqueville

49:45

knew nothing of super packs. Later

49:47

in March, representative Torres publicly endorsed

49:50

Frost. Torres told me, multiple

49:52

members of Congress approached me and said

49:54

you have to meet Maxwell Frost. And

49:56

what I found most compelling about him was his youth,

49:58

I remember running for the city council age twenty

50:00

four, and I was drawn to the notion of the first Gen

50:02

Z member of Congress. And then when I met him,

50:05

he's just incredibly impressive. I've

50:07

been of Congress as a gerontocracy

50:09

unquote. I asked if he had talked to Frost

50:11

specifically about the Israel Palestine issue

50:13

quote, we spoke about a variety of issues

50:16

and is not my place to tell either a present

50:18

or future colleague how to think or what to

50:20

think he said. You know, I might encourage

50:22

him to keep an open mind and listen to every side

50:24

of the debate. But ultimately, when you're a member

50:26

of Congress, you have to be your own person. You

50:28

have to come to your own conclusions and he's going

50:30

to be fiercely independent unquote. DMFI

50:33

had already endorsed Bracey in the race and asked

50:35

if Torres helped talked them out of spending

50:38

actual money on behalf of Bracey. Quote,

50:40

we had a difference of opinion in the race. I'm

50:42

convinced that Maxwell represents exactly

50:44

what we need in Congress, he said. Those organizations

50:47

are going to do what's in their interest. It's not my

50:49

place to tell people whom to endorse or

50:51

what to endorse just like want others

50:53

to respect my right to act independently. I

50:55

would extend other individuals and institutions

50:57

that same courtesy. I also asked

50:59

if he had put in a good word with the crypto world

51:02

on behalf of Frost, I don't tell them what

51:04

to do, and you have to be careful, he said, referring

51:06

to campaign laws around Superpact's and coordination.

51:09

But obviously, it was known that I had publicly endorsed

51:11

him. We mainly just spoke about being young

51:13

in afro Latino, said Frost.

51:16

He said that he was really excited to get more afro

51:18

Latinos in Congress and especially young men

51:20

of color and that's when he offered up his endorsement

51:22

and his help and support unquote. In

51:25

early April, in the wake of Torres'

51:27

endorsement of Frost, the fight for cryptos

51:29

report was on. Bracey, DMFI

51:32

backed candidate, announced the formation of

51:34

a legislative caucus that would include federal

51:36

and state lawmakers interested in crafting

51:38

crypto policy. Frost followed

51:40

on April twenty seventh by announcing quote,

51:42

national council to advise him on, quote,

51:44

cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies.

51:47

The Council included experts, but also

51:49

Adele Nazarian, CEO of the American

51:51

blockchain pack and Sean McAuley, Co

51:54

Founder of the Progressive Polling Operation Danaher

51:56

for Progress who had played an early role in Torres'

51:58

election to Congress. On May

52:01

tenth, Frost appeared on a crypto

52:03

podcast hosted by one of the Crypto

52:05

Council members. And that evening, at an

52:07

Adams Morgan Barr in Washington DC that

52:09

held a fundraiser hosted by Mackleby Ben

52:11

Wessel, Campaign Director for the Emerson

52:14

Collective funded by Lorraine Pal

52:16

jobs and Leah Hunt Hendrix, a progressive

52:18

organizer and founder of Way to Win and a

52:20

member of Frost Crypto advisory board.

52:22

Gabe Bancman Fried, the brother of Crypto billionaire

52:25

Sam Bancman Fried spoke at the fundraiser. Gabe

52:27

is the head of guarding against pandemics, AIPAC

52:30

funded by his brother and dedicated to policy

52:32

advocacy around pandemic prevention,

52:34

which teamed up on high profile races

52:36

such as knitter alums with DMFI,

52:39

AIPAC, and mainstream DEMS. Building

52:41

a stronger foundation was one of the vehicles

52:43

Sam Bankman freed used for his philanthropic giving,

52:46

and it gave money to the intercept for our

52:48

bio risk pandemic prevention and lab

52:50

biosafety coverage before going belly

52:52

up in the wake of FTX's bankruptcy.

52:55

A nonprofit affiliated with way to win, way

52:57

to rise has also donated to the

52:59

intercept facilitated by amalgamated

53:01

foundation. On April twenty twenty

53:03

two, according to campaign finance records,

53:05

protect our future, paid the mailman

53:08

group for polling. The report doesn't indicate

53:10

which race they collaborated on, but both DMFI

53:13

and Brinkman Fried's spent heavily

53:15

to beat Alham in North Carolina. At

53:17

the fundraiser, for longtime DC

53:19

hands, who'd seen hundreds of candidates come

53:21

through town, frost, charming and person

53:24

and charismatic on the stump. Was talked

53:26

about as a future presidential candidate, not

53:28

in terms of if, but when. Frost

53:31

said that his involvement with gay bankman Freight's

53:33

was rooted in an interest in preventing future

53:35

pandemics.

