Dark Money Casts a Shadow on Maxine Dexter’s Campaign

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Written by KEVIN FOSTER | Portland Mercury KEVIN FOSTER | Portland Mercury

Published: 14 May 2024 14 May 2024

In one of Oregon’s most progressive congressional districts, anonymous super PAC money and tensions over Israel’s war in Gaza have taken the spotlight.

As a wave of nearly $3 million in dark money enters Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District race, voters are questioning the donors backing Maxine Dexter’s campaign, and whether the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is among them.

A political action committee (PAC) known as 314 Action Fund, has spent  $1.67 million to support Dexter's campaign. Dexter is a current state representative now seeking election to Congress. The PAC claims its mission is to elect Democrats with a background in science. 

While Dexter is a physician, this level of spending on one candidate is unprecedented for 314. 

The money trail came under heightened scrutiny late last week, after The Intercept reported on claims from two anonymous Democratic members of Congress who say AIPAC was discreetly funneling money through 314 to target Susheela Jayapal’s campaign in favor of Dexter. 

Read more on the Portland Mercury

AIPAC IS SECRETLY INTERVENING IN PORTLAND’S CONGRESSIONAL RACE TO TAKE DOWN SUSHEELA JAYAPAL, SOURCES SAY

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Written by Ryan Grim | The Intercept Ryan Grim | The Intercept

Published: 03 May 2024 03 May 2024

The pro-Israel group is funneling money through a “pro-science” PAC, according to two members of Congress.

And what The Intercept can reveal is that Susheela Jayapal is being targeted by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, which is secretly funneling money into the race by washing it through 314 Action, according to two Democratic members of Congress familiar with the arrangement. 

The pro-Israel community telegraphed its intent to target Jayapal early on, primarily for suspicion that her politics on Israel–Palestine may align with her younger sister’s, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who called for a ceasefire early in the current war on Gaza.

Read more on The Intercept.

Anatomy of a Genocide

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Written by Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese

Published: 29 April 2024 29 April 2024

Anatomy of a Genocide – Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 to Human Rights Council – Advance unedited version (A/HRC/55/73)
March 24, 2024

After five months of military operations, Israel has destroyed Gaza. Over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 13,000 children. Over 12,000 are presumed dead and 71,000 injured, many with life-changing mutilations. Seventy percent of residential areas have been destroyed. Eighty percent of the whole population has been forcibly displaced. Thousands of families have lost loved ones or have been wiped out. Many could not bury and mourn their relatives, forced instead to leave their bodies decomposing in homes, in the street or under the rubble. Thousands have been detained and systematically subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment. The incalculable collective trauma will be experienced for generations to come.

By analysing the patterns of violence and Israel’s policies in its onslaught on Gaza, this report concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of genocide is met. One of the key findings is that Israel’s executive and military leadership and soldiers have intentionally distorted jus in bello principles, subverting their protective functions, in an attempt to legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people.

Read the full report here.

As Surgeons, We Have Never Seen Cruelty Like Israel’s Genocide in Gaza

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Written by FEROZE SIDHWA and MARK PERLMUTTER FEROZE SIDHWA and MARK PERLMUTTER

Published: 12 April 2024 12 April 2024

We urge anyone who reads this to publicly oppose sending weapons to Israel as long as this onslaught continues.

"As humanitarian trauma surgeons we have both seen incredible suffering. Collectively, we were present at Ground Zero on 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Boston Marathon bombing, and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti on the first day of these disasters. We have worked in the deprivation of southern Zimbabwe and the horrors of the war in Ukraine. Together we have worked on more than 40 surgical missions in developing countries on three continents in our combined 57 years of volunteering. This long experience taught us that there was no greater pain as a humanitarian surgeon than being unable to provide needed care to a patient.

But that was before coming to Gaza. Now we know the pain of being unable to treat a child who will slowly die, but also alone, because she is the only surviving member of an entire extended family. We have not had the heart to tell these children how their families died: burned until they resembled blistered hotdogs more than human beings, shredded to pieces such that they can only be buried in mass graves, or simply entombed in their former apartment buildings to die slowly of asphyxia and sepsis."

Read more at Common Dreams