AIPAC AND ISRAEL'S DIMINISHING CLOUT

PRO-ISRAELI LOBBY ATTACKS ZIONIST DEMOCRATS

Daniel Biss, the Democratic congressional candidate in a Chicago suburb is Jewish, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, with an Israeli mother. He says he’s a “progressive Zionist.”

Yet the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most powerful pro Israel lobbying group, spent $7 million, directly or indirectly, to defeat him in a primary this year.

Why? He has been critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, favors a Palestinian state and is sympathetic to putting conditions on certain offensive military weapons sales to Israel.

It didn’t work. Biss won the primary in part by attacking AIPAC.

This is part of a larger story. For years friends and foes spoke of the powerful Israeli lobby in Washington. At the center was AIPAC and its wealthy donors. It stressed bipartisan support though there was a clear tilt to Democrats.

While more robust -- with its affiliated groups it’s estimated it will spend hundreds of millions on the 2026 campaign cycle -- it now is Republican-dominated and tied to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, a villain to many Americans.

“Generally, they demand blind support for Netanyahu,” says Tali deGroot, Vice President for political and digital strategy at J Street, a much smaller pro-Israel group that advocates for a more moderate, pro peace government and supports only Democrats.

In America the political tide is with J Street, including among Jewish voters. The brutal war in Gaza and mistreatment of Palestinians has caused a shift in American public opinion. That accelerated with the unpopular Iran War which Netanyahu prodded President Trump to wage.

The results of that war are seen as disastrous in both the U.S. and Israel, causing tension between these allies.

When Vice President JD Vance warned Israel last week Trump was one of the few friendly leaders it might have, he could have added it no longer has the support of the American public it enjoyed for most of half a century.

A recent Pew Research survey shows almost 60% of Americans have an unfavorable view of Israel. More Americans are sympathetic to the Palestinians. These are dramatic changes.

Netanyahu is viewed negatively by most Americans. A decisive majority in the New York Times-Siena survey opposed any additional military assistance to Israel. This opposition is more pronounced among younger voters.

Israel’s major political support arm, AIPAC, once respected or feared by most American politicians, has become a pariah to more and more Democrats.

New York’s 11th congressional district - lower Manhattan district stretching into Brooklyn -- by some calculations has the second highest percentage of Jewish voters. Yet in the Democratic primary challenger Brad Landler is attacking incumbent Dan Goldman for getting AIPAC support. Goldman vowed not to take any AIPAC money and stepped up criticism of Netanyahu.

(As an aside, their stances on Israel and most issues will either be the same or irrelevant in the next Congress. Goldman is an experienced and tough investigator and his loss would be a setback for Democrats.)

Although many politicians still accept AIPAC support, the organization sometimes tries to disguise its involvement. It is backing the staunchly pro-Israeli congresswoman Haley Stevens in a tight Michigan Senate primary. The Detroit News revealed last month that AIPAC had been directing donors to support Stevens in a way that doesn’t link the contribution to them.

More prominent Democrats are distancing themselves from AIPAC. These include presidential aspirants Governors Gavin Newsom of California, JB Pritzker of Illinois, and Kentucky’s Andy Beshear, as well as prominent lawmakers like Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen and California Rep. Ro Khanna.

AIPAC spends a big chunk of money in Democratic primaries, understandable when trying to defeat an anti-Israel candidate like Cori Bush in Missouri.

But, infuriating Democrats, AIPAC spent more than $2 million to defeat Tom Malinowski in a New Jersey special congressional election. The former congressman was a supporter of Israel, but not of Netanyahu or many of his policies.

Rather than focusing on the candidate’s views on Israel, they attacked him for a vote when he was in Congress in 2019 that charged he was a supporter of ICE. In reality, that bore no resemblance to today’s ICE controversies. It was a supplemental appropriations measure supported by all but a handful of Democrats.

“That was a despicable and dishonest attack,” says Malinowski, a human rights advocate who immigrated to America as a child.

With these attacks a left wing anti-Israel candidate won by 889 votes. AIPAC privately rationalized to some critics that one vote wouldn’t matter much but Malinowski’s pro-Israel, anti-Netanyahu voice would be influential.

Israel is in trouble with its most important ally, the United States. Its powerful lobby AIPAC is making it worse, Malinowski says “damaging to maintaining any consensus for a partnership with Israel.”