53:36

I remember we had our first zoom. There

53:39

was a phone call our zoom where gave us talking

53:41

to me about, you know, what are the policies

53:43

that they're championing? Why are they doing this

53:45

at this time? And honestly, pandemic preparedness was

53:47

something I knew about. Mhmm.

53:49

So I actually a pretty important call

53:52

with Gabe about what got

53:54

against pandemics is is fighting for.

53:56

And it actually really my interest because I remember

53:58

a few weeks prior to that. I was speaking with

54:00

some community members, and they had brought that up. And

54:02

I felt like, wow, the appetite for

54:05

pandemic preparedness will kind of

54:07

get, you know, lower and lower and

54:09

lower as time goes, as that happens

54:11

with mass shootings and gun

54:12

violence. And I saw parallel there. So,

54:15

yeah, I told Gabe, this is something I can get behind.

54:17

Protect our future, a super

54:19

link to guarding against pandemics, announced on

54:22

May seventeenth that it would be spending at least one

54:24

million dollars to back frost. Foreign

54:26

representative Alan Grayson competing with

54:28

Frost for progressive votes didn't buy

54:30

the rationale that it was all about pandemic preparedness.

54:34

Grayson said, quote, I don't think you'll ever

54:36

see a more clear cut example of somebody putting

54:38

themselves up for sale. He auditioned

54:40

for the role of corruption and he won the part,

54:43

said Grayson, who was pulling competitively

54:45

before the deluge of money. Mike

54:47

Klabin, a spokesperson for Protectour Future,

54:50

said the group's support of frost revolved

54:52

genuinely around his pandemic preparedness

54:54

position. He said, quote, protect our future

54:57

support from Maxwell Frost and other candidates across

54:59

the US was driven exclusively by our desire

55:01

to prevent the next pandemic. We take

55:03

no position on anything related to cryptocurrency.

55:06

Florida primary voters clearly saw

55:08

through efforts to distract from the real issues

55:10

and overwhelmingly nominate a leader who

55:12

will do what it takes to protect against catastrophic

55:15

pandemic unquote. Relations between

55:17

Frost and his earliest backers deteriorated further.

55:20

Even as that week, he also received a number

55:22

of endorsements in congress from senators

55:24

Bernie Sanders, was with Warren and

55:26

Marky to representative Primaella Jayapal

55:28

on the congressional progressive caucus. It

55:31

was becoming difficult for Frost activist

55:33

allies to square his commitment to the Palestinian

55:35

community in Orlando with his alliance

55:37

with Torres. On May eleventh, Israeli

55:40

forces sparked global outrage first

55:42

by killing Palestinian journalist Sherina

55:44

Abuakla, and then again days later

55:46

by attacking mourners and pallbearers nearly

55:49

toppling her casket at the funeral procession.

55:51

Mubark reached out to Frost asking

55:54

why he hadn't spoken out yet. A

55:56

journalist was murdered and she texted him.

55:58

This is an easy time to speak out in

56:00

solidarity for Palestine, unquote. You

56:02

were mad because I didn't put out a tweet she

56:04

recalled him

56:05

saying. That missed the point she said.

56:07

A tweet was the bare minimum them she was calling

56:09

for. Howard Bauchner: So when I said, as if

56:11

you don't believe the nationality of the pal, it seems

56:13

anymore for you to respond that way.

56:16

Because on any other issue, he

56:18

would never respond that way. Right.

56:20

Palestinian or disposable were our

56:23

lives are discounted, our freedoms,

56:26

you know, isn't measured

56:28

all of sudden the same light as

56:30

others. Mhmm. Right? That's

56:32

what I felt. Like, when he reacted that way,

56:34

He told the bark he had seen the horrifying

56:36

video of the funeral and was willing to do a

56:38

post he texted. She asked him to

56:41

send her a first

56:41

draft. She was underwhelmed to say

56:44

the least by what he said. In his

56:46

first draft, he didn't even include the word Palestinians,

56:49

called us folks. And I said, we're

56:51

you're not even using the word

56:53

Palestine, but part of an

56:55

erasure itself.

56:57

The examples were apparently not persuasive.

