PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania – As evictions of elderly tenants in New York City multiply, as public transit systems in both NYC and Philly face funding crises, as fatal shootings persist nationwide, U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman had this to say: “Westchester is segregated. There’s certain places where the Jews live and concentrate…I’m sure they made a decision to do that for their own reasons.”
What should infuriate all Americans most is how Bowman and other Israel-bashers in Congress focus so deeply on Israel’s alleged abuses that they sabotage their agenda to cure America’s social ills. Bowman’s actions created a three-strikes-and-you’re-out reality: He undermined the challenges of fixing a broken system; curbed compassion for the Palestinians; and cost himself his own job.
Bowman was ousted in last Tuesday’s (June 25) Democratic primary with 42 percent of the vote vs. 58 percent for George Latimer, the Westchester County executive, to represent part of the Bronx and southern Westchester. Latimer is expected to win the general election on Nov. 5 because the 16th congressional district is reliably Democratic.
In pitting racial and ethnic groups against one another, Bowman led a bizarre pre-election rally in which he pledged to “show f—–ing AIPAC the power of the motherf—-ing South Bronx,” as quoted in the New York papers. Bowman is Black, and the Bronx portion of his district has a large Black population. Latimer is white and not Jewish, and southern Westchester is home to a substantial number of Jews.
For an educator, Bowman can benefit from a refresher course in math and geography. His district’s portion of the congressional district is located in a tiny part of the Bronx – in the north, not the South Bronx. New York Jewish Week reports that southern Westchester accounts for 94 percent of the district’s voters.
The overriding obstacle to social reform is the Republican faction in Congress. They exploit their slim majority in the House of Representatives to advance unseemly laws while GOP senators employ the archaic filibuster process to block sensible legislation. They wield incredible power to keep us in a muddle.
Bowman’s credibility, along with his colleagues, is severely damaged by their fact-free accusations of Israel, which in turn makes it difficult for any reasonable person to take them seriously. If they put forward bills to improve life for vulnerable Americans, the proposed legislation stands less chance of success because of their pariah status.
However, if they were respected by the general public, their stature might make a difference with important legislation if an opportunity arose for it to be approved. But they have no stature.
I was once pleased with their stance on domestic issues, even though I despised them for their approach to Israel. Recently I recognized that their Israel obsession and general sophomoric conduct undermined their efforts on domestic issues. It is as if they want it this way: Talk a good game about poverty and relate them to so-called oppression of the Palestinians, but their attacks on Israel will relieve them of their legislative responsibilities.
Some of these issues personally affect me. I recently spent $200 on a co-pay for cataract surgery. Sunday’s Philadelphia Inquirer ran a front-page article about an 8-year-girl who survived a shotgun wound to the head last May. Like everyone else, I fear getting shot. A greedy landlord unsuccessfully tried to evict me a few years ago.
Last Saturday’s New York Times reports that 1,700 people of 65 years and older are housed in single-adult shelters in NYC in 2022, double the number from 2018. Robert Kirk, 74, moved out of his Brooklyn apartment after its new owner raised the rent and evicted the tenants. Kirk’s social security payments are too low for him to move into a new apartment. Others are left homeless.
Capital projects covering a safer subway signaling system, new elevators for disabled passengers and expansion of the Second Avenue subway extension to Harlem were shelved after Gov. Betsy Hochul delayed a congestion pricing program that might supply the Metropolitan Transportation Authority with $1 billion yearly.
While congestion pricing does not seem like a good idea, the fact remains that we have serious problems in this country, as Michael Douglas proclaims in The American President, and we need serious people to solve them. Anyone who ties domestic issues to the Israel/Hamas conflict is not serious.
All of us have the right to criticize Israel, and there is plenty of room for legitimate criticism. However, about 10 members of Congress habitually distort the situation. Bowman not only took that route but he even questioned Jewish living patterns, as in claiming that Jews “made a decision… (as to where) Jews live and concentrate.”
Bowman was not even talking about Israel. A Jewish conspiracy to live among ourselves? This is antisemitism. This conclusion does not require any painstaking interpretation.
On election night, as quoted in The New York Post, he persisted on simplifying a complicated situation: “We will continue to fight for a free Palestine now, and God help us build a better world where everyone understands when we say ‘Free Palestine,’ it is not antisemitic.”
True, many Jews automatically classify support for the Palestinians as antisemitism, but not all of us necessarily do. Technically, they are not one and the same and it is difficult to make distinctions, but what pro-Arab activists say raise pointed questions that leads to the strong appearance that it rates as antisemitism.
Bowman fumed over the intervention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which spent $14 million-plus on Latimer’s behalf. According to Jewish Week, Bowman said after his concession speech, “We should be outraged when a super PAC of dark money can spend $20 million (including other fundraising) to brainwash people into believing something that isn’t true. They spent a record amount of money, the most in U.S. history, to beat this Black man.”
“To beat this Black man?” AIPAC, to my knowledge, did not intervene in the re-election campaigns of more than two dozen other Black men in the House of Representatives. The remaining “Black men” did not spend their time antagonizing Jewish constituents.
The primary campaign was about Israel and antisemitism. Bowman even doubted reports of sexual violence in Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel where they murdered 1,200 Jews; he subsequently apologized. Mostly, Bowman had the bad luck of representing a new constituency via redistricting. AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group, did not need to “brainwash” anyone in Bowman’s district. There probably was no need for AIPAC to even get involved. Latimer likely would have defeated Bowman in a focused campaign without outside help.
AIPAC and other supporters of Israel are moving onto St. Louis where Israel-basher Rep. Cori Bush is narrowly behind in the polls. Two down would not be a bad record, but we will still be stuck with anti-Israel representatives because their constituents are either with them or do not care.
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Bruce Ticker is a Philadelphia-based columnist.