Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has some startling news for her followers: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is targeting her and her freshmen colleagues, Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.
The only problem is: It’s not true, according to the Times of Israel. But don’t blame Ocasio-Cortez for this bogus narrative. Blame the New York Times.
“It’s official,” reads a fundraising appeal published last week by the New York congresswoman’s office. “AIPAC is coming after Alexandria, Ilhan, and Rashida.”
“Rashida, Ilhan and Alexandria have at times dared to question our foreign policy, and the influence of money in our political system,” it adds. “And now, lobbying groups across the board are working to punish them for it.”
The fundraising pitch focuses on a New York Times article titled, “Ilhan Omar’s Criticism Raises the Question: Is Aipac Too Powerful?” The report, which was published last week, concludes with one source, Stephen Fiske, saying of Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, and Omar that they “are three people who, in my opinion, will not be around in several years.” Fiske, whom the paper bills as an “AIPAC activist,” is featured prominently in both the Times report and in Ocasio-Cortez’s fundraising email. In fact, his concluding quote is the entire basis for the congresswoman’s claim that she and her cohort are being targeted by AIPAC.
The problem here is that Fiske “has not been associated with the pro-Israel lobbying group for several years,” the Times of Israel reports. “The hardball he counsels in dealing with those who depart from centrist pro-Israel orthodoxies is not the style of the lobby, which discourages alienating safe incumbents.”
Fiske himself reportedly confirmed in a phone interview with the Times of Israel that he hasn’t been associated with AIPAC for “three or four years.” He also confirmed he is no longer a member.
None of this is mentioned in the New York Times article, which includes lines like:
– “Stephen Fiske, a longtime activist with Aipac”
– “The story of how Aipac became one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington is, in large part, the story of how it has managed to harness the passions of thousands of people like Mr. Fiske”
– “Mr. Fiske’s Florida Congressional Committee is one of a string of political action committees with anodyne names … that operate independently of Aipac but whose missions and membership align with it.”
It’s impossible to read the above excerpts and not come away thinking Fiske is in some way connected to AIPAC and that he may even speak for it. But he isn’t and he doesn’t, according to the Times of Israel. But don’t blame Ocasio-Cortez’s team for her fundraising pitch’s dubious assertion. I would have drawn the same false conclusions from reading just the New York Times article.
For what it’s worth, the reporter who authored the Times story maintains her story is clear enough.
“Stephen Fiske told me he volunteered for AIPAC 10 years ago and took over his PAC because they asked him to. He said he is ‘a little less’ involved with AIPAC now because he doesn’t have the patience to sit through policy conference. He did not say he is uninvolved,” she tweeted.
I’m not sure how we reconcile this “little less” claim with Fiske’s reported claim he’s not even a member of AIPAC and that he hasn’t been associated with the group in roughly four years.
“Aipac activists don’t speak for Aipac. They don’t work for Aipac. They are volunteers. Marshall Wittman speaks for Aipac and he is quoted in my story,” the Times reporter added.
Wittman said only, “Aipac does not rate, endorse or contribute to candidates. We encourage our members to participate in the legislative and political process exercising their democratic rights as Americans.”
(h/t Yair Rosenberg)