57:00

Or perhaps were persuasive in the opposite

57:02

direction. DMFI had spent

57:04

heavily against Sanders during his presidential run

57:06

up and was also busy spending Newman into retirement

57:09

in a primary. On May fifteenth,

57:11

Frost, quote, tweeted a two day old Lincoln

57:13

Post, leaving in the word folk and

57:15

adding a reference to, quote, Palestinians at

57:18

the end as people who, quote, deserve

57:20

to mourn without facing violence. That

57:23

Tuesday was a day that DMFI, APAC,

57:25

and mainstream Democrats had hoped would

57:27

be a death blow to the nascent insurgency that

57:30

had been gaining traction in primaries. Read

57:33

Hoffman's had spent millions to prop

57:35

up conservative Democratic representative Kurt

57:37

Schraeder who was facing a credible challenge from Jamie

57:39

McCloud Scanner in Oregon. There was

57:41

also summer Lee in Pennsylvania and Nida

57:43

Alarm and Erica Smith in North Carolina.

57:46

Alarm lost forty six to thirty

57:48

seven percent. Bubaric

57:50

said Frost really got scared after Nittigot

57:53

beaten. Smith who also faced more

57:55

than two million dollars of money hundred

57:57

and sixty seven thousand dollars from DMFI

58:00

was beaten soundly. And in Texas

58:02

the following week, Jessica Cicneros was

58:04

facing representative Henry Quayar in run

58:06

off she would lose by just a few hundred votes.

58:08

The Macloud skinner knocked off shredder

58:11

and progressive Andrea Salinas overcame

58:13

an ungodly eleven million dollars

58:15

in bankman freed money to protect our

58:17

future to win another Oregon primary.

58:20

The Marquis race, however, was in Pittsburgh

58:23

where APAC and DMFI combined to put

58:25

in more than three million dollars from ad blitz

58:27

against Lee in the races closing

58:29

weeks. Mera Talpens, the

58:31

wife of hedge funder, Jeffrey Talpens. Named

58:34

as the one hosting credit card stacked APAC

58:36

fundraisers in New York, gave five thousand

58:38

dollars to Steve Irwin, Incidentally. In

58:41

late March, Lee held a twenty five

58:43

point lead before the money came in. And

58:45

that amount of money can go a long way in the

58:47

Pittsburgh TV market. As Apex

58:49

adds attacked her relentlessly as not

58:51

equal real democrat, she watched

58:53

her polling number plummet. But then Lee

58:56

saw the race stabilize as outside progressive

58:58

groups pumped money in and her own campaign

59:00

responded quickly to the charge that she wasn't

59:02

loyal enough to the Democratic party. Justice

59:05

Democrats poured in nearly a million dollars.

59:07

WFP put in four hundred and fifty thousand,

59:09

and the progressive caucus pack put in two

59:11

hundred thousand. Her backers made an

59:13

issue of the fact that APAC had backed more than

59:15

a hundred Republicans who had voted to overturn

59:18

the twenty twenty election while pretending

59:20

to care how good of a Democrat Lee

59:22

was. On election day, she vested

59:24

Erwin by less than thousand votes, forty

59:27

one point nine percent to forty one percent

59:29

taunting her opponents for setting money

59:32

on fire. Four point five

59:34

million dollars set on fire

59:36

she posted. Had she not enjoyed

59:38

such high popularity and name recognition in

59:40

the district, AIPAC wipe out of her twenty five

59:42

point lead in six weeks would have been enough

59:44

to beat her. John Federman meanwhile

59:47

was able to face his centrist opponent in

59:49

an open seat for Pennsylvania senate

59:51

without taking on a super two,

59:53

and he won easily. Mubarb

59:55

let Frost know she was disappointed by

59:58

the soft pedal post on Abuakla, but

1:00:00

told him not to dwell on Alam's loss.

1:00:02

What was the goal of winning if he didn't stay true

1:00:04

to his values she asked? Just to

1:00:06

put it into perspective, Last year, you were

1:00:08

screaming and leading chance with us. This

1:00:10

year, we are begging for a retweet she

1:00:12

texted. I keep trying so

1:00:14

hard to be a resource, a good friend and an

1:00:17

advocate to and for you since the very

1:00:19

first day I met you. Even before

1:00:21

you wanted to run for office, you can't

1:00:23

say that of the very same folks

1:00:25

who you may be listening to regarding Palestine.

