A Tennessee political ad mocking "Communist China" gets ridiculed as fear-mongering that distracts from Israel's influence over Congress.

• Senator Marsha Blackburn, now running for Tennessee governor, released an ad vowing to fight Communist China, complete with fortune cookies and stereotypical props.
• The ad is mocked as clueless: fortune cookies are a Japanese-American invention, not Chinese, and Chinese restaurants are treated as some of the most capitalist businesses in America.
• The bigger point is that the real foreign influence to worry about is Israel, whose lobby has donated to most of Congress, including large sums to Blackburn.
• The deeper argument: the US keeps getting dragged into costly Middle East wars for Israel instead of investing at home to actually compete with a rising China.

Outlook: Expect more China fear-mongering in campaign ads, while the debate over Israel's grip on US politics keeps growing louder.