Ex-AIPAC head calls Michigan rep ‘corrosive’ to US-Israel ties

(I24)A former AIPAC president in an email earlier this month called Andy Levin, a liberal Democratic representative from Michigan, “arguably the most corrosive member of Congress to the US-Israel relationship,” JTA reported.

In an email sent on January 19, David Victor urged Detroit-area donors of the pro-Israel lobbying group to support Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens, who is set to face Levin in a primary election after the state’s redistricting commission approved new district lines.

The redistricting “presents a rare opportunity to defeat arguably the most corrosive member of Congress to the US-Israel relationship,” Victor, who served as AIPAC’s president in the late 2000s, said in the email.

Stevens has close ties to the AIPAC community.

Levin, who is Jewish, was first elected to the US House of Representatives in 2018.

He won the seat left empty by his retiring father, Sander Levin, and is also the nephew of the late senator Carl Levin.

The Michigander has taken a critical stance toward the Jewish state during his time on Capitol Hill, buddying up with Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from the district that neighbors Levin’s.

Tlaib is openly hostile to Israel, with some accusing her of crossing the line into antisemitism.

However, Levin does not support Tlaib’s position on ending the Jewish state in favor of a one-state solution, instead advocating for two states.

In September, Levin introduced a bill that would make the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict official United States policy, although the chances of it gaining traction are slim with expected universal opposition from pro-Israel Republicans and skepticism from moderate pro-Israel Democrats in the House and Senate.