Over the weekend, an independent left-wing political action committee entered the Michigan Senate race on behalf of Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed. Rebellion PAC released a web ad that featured a couple at the grocery store discussing how they could not afford bananas and eggs because “we have to set that money aside for killing Palestinians.”
Later in the ad, after the wife explains that it costs $161 per person to drop bombs on Gaza, the husband asks “Don’t they get universal healthcare too?” She replies: “Yeah, they do. We’re paying for that too, probably.” Get it? U.S. aid to Israel is why you can’t feed your family.
Antisemitism is said to be the socialism of fools. Well, it turns out that it’s also the populism of the innumerate. U.S. military aid to Israel comprises at most a half a percentage point of the U.S. federal government budget. The overwhelming majority of that money is poured back into the American economy because Israel is required to spend the aid on U.S. weapons systems. Also—not that it needs stating—the U.S. does not pay for Israel’s health insurance system. Claiming that aid to Israel is responsible for high grocery prices is a grotesque lie that resurrects an ancient and sinister trope that blames international Jewry for economic misery.
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