AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, “War, Peace and the Presidency: Breaking with Convention.” I’m Amy Goodman, here in Chicago with Juan González.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We turn now to look at how AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has spent millions targeting Democrats who have criticized U.S. support of Israel. In June, AIPAC and the affiliated super PAC spent almost $15 million to defeat New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman. And then, two weeks ago, Missouri Congressmember Cori Bush lost her seat after AIPAC spent $8 million to defeat her.

We’re joined now in Chicago by former Democratic Congressmember Andy Levin of Michigan. In 2022, he lost his House seat after AIPAC spent millions in dark money to defeat him. Levin is a former synagogue president and self-described Zionist. Despite this, AIPAC labeled him as, quote, “arguably the most corrosive member of Congress to the U.S.-Israel relationship.”

AMY GOODMAN: Andy Levin is a former Democratic congressmember from Michigan. He’s part of a political dynasty.

We thank you so much for being with us. If you could start off by talking about — you know, when we hear about Bowman, we hear about Bush, you came before them. And talk about the race that unseated you — might surprise many that you were a synagogue president and a congressmember — and how you were driven out.

ANDY LEVIN: Right. Well, you know, I was a former — I had been a synagogue president until I went to Congress, and I felt I should stop doing that, because, you know, you have to devote all your time to Congress. And I had, you know, mezuzahs, the little things that Jewish people hang on their doors, on all my doors in Congress. I’m a really, like, joyous Jewish person.

And, you know, I think they felt particularly threatened by that, Amy and Juan. The idea — and plus, my dad and my uncle had served in Congress before me — my dad in the House, my uncle in the Senate. My dad was the president of the high school class of 1949 at Central High School in Detroit, right? They were from the bosom of the Jewish community there. And I think that these right-wing-on-Israel people can’t stand the idea that a Jewish person like me, who is fully for self-determination for my people in the Holy Land, was the loudest voice in Congress saying, “Well, that’s not going to be sustainable, and we’re not going to have peace there, until and unless we fully realize the human rights and the political rights of the Palestinian people, too.”

AMY GOODMAN: I just want to talk about your family dynasty, the political dynasty.

ANDY LEVIN: We don’t talk about it like that. Yes, yes.

AMY GOODMAN: Your father, Sander Levin, the congressmember; your uncle, Carl Levin, head of Armed Services in the Senate —

ANDY LEVIN: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: — at the same time your father was head of Ways and Means Committee?

ANDY LEVIN: Yeah, my — these two Jewish boys from Detroit. And my uncle, who passed away, never left the city of Detroit. They each served 36 years in Congress. They served 32 years together. In the 235-year history of our elected democracy in the United States, they are by far the longest-serving siblings, and even more than three Kennedy brothers, more than anybody. And I’m so proud of them and, you know, their contributions to our democracy.

But, you know, Uncle Carl got crosswise with AIPAC in the '90s, when Yitzhak Shamir was, I think, the secondly couped prime minister of Israel, and he said, “Land for peace? We're not doing land for peace.” And Carl, it may feel naive today, but he was like, “Oh my gosh! That’s the basis for any hope of peace.” And he wrote a letter to Secretary of State George Shultz, I think it was at the time. And he got 30 — on a Friday afternoon, he got, I think, 30 senators to sign this letter. It was supposed to be private. And they sent it to him, saying, “We have to have land for peace. Do something about this,” something like that. And one of the other senators or their staff made it public. Carl had shown the text to AIPAC beforehand. But when it went public, AIPAC went crazy, said, “This can’t be Carl Levin’s letter.” They demanded he retract it. They said, “It must have been the work of some staffer.” Uncle Carl totally stood by his staffer, who helped him write the letter. He said, “No, that’s my letter.” And anybody who knew Uncle Carl knew he went over every line, you know, himself before they sent the letter.

And so, you know, this is — look, if you are a Jewish person and you really want to be true to your faith, you have to treat the other as yourself. You have to love your — you know, the stranger, the neighbor. The most oft-repeated mitzvah, or requirement, in the Torah, I think 36 times, which is a very significant number for Jews, is some version of that. Who is the most important other for us, honestly, if not — OK, a homeless person, someone who looks different than you, you know, yes, treat them well. But, really, I think the acid test for Jewish people is how do we treat our Palestinian cousins. And so, we have to treat them as we would want to be treated. They are from the land. They’re there on the land. And if you come from Michigan, you know so many amazing Palestinian Americans who are your neighbors, your colleagues, your doctor, your friend, you know? And so, we need to all get along there, and we need to work together here to make that happen.

