One of the most surprising things about the implosion of Graham Platner’s campaign for US Senate, given the current state of American politics, is that it had nothing to do with Israel.

Platner, the anti-Israel progressive Democrat running an insurgent campaign to unseat Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins, announced he was dropping out on Wednesday in the face of a credible rape allegation, which followed reports of his toxic behavior toward women as well as social media posts downplaying sexual assault. He also had been dogged by controversy over a Nazi tattoo he sported on his chest for years, which some critics linked to his harsh criticism of Israel.

In the end, a different matter did him in. But somehow, Israel still managed to make an appearance in the discourse over Platner’s downfall — starting in his own announcement that he was suspending his campaign.

“All we were asking for was healthcare, was to end the genocide, to use our taxpayer dollars at home to uplift our communities instead of waging war overseas,” he said more than nine minutes into the 11-minute video. “We were asking for a fairer system.”

In other words, the number-two issue in Platner’s final, drawn-out campaign statement that he felt the need to reference was the accusation that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. He did not admit to the rape allegation, nor apologize to his accuser. He did criticize Israel.

He was not the only one. Far-right former GOP representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote — and then apparently deleted — a social media post suggesting the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC was behind the Platner rape accusation. That conspiracy theory was so widespread that the Forward ran a piece headlined, “AIPAC isn’t to blame for the Graham Platner scandal — no matter what social media trolls say.”

Liberal pundit Joy Reid said, of Platner’s potential replacement, that if the Democratic Party “shoves an AIPAC candidate down your throat, you have my permission to not vote for them”

And then there are the many races where Israel has actually taken the spotlight. It was arguably the main issue in a series of far-left victories in congressional primaries in New York City, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Denver. It’s been a hot-button topic in the San Francisco Bay Area. And it has smack in the middle of a bitter Democratic Senate primary in Michigan. More than 70 percent of US adults said the issue of Israel was very or somewhat important to them, according to an AP poll.

Why is it that progressive candidates are seizing on Israel in races across the country, and winning? Why does it feel like Israel is the main issue in American politics, no matter where you turn? And what does that mean for American Jews?

An ‘incredibly salient’ wedge issue

It’s not just that the US recently fought a war alongside Israel, or has long been its closest ally. One answer, proffered by progressive commentators and operatives, is that support for Israel and AIPAC sits at the nexus of a set of........

© The Times of Israel