1:00:28

On May twenty first, Frost dissolved his

1:00:30

kitchen cabinet. Bracey, the Frost

1:00:32

opponent who's hoped for surge of the MFI

1:00:34

money never arrived, had been disappointed Mubaric

1:00:37

had gone with frost over him. Quote,

1:00:39

I've known her for a long time and we've

1:00:41

worked together on stuff but she was so

1:00:43

mad when I got endorsed by DMFI, Bracey

1:00:46

said, this was something where we just

1:00:48

didn't agree because I guess I've got a different

1:00:50

viewpoint after going to Israel myself and

1:00:52

going to Palestine and seeing things from myself

1:00:54

unquote. Bracey had previously gone on

1:00:56

an APAC sponsored trip to Israel. She

1:00:59

told him the issue was deeply important to her

1:01:01

and that she'd be publicly supporting Frost.

1:01:04

She was saying how she was going to support Maxwell

1:01:06

just because of this issue. And I was like, you know,

1:01:08

that hurts but I get it. And then he basically,

1:01:10

after he got all of her contacts, put

1:01:12

her political capital behind him. She's

1:01:14

got a following in Central Florida. And he flipped,

1:01:16

I was like, at least I really believed

1:01:18

it, unquote. By early June,

1:01:20

pressure was building for Frost to grant an interview

1:01:23

to Jewish Insider. For months, campaign

1:01:25

manager Kevin Locke had been fending off the

1:01:27

request, which had come in shortly after Torres's

1:01:30

endorsement. He told the campaign's

1:01:32

consultant in a group text on June fourth

1:01:34

that, quote, I've been kicking the can on this for two

1:01:36

months. I don't think we can kick it much longer.

1:01:39

I was just going to get them to send the questions

1:01:41

and we can respond over email. Seems

1:01:43

like far too much risk to do it over the

1:01:45

phone. Jay Street has offered to review

1:01:47

our responses before we submit them.

1:01:49

We're definitely aware of the sort of coverage

1:01:52

that Jayeye does. Any flags

1:01:54

or thoughts before we proceed? One

1:01:56

of the consultants asked if Lata knew the angle

1:01:58

of the story and who was reporting it, and Lata

1:02:00

shared the reporter's email with the group. The

1:02:02

reporter had written quote, Max as of interest

1:02:05

to us for a variety of reasons, one

1:02:07

among them being that he earned an endorsement from

1:02:09

representative Torres, which is likely of interest

1:02:11

to our readers because we often write about his efforts

1:02:13

in the house. The reporter had explained

1:02:15

on April thirteenth, noting he'd want

1:02:17

to ask about the Iran nuclear deal,

1:02:19

combating antisemitism, and the US

1:02:22

Israel relationship. Lots of texts,

1:02:24

quote, he hit me up again three days ago,

1:02:26

which coincided with us sending around our

1:02:28

paper. So I feel pretty confident

1:02:31

that he has it. Our paper,

1:02:33

the frost position paper on Israel

1:02:35

Palestine was out. The

1:02:38

paper that the Florida Palestine Network was

1:02:40

sure a frosted workshop with them had

1:02:42

already been drafted and submitted. Some

1:02:44

of the consultants seem taken back Victoria

1:02:47

McGurray texted, what is the

1:02:49

paper? And how did they get it? Rayne

1:02:51

of Patrice, the Palestinian American media

1:02:54

consultant on the chain asked about it too.

1:02:56

Texting, I still haven't seen the

1:02:58

paper and would very much like to.

1:03:01

What is Maxwell going to say about the Iran

1:03:03

nuclear deal? What about things like additional

1:03:05

funding to Israel, etcetera. What

1:03:07

is the, quote, nonworst case you're envisioning

1:03:10

here? Lots of responded quote,

1:03:12

it's all in the paper. Patrice

1:03:14

continued to argue against granting an interview

1:03:16

and insisted the paper be shared more widely.

1:03:19

But she and others pushing Frost on Israel policy

1:03:22

had already lost. Within forty

1:03:24

eight hours, Frost fired Patrice,

1:03:26

who declined to come it for this article. To

1:03:29

replace her as a media consultant, he brought

1:03:31

in Mark Putnam of Putnam Partners.

1:03:33

Putnam often partners on campaigns

1:03:36

with Mark Mailman, the head of DMFI. Though

1:03:39

Frost had formally dissolved the kitchen cabinet,

1:03:41

he stayed in touch with Mubaric. On

1:03:44

June twenty third, They met one on one in

1:03:46

a cafe in downtown Orlando where she

1:03:48

raised the firing of Patrice. Mubarb

1:03:50

warned him that at bare minimum, the optics

1:03:52

having pushed out the only two Palestinian women

1:03:54

on the campaign while he was shifting his

1:03:57

position were troubling. Frost,

1:03:59

she said denied his break with Beatrice

1:04:01

had anything to do with her pushback. Mubark

1:04:04

asked if it was true that an Israel policy

1:04:06

statement was being drafted or had and

1:04:09

he told her that it was and talk through some

1:04:11

of his new thinking on the

1:04:12

issue. I reminded him to come in

1:04:14

into the sort of Palestine Network saying

1:04:17

you promised this organization, this

1:04:20

group of people that you were part of it

1:04:22

at at one point, like, that

1:04:24

you would only release something

1:04:26

with our eyes on it, our review,

1:04:28

and our approval. And

1:04:31

he never sent it to us.

