Suspicious Role: This is How AIPAC Works to Ensure Continued American Support for Israel

“America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction,” This is what Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu said in 2001, while assuring Israeli settlers that “Israel” would destroy the Palestinian Authority and continue with illegal settlement building, regardless of the US position.

Going back, during the era of US President Dwight Eisenhower, Washington decided to suspend its aid to “Israel” until Tel Aviv stopped the Jordan River diversion project in 1953.

In the same year, the U.S. allowed the passage of a resolution in the Security Council condemning a massacre committed by the Israeli occupation in the West Bank village of Qibya.

Here the Israelis realized the importance of pressuring decision-makers in Washington. In March 1954, Jewish-American lawyer and journalist Isaiah Kenen and his colleagues announced the establishment of the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs (AZCPA), which later became the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in 1959.

Since its founding, AIPAC has defined its mission as building cross-partisan support for “Israel”, meaning that it mobilizes support from both sides of politics, Democrats and Republicans.

American estimates suggest that AIPAC spends between $200 to $300 million annually to buy American politicians.

AIPAC is the most powerful and influential lobbying group in the U.S., with more than 100,000 members, in addition to thousands of volunteers, thinkers, and researchers.

Political Influence

The American support that “Israel” has received since its war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, is not limited to the Biden administration alone, but the list of its supporters extends to lobbying groups that promote policies that support Tel Aviv, most notably AIPAC.

The total US aid to Israel obligated from 1946-2023 is an estimated $260 billion, most of which went to the military sector.

For decades, AIPAC has had an influential presence in Congress, working behind the scenes to pressure politicians and their staff to support “Israel”.

But ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, AIPAC made a decision that fundamentally changed its goals and the lines of American policy, deciding for the first time to spend directly on election campaigns.

With millions of dollars pouring in from donors, including Republican billionaires, AIPAC adopted a new strategy based on using its money to remove progressive members of Congress who have criticized human rights abuses by Israel and the country’s receipt of billions of U.S. dollars in military funding.

Just two years after it started pouring money into campaigns, AIPAC has become one of the largest outside spenders in congressional elections. 

When it rolled out its new strategy in the 2022 election cycle, AIPAC found immediate success. 

The lobbying group and another pro-Israel group, Democratic Majority for Israel, defeated Reps. Andy Levin and Marie Newman, who were outspoken in their criticism of unconditional US military funding for “Israel”. 

The campaign to defeat Levin marked a significant push from AIPAC to repress criticism of “Israel” even from Jewish members of Congress.

Ahead of the 2024 cycle and amid growing public anger over the Israeli war on Gaza, AIPAC made a bold announcement that its United Democracy Project and AIPAC PAC arm would spend $100 million on the election.

There are a few congressional races that AIPAC sat out this year. Of the 469 seats up for reelection this year, AIPAC has spent money on more than 80%. AIPAC has sought influence over 363 seats in the House and 26 in the Senate.

AIPAC’s Money

AIPAC’s approach to campaign spending is bipartisan, with the influential lobby funding Republican, Democratic and independent candidates alike.

AIPAC PAC has backed 233 Republicans with more than $17 million, 152 Democrats with more than $28 million, and three independents: Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and Angus King of Maine, with about $300,000.

AIPAC PAC has also given more than $3 million to bipartisan committees and organizations, including the Republican Senate Committee, the Democratic Senate Committee, the Jeffries Majority Fund, and Democracy Engine.

AIPAC has spent in every state race this year except Ohio, with the largest spending by AIPAC in New York and California, followed by Missouri and Maryland.

AIPAC spent more than $11.7 million on the Missouri race, in which AIPAC-backed candidate Wesley Bell ran against Democratic Rep. Cori Bush.

So far, AIPAC's spending has achieved its desired goal, with fewer members of Congress opposed to aid to “Israel” and critical of Israel's human rights abuses.

Although AIPAC has backed more Republican candidates than Democrats, it has spent more on its Democratic favorites, such as George Latimer, who ran in the New York primary against progressive Democrat Jamaal Bowman.

AIPAC-backed candidates are typically pro-Israel, but their strength varies, such as Rep. Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat who is one of the loudest pro-Israel voices in Congress, and Rep. Ryan Zinke, who has proposed a bill to deport Palestinians from the United States.

On the other end of the spectrum are less influential candidates, such as Rep. Sarah Elfreth, who received $4.2 million in donations from AIPAC that helped her win the Maryland Democratic primary, but the issue of “Israel” was barely raised in that race.

Supporting “Israel”

AIPAC spent heavily in the 2024 cycle, but it also had very specific goals, including recruiting and supporting candidates to run against Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush.

AIPAC spent more than $30 million to oust Bowman and Bush, making this the most expensive primary in House history.

The lobbying group also tried but failed to recruit a challenger to Rep. Summer Lee, a Democrat from Pennsylvania.

AIPAC’s attacks have shown that it can direct huge sums of money to oust recalcitrant candidates, to remove politicians who are critical of US policy toward Israel, and to support economic and health policies that conflict with the interests of the lobbying group’s wealthy donors.

Observers believe that AIPAC has shown that it has the ability to reach almost every seat in Congress.

AIPAC’s support for “Israel” has not been limited to supporting pro-Israel lawmakers, but the lobby group’s support has extended to giving donations to the House Speaker in exchange for his pro-Israel positions.

US reports revealed that AIPAC made a donation of $95,000 to House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Los Angeles, in November 2023.

The reports, which were based on an analysis of Federal Election Commission records, indicated that the donation to the House Speaker came after he led the passage of a $14 billion military aid package bill for “Israel” in the House.