And I don’t care what AIPAC does. You know, the fact — it’s outrageous that they’re using money from Republican billionaires to decide who wins Democratic primaries. That’s a problem for democracy, and it’s a threat to the soul of the Democratic Party, even from a kind of a dry political science point of view, right? If you are in a political science class and your professor says, “Well, there’s multiple parties, right? And they each have to choose their candidate that represents that party’s values or beliefs, to go up against some other party, right?” — if any party lets a different party, interest groups from a different party, billionaires from a different party, come and choose its candidates, it’s kind of finished.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, I wanted to ask you — you mentioned, obviously, Michigan, where you’re from. Talk about the rise of the “uncommitted” movement and what kind of impact it’s had on the Democratic Party and on the process of choosing a president.

ANDY LEVIN: Juan, I am so proud of this movement. These are young people. This is a true grassroots movement. I remember when I went to a phone bank that they had during the Michigan primary, which our primary for president was way back on February 27th. The energy in that room, the beautiful rainbow of people in that room, the food that someone had cooked, you know, you know — if you’re an organizer in the social movements of this country, when you walk into a situation like that, you know if something has life, is authentic, has power. And not only did they get over 100,000 people to vote uncommitted in just a few weeks in Michigan to say to President Biden, “We want to vote for you in November, but you’ve got to change course on Gaza to help us do that,” it obviously went national, too.

And I’m so proud of these young people, because I don’t want Donald Trump to get anywhere near the White House ever again, but even now, in late August, I feel like Vice President Harris — I hope that she can sort of reach out more. And it’s difficult as a vice president, right? But I think she has plenty of space to say, “Look, under a Harris administration, we’re going to follow U.S. and international law on military aid to Israel and all of any other military aid,” right? And she could say — she has a lot of room to say different things that would win the support of the uncommitted movement, which I think it would be very helpful to win Michigan, which is necessary.

AMY GOODMAN: Very quickly, you were on this panel, Palestinians and Jews, elected officials, that was the first DNC — first-ever panel on Palestinian human rights, held on Monday.

ANDY LEVIN: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: And we played a part of that on Democracy Now! The demand of many in the uncommitted movement has been to have a Palestinian speaker on the stage of the Democratic National Convention.

ANDY LEVIN: Right, during primetime. Yeah, during primetime.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you expect that to happen?

ANDY LEVIN: We’re still holding out hope. I’m actually grateful. I understand that hostages’ families will be on the stage tonight, I think. I’m grateful for that. You know, it’s horrifying that Hamas took hostages. It’s totally a war crime, right? That should be exposed. But, my goodness, you know, with 40,000 people dead, 15,000 children dead, 19,000 children orphaned, a million children displaced, for our party to have a Palestinian American speaker to talk about this, I think, would be a really positive thing and indicate growth for our party.

And, you know, I think, look, Kamala Harris is going to be our next president. She needs to be. There’s no president in this century, two Republicans and two Democrats, who’s actually moved the ball forward for peace in the Middle East in a significant way. I need Kamala Harris to be that president who changes that dynamic. I think she can be. We’re hoping that she really finds a way to express that, in this convention and afterwards. Having a Palestinian speaker in primetime would certainly be a positive thing, and we’re still hoping for that.

AMY GOODMAN: And finally, you mentioned billionaires of the other party. We just have 20 seconds. Explain what you mean, deciding Democratic primary candidates.

ANDY LEVIN: Right. Well, so, you know, there’s a lot we have to do to get dark money out of politics, right? Citizens United. But it’s up to the political parties to set their own rules. So, within Democratic primaries, our party, our leaders in the House and Senate, could set rules to say, “No, if you’re running for the U.S. House or U.S. Senate as a Democrat in a Democratic primary, we don’t want and we’re not going to let Republican billionaire dollars in here.” And that would be better for our party.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to have to leave it there. Andy Levin is former Democratic congressmember from Michigan.

And that does it for our show. We’ve expanded to two hours every day from the Democratic National Convention. To hear or watch our other hour, go to democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, from Chicago.