1:04:33

He we had no idea that was

1:04:35

coming out. Like, you know, a

1:04:38

part of my, you know, false

1:04:41

hope was kicked in. Like, maybe he's

1:04:44

still gonna come through, you know, and then

1:04:47

It just was released, and we had

1:04:49

no idea about it. And

1:04:52

yeah. The

1:04:53

Bracey campaign concerned that there

1:04:55

had yet be an independent expenditure by

1:04:57

either DMFI or AIPAC,

1:04:59

reached out to both to ask what was up

1:05:02

according to a source with direct knowledge the

1:05:04

exchanges. Bad news

1:05:06

came back. Torres and other influential

1:05:08

figures had weighed in on Frost behalf,

1:05:10

and his new position made super

1:05:12

expanding unnecessary. In

1:05:15

mid July, Maryland voters went to

1:05:17

the polls in another Democratic primary.

1:05:19

This one pitting former and Adonis Edwards,

1:05:21

who'd won an insurgent campaign against an incumbent

1:05:24

turned lobbyists back in two thousand eight,

1:05:26

and was now trying to make a comeback against

1:05:28

an establishment democrat. During her

1:05:30

first year in congress, she had voted president

1:05:32

on a pro Israel resolution amid

1:05:34

its latest war on Gaza and cast a

1:05:36

handful of other votes that deviated from

1:05:38

a one hundred percent eight pack aligned voting

1:05:40

record. EMFI and eight pack backed

1:05:42

her corporate attorney opponent taking a race

1:05:44

that was Edwards to lose and with a staggering

1:05:47

six million plus in spending

1:05:49

turned it into a landslide against her.

1:05:52

The ads, as usual, did not mention

1:05:54

Israel Palestine, but instead attacked

1:05:56

Edwards as a black woman as lazy when

1:05:58

it came to detection service, a

1:06:00

charge even house speaker Nancy Pelosi

1:06:02

and ally of APAC weighed into protest.

1:06:06

Howard Kors, the APAC CEO, told

1:06:08

the Washington and post this explaining why

1:06:10

its primary ads don't mention Israel.

1:06:12

Quote, it's focused on the issues

1:06:15

that are important to the voters in that district.

1:06:17

The objective here is to ensure that your candidate

1:06:20

emerges victorious and that the anti

1:06:22

Israel candidate is defeated. Florida's

1:06:25

primaries were among the in the country.

1:06:27

And the frost campaign did manage to

1:06:29

delay the Jewish insider piece a bit longer,

1:06:32

helping frost solidify his standing as

1:06:34

the leading progressive in the race. But on August

1:06:36

eleventh, less than two weeks before the primary,

1:06:38

and after early voting had begun, the

1:06:40

article finally ran. Frost

1:06:43

said that the campaign had submitted its answers

1:06:45

by July, but the article didn't run until

1:06:47

later. Reported Jewish insider, quote,

1:06:50

the first time Canada has indicated he will pursue

1:06:52

a nuanced and somewhat more balanced approach to the Israeli

1:06:54

Palestinian conflict than one might expect

1:06:56

of a staunch progressive who was otherwise aligned

1:06:58

with the activist left. On such trademark

1:07:00

legislative objectives as Medicare for all in

1:07:02

the Green New Deal. Republican questionnaires elicited

1:07:05

by Jewish insider, however, Frost distanced

1:07:07

himself from measures that would penalize Israel,

1:07:10

rejecting the boycott divestment and sanctions

1:07:12

movement as, quote, problematic, all opposing

1:07:14

calls to condition USA to Israel. More

1:07:16

broadly, Frost said he is, quote, committed to

1:07:18

supporting continued military assistance that,

1:07:20

quote, helps Israel can properly

1:07:22

defend itself. Frost elaborated

1:07:25

in his position paper, which was obtained by

1:07:27

j I, that he would also advocate

1:07:29

for, quote, robust US assistance that benefits

1:07:32

the Palestinian people and is in compliance

1:07:34

with the Taylor Force Act referring to a law

1:07:36

that withholds aid to the Palestinian authority

1:07:38

on the condition that Rambula ends payments

1:07:40

to families of terrorists. The assistance

1:07:43

he wrote serves an essential role in meeting

1:07:45

Palestinian humanitarian needs, unquote.

