AIPAC contends with an increasingly critical American left

The pro-Israel lobby's biggest challenge will be among younger Democrats with opinion surveys showing younger Americans are more sympathetic to Palestinians.

Nash Weerasekera

Pro-Israel lobby groups have an established track record of going after politicians critical of Israel. But their tactics don't seem to work on Democrat politicians as effectively as before.

AIPAC contends with an increasingly critical American left

Robert Ford

last update on 30 Jan 2024

We will see two tests of the influence of the pro-Israel lobby in the United States in the next few months. The first test will be in the coming weeks over the fate in Washington of the extra American aid package to Israel following 7 October.

The second will be the fate of members of Congress from the left wing of the Democratic Party who criticise Israeli actions in Gaza and are running for reelection this year.

On 22 January, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) again asked its supporters to pressure congressional offices to pass special new assistance for Israel.

Last November, the House of Representatives passed a bill to provide Israel with an extra $14bn in military aid in addition to the roughly $4bn in aid it is scheduled to receive in the regular 2024 budget.

However, the 226 members of Congress who voted in favour of the special aid bill were mostly Republicans who put political poison in their bill. It required that the Biden administration take funding from other parts of government — notably the Treasury Department’s tax directorate — to finance the extra $14bn for Israel.

The Biden administration and Democrats in Congress object; they need the tax directorate to collect more taxes to pay for government programmes the Democratic Party wants.

Negotiations between Republicans and Democrats now focus not on emergency aid to Israel but on spending for other programmes, including border security, the tax directorate and aid to Ukraine. Donald Trump is urging the Republicans to reject the compromise, and thus, the aid to Israel has no agreed funding.

If there is an unexpected resolution to this argument between the two parties, the aid to Israel still must receive approval from the Senate, which has become the intersection of support for Israel and criticism of Israel’s military operations in Gaza.

AFP — People attending the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference walk past an Iron Dome defence missile system on display in Washington, DC, on March 24, 2019.

In January, Senator Bernie Sanders, a leader of the left-wing politicians in America, failed to win much Congressional support for his demand that the US Department of State issue a report about Israel’s human rights record before the military aid could go to Israel.

AIPAC strongly opposed Sanders' proposal, and it lost a vote in the Senate, with 72 senators opposing compared to only 11 senators supporting. However, other senators from the left wing of the Democratic Party propose new restrictions on military aid to Israel.

Senator Van Hollen from Maryland is proposing an amendment to the bill that all military aid to Israel stop if the Department of State determines that Israel is violating American and international law regarding laws of war.

Eighteen senators — more than a third of Democrats in the Senate — support Van Hollen’s proposal. Meanwhile, Senator Tim Kaine (Hillary Clinton’s vice president candidate in 2016) proposed a resolution requiring the Biden administration to allow Congress to review all military aid to Israel – which would delay deliveries.

AIPAC objects to both measures, and they will not receive support from Republicans if the Israel aid bill ever arrives in the Senate.

AIPAC strongly opposed Sanders' proposal that would condition aid to Israel. The bill lost a vote in the Senate, with 72 senators opposing compared to only 11 senators supporting.

Campaign donations

AIPAC is responding by increasing its donations to Democratic Party candidates who will compete against Democratic Party critics of Israel. Before the congressional elections in 2022, AIPAC formed new organisations to channel money to political campaigns as American law requires.

One is called AIPAC-PAC, and the other is called United Democracy Project, which is a Super Political Action Committee which can legally give an unlimited amount of money to a candidate. The United Democracy Project was the largest source of campaign funding in the 2022 Democratic Party primary elections.

These pro-Israel campaign funding organisations intimidate some Democratic Party candidates. Notably, when John Fetterman was running for the Senate in 2022, he negotiated his position on the Israel-Palestine conflict with another pro-Israel political action committee that works with AIPAC.

Fetterman's adjustments to his position satisfied them, so they abstained from helping Fetterman's opponent in the May 2022 Democratic Party primary election. Fetterman later beat the Republican candidate in the November 2022 election and now is one of Israel's biggest supporters in the Senate.

AFP — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) is welcomed to the stage by American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) President Michael Tuchin during the committee's annual policy summit at Grand Hyatt on June 5, 2023 in Washington.

Of course, AIPAC lobbying and financial contributions to election campaigns are legal, normal, and relatively transparent in the US. Hundreds of political action committees give financial contributions to election campaigns.

Among those who gave money in 2022 to the United Democracy Project was Jan Koum, the founder of WhatsApp, Paul Singer who manages a major investment company, and Bernie Marcus, a founder of Home Depot, a huge retail store chain.

These wealthy Republican businessmen would never vote for Democratic candidates, but they are intervening in internal Democratic Party politics and helping centrists against left-wing Democrats.

Ryan Grim, a journalist with The Intercept news website, noted that wealthy businessmen give money to the United Democracy Project in part to help Israel. The businessmen also want to defeat leftist members of Congress who support higher taxes on the wealthy and more government regulation of big companies.

