How the Engel, Omar primaries became proxy wars over Israel

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., risks losing his seat in the New York Democratic primary next week after a 31-year tenure in Congress. And while freshman committee member Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is expected to win her August primary, she won the endorsement of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer Labor Party with only 65% of the delegates. The other 31% of delegates backed her pro-Israel challenger.

The Engel and Omar primaries have become two of the most closely watched races in a series of intraparty proxy wars playing out between the party’s pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian factions in House districts across the country.

Several groups with close ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) have doled out a significant chunk of cash to bolster Engel and other pro-Israel champions. The pro-Palestinian Justice Democrats have in turn formed a super PAC to bolster progressives such as Omar and Engel’s primary challenger, Jamaal Bowman.

Bowman hopes to replicate fellow New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s upset victory in 2018 against former House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Joe Crowley, another staunch supporter of Israel.