1:07:47

The position paper published by JI

1:07:50

was even starker. No conditions

1:07:52

should be placed on military aid to Israel he wrote

1:07:54

in the paper and he reversed course on BDS.

1:07:57

He said, quote, I believe that the boycott

1:07:59

sanction and divestment movement is extremely

1:08:01

problematic and undermines the chances of peace

1:08:04

and a two state solution it hurts

1:08:06

both Palestinians and Israelis who suffer

1:08:08

economically from it. Hamas Palestinian

1:08:10

Islamic Qihad and the popular front for the

1:08:12

liberation of Palestine have been designated by

1:08:14

the United States terrorist organizations, and

1:08:16

all these groups are a part of the Central BDS

1:08:19

Movement Council, which in my eye

1:08:21

de legitimizes the entire organization

1:08:23

and movement. Aldada, who had chanted

1:08:26

next to frost at the Gaza War rally

1:08:28

and volunteered for his campaign was shocked.

1:08:30

But it was so late in the campaign most voters

1:08:32

had made up their minds. I know personally

1:08:35

about thirty five people who for a fact

1:08:37

voted for Max because of me, Aldada said,

1:08:39

I didn't vote at all. Frost said that

1:08:41

in his march beating with the Florida Palestine

1:08:44

Network, he was honest about where he

1:08:46

stood at the time, but later evolved

1:08:48

his position particularly on BDS.

1:08:50

His support of it as he quote, grassroots movement

1:08:53

he said was undercut when he learned that groups

1:08:55

like hamas and Palestinian Islamic

1:08:57

Qihad were central players in

1:08:58

it. I think there was a nuance that

1:09:00

I was trying to hit there, that

1:09:02

I was asking about, that as I

1:09:04

spoke with other organizations, other

1:09:06

people from all different sides that

1:09:09

I found out about that. Kind of

1:09:11

what I was trying to hit at just didn't make sense.

1:09:14

And that was part of my needing

1:09:16

naive on the issue. But, you know,

1:09:18

as time went past, I've, you

1:09:20

know, contacted Raja and

1:09:22

other folks to express kind of where my head

1:09:24

was

1:09:25

at.

1:09:25

As for military aid, Frost said he'd evolved

1:09:27

there too after numerous conversations. I

1:09:30

spent a long time speaking with different groups

1:09:32

and different people and visuals on my fish correct,

1:09:35

sergeant leaders, you know, different organizations and

1:09:39

really came down to understanding how

1:09:42

how things are over there and have

1:09:44

to read it and just really feel

1:09:46

like that, you know, that our

1:09:48

commitment to Israel that we have, again,

1:09:50

like, you president Obama signed is something that,

1:09:52

like, I support. And so that's

1:09:54

why, you know, we that's why we were pretty

1:09:57

specific on kind of writing that out in the paper.

1:09:59

Bouard said he was disappointed to learn a frost

1:10:01

turnaround. Well, you want people who have

1:10:03

level of conviction who when confronted with

1:10:05

and I get it. You're now being put in a position

1:10:08

where people are telling you why you need to think a

1:10:10

particular way, but you also have to recognize

1:10:12

that there's a dominant narrative that does not create

1:10:14

sense of equity around issues of Palestine

1:10:16

in the American context, he said. You

1:10:18

have to make the decision of whether you're going to

1:10:20

stand firm or you're just going to take the

1:10:22

safe position. Frost said that DMFI

1:10:24

and APAC can't take credit for his evolution

1:10:26

because it came from inside his district.

1:10:29

For me, it wasn't really about the

1:10:31

spending, but it was out the dialogues

1:10:34

in districts and, you know,

1:10:36

and and kind of like my conversations with

1:10:39

people. So, like, my district

1:10:41

changed a lot in the middle of the campaign,

1:10:43

and they began with a district where, like, the JCC

1:10:46

is at it now. There's a lot of

1:10:48

truth community in it. And

1:10:50

when that change happened, I

1:10:52

engaged with those communities I'm just,

1:10:54

like, started to really dive into it.

1:10:56

If if I were to look at the timeline, the

1:10:59

maps, I

1:10:59

think, changed around March or April, and

1:11:01

that's exactly when I started have these conversations.

1:11:04

Whatever the fears of hardline Israel

1:11:06

Hawks, the rise of Omar Tlaib and

1:11:09

Ocasio Cortez to power in congress did

1:11:11

not materially slow the expansion of Israeli

1:11:13

settlements into occupied Palestinian territory.

