CHICAGO: How far to support or oppose Israeli policies is a major issue in many upcoming American congressional elections, including the battle in Chicago between incumbent Congressman Sean Casten and challenger Joseph Ruzevich.
Three-term incumbent Casten is being challenged by Ruzevich in the March 17 Democratic primary election in the Sixth District, located in the Chicago suburbs with one of the largest concentrations of Arab, Muslim and Palestinian voters in the US.
In an interview with Arab News, Ruzevich accused Casten of “speaking from both sides of his mouth,” claiming to support the two-state solution and Palestinian rights while refraining from supporting legislation to hold Israel accountable for its actions in Gaza.
Accusing Casten and most Democrats of taking money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee while pandering to Palestinian suffering in rhetoric, Ruzevich also accused them of criticizing President Donald Trump as a strategy to deflect from their own failures.
“I want to change that. Many Democrats criticize President Trump’s policies but do so for political reasons and mainly to deflect the voters from their own failures in representing the needs of voters, such as ending Israel’s violence in Gaza,” Ruzevich told Arab News.
“Representative Sean Casten is one of them. He was going to the mosques and speaking to Arabs and Muslims and saying all the right things, and then he completely turns his back on them.”
Ruzevich called the Gaza war “the moral issue of our time,” saying more should have been done to block and restrict military funding to Israel and provide “real humanitarian relief” to Palestinian civilians, who have been “indiscriminately killed.”
He added: “The entire Democratic base is talking out of both sides of their mouths. They’re willing to say the right thing like ‘I support a two-state solution’ or ‘I support aid going into Gaza,’ but they’re not willing to act to make it happen.
“That’s the problem among Democrats in Congress right now and in the US Senate. The leadership specifically has no intention of taking any real action to provide that aid getting into Gaza.
“The only way to do that would be to threaten Israel with the withholding of their aid until they allow aid to go into Gaza. It’s very simple, because Israel doesn’t exist without the US.
“The government in the US, the Congress and the Senate have all the power to force Israel to do what we want and what needs to be done to protect civilians.”
Ruzevich said Casten and other Democrats frequently fail in their responsibility to defend the rights of Americans when they are Arab or Muslim.
In August, a coalition of Palestinian and Arab organizations protested against Casten’s support of Israel, forcing him to cancel a townhall meeting he organized in Burr Ridge, a suburb of Chicago.
The US Palestinian Community Network demanded that he support calls to end military funding to Israel and co-sponsor the Block the Bombs Legislation introduced to Congress by Illinois Congresswoman Delia Ramirez. Casten refused to co-sponsor the bill.
He did not respond this week to requests from Arab News to address Ruzevich’s criticisms. Casten’s website says he supports the two-state solution, though AIPAC monitors identify him as accepting nearly $300,000 in pro-Israel campaign funds from the lobby group.
Only two of 17 Illinois legislators have rejected AIPAC funding. Ruzevich said foreign-tied money should be banned from US elections.
He added that he was disappointed at Casten’s failure to speak out in the recent case of 15-year-old Muhammed Ibrahim, who was placed in Israeli detention on Feb. 2.
Ibrahim, an American citizen from Florida who was visiting relatives in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was accused of throwing stones, but was never brought before a criminal court and was held in a prison for nearly10 months, released on Nov. 27.
“None of the Democrats were willing to stand up and say ‘let's get this American teenager home’ because Muhammed Ibrahim is a Palestinian,” Ruzevich said.
“They’re unwilling to say, ‘It doesn’t matter if the American is Palestinian or Jewish, they shouldn’t be held in prison for months at a time. We need to get this person home.’”
He said Casten and others only spoke out after Ibrahim was released. “Because he’s Palestinian, they felt like they’d probably get some pushback from the Israeli lobby, from AIPAC,” Ruzevich added.
“If they say anything out of line with what they want them to say, then that (AIPAC election) money dries up. That support dries up and they’re afraid of AIPAC.”
Casten and 14 other members of the Illinois Congressional delegation have taken money from AIPAC “to remain silent on issues like the Gaza genocide” and the illegal detention without judicial process of American Arabs or Muslims, Ruzevich said.
He noted Casten’s statements criticizing Israel, but said the rhetoric never turns into action or results.
Ruzevich also criticized Democrats who “frequently speak out against antisemitism” but fail to speak out as forcefully on Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism, or introduce relevant legislation.