The television ads that PACs like the United Democracy Project finance do not focus on Israel, where some Democratic voters are not sympathetic. Instead, they attack the leftist Democrats on domestic issues like funding the police and crime.

The left wing of the Democratic Party has warned Democratic Party leaders that wealthy Republicans are trying to impose their candidates inside the party.

Bernie Sanders, in 2022, accused AIPAC of trying to destroy the left wing of the Democratic Party — a charge that AIPAC and some left-leaning Democrats who are friendly to Israel reject. But many leftist Democrats are increasingly angry at AIPAC.

Pro-Israel campaign funding organisations intimidate some Democratic Party candidates. But, AIPAC lobbying and financial contributions to election campaigns are legal, normal, and relatively transparent in the US.

Accusations of racism

Notably, Congresswoman Summer Lee — a favourite among the left wing of the Democratic Party— was one of the first members of Congress to support a resolution in the House of Representatives calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

This year, in her city of Pittsburg, she will face two Democratic Party opponents in the primary election on April 23. AIPAC and its allies spent large amounts of money against Lee in 2022, and she won that election by less than 1% of the votes.

Lee has highlighted that AIPAC often finances opponents of Black members of Congress. In December 2023, she called AIPAC racist, accusing it and its wealthy white contributors of trying to block Black communities from self-determination. (Neither of her opponents in the 2024 primary election is Black.)

Representative Cori Bush from St. Louis, a Black Congresswoman from the city of St. Louis, says that Blacks have a special understanding of oppression, and she was a sponsor of the resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

AIPAC and its allies are responding by helping another Democrat who will compete against her in the Democratic Party primary election.

Cori Bush's opponent, Wesley Bell, who is also Black, is a district attorney in St. Louis. He highlighted his support of Israel when he announced his candidacy.

It is unusual in the United States for a local district attorney to stress foreign policy issues instead of big problems that plague cities like St. Louis. It is worth noting that he visited Israel in 2017 at the expense of an organisation affiliated with AIPAC.

Already, the United Democracy Project has aired an advertisement on YouTube attacking Cori Bush's stance on the Gaza war. She has other campaign problems, such as a scandal concerning paying campaign monies to her husband for "security services," she might lose the 6 August primary election.

Another interesting Democratic Party primary election to watch will be in New York, where Black Congressman Jamaal Bowman will face challenger George Latimer, who is white.

AIPAC encouraged Latimer to challenge Bowman in the 25 June primary election and promised to support him. Notably, Latimer visited Israel a week before announcing his candidacy.

By contrast, Bowmann refused to support a congressional resolution praising the Abraham Accords and has supported Cori Bush's resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza. Bowman's spokesperson said in December it is known that AIPAC encourages opponents to Black members of Congress and relies on conservative financiers.

AIPAC often funds opponents of Black Congress members. Congresswoman Summer Lee called AIPAC racist, accusing it and its wealthy white contributors of trying to block Black communities from self-determination.

Standing up to AIPAC

Most of the candidates that AIPAC and its allies supported in the 2022 elections did win, but not all, as the example of Summer Lee shows. In 2024, five of the 18 Democratic Party senators supporting Senator Van Hollen's amendment are running for reelection this year.

Fear of AIPAC has not changed their positions. Forty-nine of the 50 Democrats in the Senate also signed a letter backing a two-state solution after Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected the idea.

AFP — Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu speaks on screen from Israel during the AIPAC annual meeting in Washington, DC, on March 26, 2019.

The leader of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries of New York City, is close to AIPAC. Still, he announced in January that he supports the reelection of Summer Lee, as did Peter Aguilar of California, another friend of AIPAC.

In addition, no Democratic opponent has come forward to challenge Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib — a Palestinian-American very critical of Israel — in Michigan's Democratic Party primary on 6 August despite AIPAC trying to recruit a candidate.

Finally, it is important to note that even the Republican Party — which strongly supports Israel so far — has prioritised limiting government spending over emergency aid to Israel after 7 October.

The irony is that AIPAC itself supported many of these Republicans in the 2022 elections. It endorsed 109 Republicans who refused to certify the election of Joe Biden as president.

Many from the Democratic Party, including Senator Bernie Sanders, warned that AIPAC was helping politicians who threaten democracy in America. AIPAC justified its support by stating that Israel needs as many friends in the American Congress as possible.

AIPAC's biggest challenge will be among younger Democrats. Many opinion surveys show younger Americans, in general, are more sympathetic to the Palestinians.

AIPAC's biggest challenge, however, will be among younger Democrats. Many opinion surveys show younger Americans, in general, are more sympathetic to the Palestinians.

Many of these younger voters are unconvinced by the AIPAC argument that Israel needs more supporters, no matter the cost to American democracy or leftist issues. Accusations of racism will also echo more loudly among younger Democrats.

In the end, if AIPAC and its allies continue to use wealthy businessmen against popular young, leftist Democratic Party leaders, they will alienate future leaders of the Democratic Party and lose political influence.

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