One of the most powerful and successful lobbying organizations in the U.S. has been forced to retreat as a result of growing public recognition that America’s “unconditional” support for Israel is not in the interests of the American people. AIPAC—the American Israel Public Affairs Committee—announced in a letter on October 21 that it would stop making candidate endorsements and direct contributions to candidates, citing concerns that its support has become a political liability for those it backs. It will, however, continue to operate the United Democratic Project Super PAC (UDP), and encourage its individual donors to contribute directly to candidates, to hide their connection to AIPAC’s support for Israel’s genocidal policies.
The announcement comes as polls show a dramatic drop in support for the Trump administration’s backing for Israel’s ethnic cleansing attack on Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and southern Lebanon, and its role in bringing the U.S. in as an ally in the unsuccessful war against Iran. A Pew Research Survey this summer found that 80% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents hold an unfavorable view of Israel, compared to 53% in 2022.
Prior to this decision, AIPAC had contributed more than $105 million to candidates in the midterm election cycle, while the UDP had provided over $53 million through the end of September. One example driving this decision is the Michigan Senate primary race, in which AIPAC and UDP gave $30 million to Haley Stevens, who lost to Abdul El-Sayed, a harsh critic of Israel’s Gaza genocide. El-Sayed’s Republican opponent in the Nov. 3 election, Mike Rogers, has asked AIPAC to refrain from any public support.
According to analyst Prof. John Mearsheimer, who coauthored a book with Stephen Walt in 2007, “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” AIPAC’s goal is to assure that the U.S. supports Israel “unconditionally,” and it has been “remarkably successful,” through its “stranglehold on the U.S. Congress” and its “significant leverage over the Executive branch.” The ability to continue to exert control is threatened by the drop in support for Israel, he said last week, given the irrefutable evidence that the Zionist state is engaging in genocide against the Palestinians.
Despite this decision, AIPAC is not going away. One critic, Jeremy Ben Ami of J Street, said the decision to maintain its UDP Super PAC means it will “double down on the dark money politics” that characterized its rise to influence in the past. According to an AIPAC spokesperson, Deryn Sousa, the lobby will be “looking to dramatically expand our political involvement as a community and to heighten our activists’ direct impact.” It plans to move large sums of money by encouraging direct contributions from its wealthy members, without identifying the contributions as associated with AIPAC.
AIPAC has been used, along with the Anti-Defamation League, to smear and slander opponents of the Zionist Greater Israel policy. Its Epstein Class billionaires used AIPAC and the ADL in a multi-year vicious campaign against Lyndon LaRouche, labelling him an anti-Semite, and lobbying government officials such as Henry Kissinger and George H.W. Bush to establish a “Get LaRouche Task Force,” which ran a frame-up to put LaRouche behind bars for five years.
Among LaRouche’s “crimes” was his drafting a peace plan, his Oasis Plan, which included a major infrastructure program to provide clean water through desalination for both an Israeli and Palestinian state. His plan was reflected in the economic annexes of the Oslo Accord, and remains a topic of great interest among those today committed to a peaceful resolution in southwest Asia.
The growing rebellion against AIPAC’s well-funded politics of hate must not be content with this tactical retreat, but must press on by ousting those corrupt Congressmen who act on behalf of the Lobby.