1:11:16

In twenty nineteen, their first year in office,

1:11:19

Israel added more than eleven thousand new settlement

1:11:21

units. In twenty twenty, the figure

1:11:23

doubled to over twenty two thousand, many of

1:11:25

them in East Jerusalem and deep in the West Bank.

1:11:28

A European Union representative of the United

1:11:30

Nations said in a report chronicling the increased

1:11:32

quote, as stated in numerous EU

1:11:35

foreign affairs council conclusions settlements

1:11:37

are illegal under international law,

1:11:39

constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten

1:11:41

to make a two state solution impossible.

1:11:44

The settlement expansion included multiple out

1:11:46

posts, which are seizures of farmland

1:11:48

and pasture that puts any semblance

1:11:51

of pulsating independence or sustainability further

1:11:53

out of reach. In twenty twenty one,

1:11:56

despite your Lapides campaign promise

1:11:58

not, quote, to build anything that will prevent

1:12:00

the possibility of a future two state solution,

1:12:03

settlement imagine in East Jerusalem doubled

1:12:05

in twenty twenty one compared to the year before,

1:12:08

threatening to fully slice the remaining contiguous

1:12:10

parts of Palestinian territory into small

1:12:12

prison like enclaves. In congress,

1:12:15

Jamal Bowman ended up siding with constituents

1:12:17

who pushed him to support a billion dollars in

1:12:19

new funding for Israel's iron dome drawing

1:12:21

the ire of a faction of DSA organized

1:12:23

through its BDS and Palestine solidarity

1:12:26

working group. Bowman told me that ahead

1:12:28

of the vote, he heard almost exclusively from

1:12:30

supporters of the iron dome system

1:12:32

and, quote, not much at all from opponents.

1:12:35

Those on the yes side were very clear and very

1:12:37

loud and very consistent with

1:12:39

why they believed the vote needed

1:12:41

to be yes. You know, it's it's an important

1:12:43

issue for this district in particular, you

1:12:45

know, which is why I voted yes.

1:12:48

But this also, you know, as I've been asked before

1:12:50

and as I've stated before, you know, that

1:12:52

vote is not gonna stop me

1:12:54

from continue into fight

1:12:57

for Palestinian rights,

1:12:59

to fight to end the occupation, which

1:13:01

absolutely needs to happen and

1:13:04

to make sure Palestinian humanity is

1:13:06

centered. On August fifth, without the support

1:13:08

of his cabinet, Lapides launched air strikes on the

1:13:10

Gaza Strip, agreeing to a truce on August seventh.

1:13:12

Palestinian militants fired over one thousand

1:13:15

rockets, though no Israelis were killed or seriously

1:13:17

wounded. The three day conflict left forty

1:13:19

nine Palestinians dead, including seventeen

1:13:21

children. Israel's initial denial of

1:13:23

any role in killing of Abuaklala gradually

1:13:26

morphs under the weight of in controversial evidence

1:13:28

into admission of possible complicity. Partnering

1:13:31

with the London based group forensic architecture,

1:13:33

Palestinian human rights organization, Al Hach,

1:13:36

launched the most comprehensive investigation into

1:13:38

her death. On the morning of August eighteenth,

1:13:40

at least nine armored Israeli vehicles

1:13:42

approached the group's headquarters in Rambula and

1:13:45

broke their way in, ransacking it, and

1:13:47

later welding shut it to doors. An

1:13:49

attempt by the Israeli government headed

1:13:51

then by Melman, Ally, Yaron Lapides, to

1:13:53

label it a terrorist organization, was reached

1:13:55

jected by the EU, which reviewed the evidence

1:13:57

as real provided and found it not remotely convincing.

1:14:00

On August twenty third, voters went to the

1:14:02

polls in Orlando and cast their ballots. Frost

1:14:04

won thirty five percent of the votes. Bracey

1:14:07

pulled in twenty five and Grayson, who'd

1:14:09

taken to calling him at Maxwell Fraud

1:14:11

by the end of the campaign, took in fifteen

1:14:13

percent. In the end, neither DMFI

1:14:16

nor APAC nor Hoffman's group had

1:14:18

to spend a penny in the race. Bracey

1:14:20

lost, but they had won. That's

1:14:23

the goal observed a source close to APAC

1:14:25

after the

1:14:25

election. That's the whole point.

1:14:28

Sommerly agreed. Have you noticed

1:14:30

it all on the way that you think because

1:14:32

they're what they're trying to do is put pressure

1:14:35

on you to change the way you're acting

1:14:37

as a politician Absolutely. I

1:14:39

mean and that's just with me. I see what other people.

