My friend at IfNotNow Becky Havivi just emailed me: “We had to shut down Biden and AIPAC’s legacy today.” Which was a jarring message to behold on a cold Wednesday morning. Especially so close to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s policy conference this weekend in Washington, DC.
Here’s what Becky reported: “This morning (it was Tuesday – DI), I marched with more than one hundred other IfNotNow members to Joe Biden’s campaign headquarters in Philly – and seven of us were arrested. Here’s why: despite grassroots pressure from our progressive coalition to do so, Joe Biden has refused to #SkipAIPAC.”
“Our protest disrupted his campaign activity days before his must-win primary in South Carolina. Today, we showed Biden that support for AIPAC and the Israeli occupation comes with political consequences.”
Becky added: “His campaign’s decision to arrest us and go to AIPAC is not surprising, but it’s certainly disappointing.”
You see, Joe, Becky is not angry, she is just so disappointed in you.
Becky also told me: “For any Democratic candidate to attend AIPAC’s policy conference is shameful and dangerous. We’ve already gotten both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders to #SkipAIPAC, but we need to ramp up the pressure on the rest of the presidential candidates.”
That’s a little like that king who every morning raised his arm and ordered the sun to rise. It’s not like Sanders and Warren had been interrupted during their recital of Hatikvah when the IfNotNow kids suddenly showed up and changed their mind about those evil Zionists.
By the way, from the pictures Becky sent me, it really doesn’t look like there were 100 of them disrupting Biden. More like, I don’t know, eighteen?
I doubt that any Democratic presidential hopeful would be on hand at the AIPAC thing this weekend, not because they would or wouldn’t #SkipAIPAC, but because next week, some 40% of the Democratic primary ballots will be cast on Super Tuesday, and ya gotta’ be in it to win it.