alt Hacker NewsFormer Arcadia mayor, Eileen Wang, plead guilty to being an illegal foreign agent [1]. She faces up to 10 years in prison. What did she do? She allegedly promoted Chinese propaganda and communicated with the CCP.
If Israel was treated to the same standard, two-third of Congress would be tried for treason and most of the Beltway would now be in Federal prison. Senator Lindsey Graham said in his own words he goes to Israel "every two weeks". Jake Auchincloss, Democratic congressperson, said regarding the presumptive Democratic nominee for senate in Maine, Graham Platner, "I'd vote for someone else" [3]. Put another way, he'd rather a Republican win than an anti-Israel Democrat.
When then president George HW Bush threatened to pause a $10 billion loan to Israell over illegal settlements, he famously complained "there are 1,000 lobbyists up on the Hill today lobbying Congress for loan guarantees for Israel and I’m one lonely little guy down here asking Congress to delay its consideration of loan guarantees for 120 days." [4]
The level of influence is unreal.
[1]: https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/arcadia-mayor-federally...
[2]: https://www.rev.com/transcripts/graham-press-conference-in-i...
[3]: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5895682-graham-platner...
[4]: https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-lonely-little-george-h-w-b...
> What did she do? She allegedly promoted Chinese propaganda and communicated with the CCP
Wang "secretly served the interests of the Chinese government." Doing it covertly is the core of the problem for an elected.
> If Israel was treated to the same standard, two-third of Congress would be tried for treason
Eileen Wang wasn't charged with treason. Our electeds are allowed to have foreign sympathies because voters are allowed to have foreign sympathies. If it's out in the open, it's fine, even if one may disagree with it.
And for what it's worth, Israel has become toxic in the Democratic party, something it wasn't before, as well as on the isolationist (and let's be honest, anti-Semitic) wing of the GOP. So you're starting to see those expressions shift.