1:14:41

Right? I see people who are running for

1:14:43

office or thinking of running for office in the

1:14:45

future, and they told the third

1:14:47

because this is a topic that they know

1:14:50

will bury them. There's absolutely

1:14:52

a chilling effect. We continued. I've

1:14:54

heard it from other folks who will say, you know,

1:14:56

we agree with this, but I'll never support

1:14:58

it, and I'll never say it out loud unquote.

1:15:01

More broadly though, it makes building movement that

1:15:03

much more difficult, he said, quote,

1:15:05

it's very hard to survive as progressive black

1:15:08

working class background candidate when you

1:15:10

are facing millions and millions of dollars.

1:15:12

But what it also does is then it deters

1:15:14

other people from ever wanting to get into it.

1:15:16

If you're somebody who sat through my race as

1:15:18

supporter or not, someone in our district who's

1:15:20

witnessing the movement that we've been a

1:15:22

part of, they will look at the onslaught they

1:15:25

will look at what they said about me and how

1:15:27

they conducted those campaigns, and then

1:15:29

they would say I would never want to run

1:15:31

myself. So then it has the effect of ensuring

1:15:33

that the black community broadly, the other

1:15:36

marginalized communities are just no longer

1:15:38

centered in our politics. After

1:15:41

the primaries were over, Bankman Freed's

1:15:43

PAC, APAC, and DMFI mostly

1:15:45

stopped spending to help democrats. Rachel

1:15:48

Rosen, a spokesperson for DMFI,

1:15:50

said that it was Maxwell Frost who reached out

1:15:52

to them. She said, quote, Mister

1:15:54

Frost reached out to us to hear our views on Israel

1:15:57

related issues. We had several conversations

1:15:59

with him and his team and were pleased to see the

1:16:01

way his views evolved. On US Israel

1:16:04

policy as he learned more about the substance.

1:16:06

She went on. Like any thoughtful organization,

1:16:09

we are continuously reevaluating our

1:16:11

strategies and tactics and will continue to

1:16:13

do so. We're proud to have finished the

1:16:15

primary season with eighty five percent of

1:16:17

our endorsees winning their races. More

1:16:19

than seventy four percent of the PAC's independent

1:16:21

expenditures have helped candidates of color.

1:16:24

What's more? We successfully defended

1:16:26

our champions and helped bring several new

1:16:28

pro Israel Democrats to Congress. We

1:16:30

also stopped some of the harshest detractors

1:16:32

of the US Israel relationship, unquote.

1:16:35

In September, the Democratic National

1:16:37

Committee refused to allow a vote on a resolution

1:16:40

pushed by DNC member Nina Turner

1:16:42

and other progressives to ban big outside

1:16:45

money in primaries. Leah Greenberg,

1:16:47

co founder of Indivisible, said it was

1:16:49

absurd that Democrats continued to allow

1:16:51

outside groups to nip late Democratic primaries

1:16:54

even though they clearly have little interest in

1:16:56

seeing the party itself succeed. Their

1:16:58

goal is to shape what the party looks like,

1:17:01

whether it's in the minority or majority is

1:17:03

beside the point. Greenberg

1:17:05

said, quote, for a group called Democratic majority

1:17:07

for Israel, they don't seem to be putting

1:17:10

much effort into winning a democratic

1:17:12

majority. The midstream melbourne said

1:17:14

mainstream Democrats for its part remains invested

1:17:16

in the party and his folks on swing state governor's

1:17:19

races adding quote, we've moved quite a

1:17:21

bit to Pelosi's team. Not

1:17:23

so much for AIPAC, though representative

1:17:25

Alain Gloria a Democrat of Virginia,

1:17:28

whose race is listed as key by APAC,

1:17:30

has been one of the organization's most outspoken

1:17:32

and loyal allies since her twenty eighteen election,

1:17:35

UDP has declined to help her so

1:17:37

far. Instead, it's only foray

1:17:39

so far into the general election has

1:17:41

been to spend in a Democrat on Democrat

1:17:44

race in the top two state of California.

1:17:46

According to Jewish insider, quote, A

1:17:49

board member of DMFI expressed reservations

1:17:51

over David Kanape's Middle East

1:17:53

foreign policy approach, pointing to at

1:17:55

least one social media post viewed

1:17:57

by local pro Israel advocates as

1:18:00

dismissive of Israeli security concerns

1:18:02

unquote. The allegedly dismissive message

1:18:05

posted on May third eighteenth, twenty

1:18:07

twenty one as the Gaza War raged

1:18:09

read, quote, peace for

1:18:12

Palestine, unquote. The

1:18:14

APAC ad about abortion.

1:18:17

Both candidates, of course, support

1:18:19

abortion rights, only one

1:18:21

called for peace.