AIPAC, the pro-Israel group that has long been one of Washington’s most powerful lobbying forces, faces intense challenges as it seeks to maintain bipartisan support for Israel amid the Gaza war — even as it alienates some Democrats with increasingly and its more aggressive political tactics.
While AIPAC has traditionally been able to draw on strong support from members of both parties, it has taken on a more overtly political role in recent years by helping fund electoral challenges to left-leaning Democrats it deems insufficiently supportive. The tension has been exacerbated by divisions in the Democratic Party over Israel against the backdrop of the rising civilian death toll in Gaza and the obstruction of humanitarian aid by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
AIPAC has also had to deal with the tangled politics of foreign aid on Capitol Hill, where money for Israel is caught up in the dispute over aid to Ukraine. Under former President Donald J. Trump, many of AIPAC’s traditional allies on the right have opposed additional funds for Ukraine, preventing the House from advancing legislation that would also provide billions to Israel. It’s a controversy the team has so far been unable to help resolve.
“I think they’re in an identity crisis,” Martin S. Indyk, who was the U.S. ambassador to Israel under President Bill Clinton and special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks under President Barack Obama, told AIPAC. . . “It’s disguised by their tremendous ability to raise money, but their lives have become very complicated.”
AIPAC’s aggressiveness and the challenges it faces were evident this week when the group — officially the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — brought together some 1,600 donors and senior lawmakers from both parties, including President Mike Johnson and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic majority leader, to rally support and show his strength. Mr Netanyahu spoke to the group via video link on Tuesday.
A separate video montage played for donors at the conference featured Democratic members of Congress criticizing Israel or expressing support for the Palestinians. Officials at AIPAC, which is led by Howard Corr, its chief executive, pressed donors to fund the group’s efforts to defeat some of its members. One panel featured two challengers running against incumbent Democrats targeted by AIPAC.
But speakers and donors also pushed back against suggestions that the group was turning against the left wing of the Democratic Party. They emphasized AIPAC’s support of pro-Israel Democrats and Republicans in their respective parties’ ideologies. AIPAC donors, they noted, traveled to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to visit with members of Congress from both parties, including Democrats who identify as progressives, to seek support for the aid package.
“Most people are not purely liberal or purely conservative,” said Mark E. Ginsburg, a New York surgeon who attended the conference. “AIPAC is an important component of the pro-Israel lobby and is evolving with the times.”
Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat who attended a reception for conventioneers Monday night, said “it’s critical to bring and keep Republicans and Democrats together.”
AIPAC has criticized at least one Republican lawmaker recently, but its campaign spending in this year’s election has largely focused on rival candidates in the Democratic primary that it deems out of sync with its agenda. AIPAC’s super PAC, the United Democracy Project, has already spent money to defeat candidates in the Democratic primaries for House seats in California and Illinois who have been deemed insufficiently pro-Israel, including a Chicago community organizer who described Israel’s attack on Gaza as “genocide.”
And AIPAC blasted its closest — though much smaller — rival, the more conservative pro-Israel group J Street, which criticized Mr. Netanyahu and called for a negotiated end to the war.
J Street “is many things,” AIPAC has repeatedly said on social media, “but it is not pro-Israel.”
Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, responded: “Intra-community strife and organizational strife over food does nothing to advance the safety and well-being of the people of Israel.”
AIPAC’s blunt approach has sparked protests. On Monday, a coalition of progressive interest groups launched an initiative called “Reject AIPAC,” an effort to counter the $100 million AIPAC is expected to spend to defeat congressional candidates who have condemned the plight of civilians in Gaza who were caused by Israel’s war against Hamas.
Marshall Wittmann, a spokesman for AIPAC, said in a statement: “Our only criterion for evaluating candidates from either party is their position on strengthening the US-Israel relationship. We believe it is entirely in line with progressive values to stand by the Jewish state.” On the anti-AIPAC initiative, he added, “We will not be deterred in our efforts by an extremist anti-Israel fringe.”
Last week, AIPAC-targeted California Democrat Dave Minn prevailed in his primary despite a $4.7 million push against him by the United Democracy Project.
AIPAC donors have told some candidates that if they accept J Street’s endorsement, they won’t get AIPAC’s support, said two people with knowledge of such warnings.
AIPAC’s tactics have had a chilling effect on Congress, according to some Democrats.
“I’ve seen people say I really can’t vote this way because I don’t want an opponent of AIPAC,” said Representative Mark Pocan, D-Wisconsin and an outspoken critic of the group. “That’s saying a lot.”
AIPAC remains one of the most powerful interest groups in Washington. He raised a record amount of money in 2023, and his super PAC launched this year with more than $40 million available to spend on campaigns. Some of its biggest donors are Republicans, including hedge fund manager Paul Singer and WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum.
AIPAC’s political action committee and super PAC “gave the pro-Israel community a stronger voice in the political process by directly helping elect pro-Israel candidates and defeating critics,” Mr. Wittmann said.
Founded in the 1950s, AIPAC for years avoided taking on incumbents by funding challenges from candidates who might be more supportive of its agenda.
But the Obama administration’s Iran nuclear deal, negotiated in 2015 over fierce opposition from AIPAC, led the group to begin taking a different approach, as did the growing visibility of a new generation of Democratic progressives who were not so reflexively loyal. in Israel.
The organization’s friends urged it to take a more aggressive stance, said an activist involved in those discussions, including by launching primary challenges to incumbents whose commitment to Israel appeared insufficient.
The United Democracy Project and AIPAC’s political action committee launched in late 2021. In the 2022 midterms, AIPAC’s super PAC supported candidates in nearly ten Democratic primaries, with most of them winning, including one struggle between two incumbents.
Then came the October 7th terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. Israel’s handling of the conflict has divided Democrats and left Israel increasingly isolated internationally, underscoring the importance for AIPAC of maintaining support from the United States.
“The world is kind of deserting Israel right now,” said Rep. Tim Bursett, R-Tennessee, after meeting AIPAC members from his district at the reception Monday. “So they’re worried about that.”
AIPAC’s influence rests largely on its ability to rally top donors, like those it convened just outside Washington for this week’s summit — most of whom have pledged to donate a total of $10,000 or more to the political operation of AIPAC or to candidates supported by the group, to attendees.
Officials urged donors to give more, viewing the moment as dangerous to the group’s mission, even as the programming demonstrated AIPAC’s enduring influence.
On Sunday evening, Michael Herzog, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, addressed the conference. On Monday, attendees heard from President Biden’s Middle East coordinator, Brett McGurk, as well as Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican minority leader, and Benny Gantz, a member of the Israeli war cabinet. Mr Gantz warned the crowd that an Israeli invasion of Rafah – the southern Gaza Strip where Hamas leaders are believed to be hiding – was a question of when, not if, one audience member said.
Mr. Schumer drew applause when he declared that “as long as Hamas exists, there will never be a two-state solution,” according to two people who heard his comments, “with Israel and a Palestinian state living side by side in peace, prosperity , safety and dignity”.
