Progressives are trotting out an old bugbear of the Israel-loathing fringe as the congressional election season heats up.
Democratic radicals facing tough primaries are lambasting AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, for the sin of helping their opponents.
Look no further than The Squad.
“We can’t and won’t give AIPAC and the GOP another inch!” Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), who’s facing an AIPAC-backed challenger in her Aug. 6 primary election, wrote on X last month.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), herself up against an AIPAC-supported opponent in her Aug.13 primary, has blasted AIPAC in a campaign ad claiming that a “right-wing Super PAC funded by millions of dollars in Dark Money spending is working around the clock to unseat Ilhan from Congress.”
Not to be overlooked, disgraced Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) claimed in his June 25 concession speech that “a Super PAC of dark money” had taken him down.
AIPAC isn’t the reason why Bowman or other anti-Israel progressives lose.
They’re being ousted from office because their loony views, including but not limited to anti-Zionism, are far out of step with their districts.
AIPAC, which has been around since 1963, is a convenient target for their anti-Israel grievances.
The group has long taken flak from opponents who argue that it nefariously influences American policy, but its critics are mistaken.
Take campaign contributions, for which AIPAC is often attacked: AIPAC has the same First Amendment rights that all Americans do.
One wonders why this one group, whose staff and supporters are significantly Jewish, is so criticized for backing candidates who support the world’s sole Jewish state.
And AIPAC is far from the nation’s most prolific campaign contributor: According to Open Secrets, it has been outspent by 11 other political action committees this election cycle.
When was the last time you heard someone deplore the machinations of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, for example?
If AIPAC-haters had any interest in being honest, they would acknowledge that the group is hardly the only one to give money to politicians it supports.
And the money AIPAC spends often doesn’t bear fruit — in this and past years, it has backed its fair share of losing congressional candidates.
Some of AIPAC’s fiercest critics, like Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), remain in office.
That AIPAC hasn’t dislodged them demonstrates its limited sway.
AIPAC has arguably even less influence over the executive branch than Congress.
In May, it publicly criticized the Biden administration for withholding weapons shipments to Israel, calling the decision “a dangerous and counterproductive message,” yet the delay persists.
This is hardly the stuff of an all-powerful group.
AIPAC’s failure to get what it wants from the White House isn’t new: In 1978, the Carter administration went forward with the sale of jet aircraft to the Egyptians and Saudis despite AIPAC’s strident opposition, and it suffered another defeat three years later when Ronald Reagan got the AWACS arms package for Saudi Arabia across the finish line.
More recently, AIPAC’s vigorous opposition did not stop Barack Obama from concluding a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015.
AIPAC for decades has come up short in battles with presidents of both parties — but that’s not what anti-Israel radicals want you to believe.
In their minds, pro-Israel advocacy is tantamount to buying elections and controlling the instruments of power, and they have made AIPAC out to be something it is decidedly not.
They resent Americans who support Israel and fall back on the canard of Jewish power no matter what the facts say.
Those who launch such vicious and relentless attacks against AIPAC hold Jews to a standard to which they hold no others.
There’s a word for this: antisemitism.
Bush, Omar and other anti-Zionists will keep demonizing AIPAC’s role this election cycle.
Yet the truth is AIPAC isn’t an omnipotent cabal, but a political action committee like any other — just one of many imperfect parts of America’s lively civil society. Take note the next time a politician singles it out.
Daniel J. Samet holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, where he wrote his dissertation on American defense policy toward Israel.
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