Sanders, AOC to host rally for congressman who ramps up anti-Israel attacks

In recent polls, Bowman has trailed his challenger in the Democratic primary, Westchester County executive George Latimer, by double digits.

By Corey Walker, The Algemeiner

Key anti-Israel lawmakers in the US Congress are set to headline a rally to support the reelection bid of Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) as the embattled congressman intensifies his verbal attacks on the Jewish state.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will take the stage with Bowman on Saturday at St. Mary’s Park in the Bronx, New York. Sanders will also support Bowman at a rally on Friday at Maceachron Park in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

“Jamaal’s race will set the tone for progressive races across the country,” a sign-up form for the rally reads. “We’re going up against special interests who are using NY-16 [New York’s 16th Congressional District] as a test to see if they can win across the country. Our movement is strong, and we won’t let them win.”

The rallies mark the latest attempt by Bowman to rescue his flailing campaign. In a series of recent polls, Bowman has trailed his challenger in the Democratic primary, Westchester County executive George Latimer, by double digits.

Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most prominent critics of Israel in Congress, has expressed great anxiety over the state of Bowman’s struggling campaign.

“I cannot think of a single race that better exemplifies the battle, frankly for our democracy, between everyday people choosing their representation and big money coming in and choosing it for them,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a recent interview.

The prominent Democrat has previously denied that Israel is a democracy and accused the Jewish state of perpetrating “apartheid” and “genocide.”

Sanders, a progressive Jewish lawmaker who has launched similar accusations and accused Israel of inflicting “famine” on Palestinians, claimed that Bowman’s floundering reelection prospects are the result of an orchestrated attack by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the foremost pro-Israel lobbying organization in the US.

“Right-wing Super PACs like AIPAC are targeting Jamaal Bowman because he fights for the values of working class people in his district, whether it’s affordable housing, childcare and pre-K, public schools, or climate justice,” Sanders wrote on X/Twitter last month.

AIPAC’s stated mission is to seek to strengthen bipartisan support for the US-Israel relationship.

Bowman has also repeatedly attacked AIPAC, even accusing it of “racism,” along with some of the other most vocal critics of Israel in Congress.

Progressives fear that a loss for Bowman would diminish their leverage over the Democratic Party on key issues, including the Israel-Hamas war. Left-wing lawmakers believe that removing Bowman from office will embolden moderate forces to pull the Democrats to the political center.

Although Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders have criticized Israel’s military campaign against the Palestinian terror group Hamas in Gaza, Bowman has arguably issued the sharpest condemnations of Israel in recent months.

Bowman dismissed widely reported and corroborated claims of sexual assault of Israeli women by Hamas terrorists as “propaganda,” before walking back those comments earlier this year amid widespread scrutiny.

The congressman also hosted a fundraiser last month with Nihad Awad, who said in November that he was “happy” to witness Hamas’ rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, when the Palestinian terror group invaded the Jewish state from neighboring Gaza, murdered 1,200 people, and kidnapped over 250 others as hostages. The massacre launched the ongoing war in Gaza, where Israel has been waging a military campaign aimed at dismantling Hamas and freeing the hostages.

In an interview with left-wing pundit Olayemi Olurin earlier this month, Bowman argued that support for the Jewish state is rooted in “white supremacy” and “white nationalism.” He also suggested that Israel is responsible for the Oct. 7 atrocities, claiming that Israel’s alleged oppressive treatment of Palestinians might have spurred Hamas, which rules Gaza, to lash out.