Lobbying

This article is more than 5 months old

Pro-Israel lobbying group Aipac secretly pouring

millions into defeating progressive Democrats
American Israel Public Affairs Committee has disguised its efforts
to undermine pro-Palestinian candidates

Chris McGreal
Tue 17 May 2022 08.00 BST

The US’s most powerful pro-Israel lobby group is pouring millions of dollars into
influencing Democratic congressional primary races to counter growing support for
the Palestinian cause within the party, including elections today in Pennsylvania
and North Carolina.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s money is focused on blocking female
candidates who, if elected, are likely to align with “the Squad” of progressive
members of Congress who have been critical of Israel.

But it is funneled through a group, the United Democracy Project (UDP), that avoids
mention of its creation by Aipac and seeks to decide elections by funding campaign
messages about issues other than Israel.
The UDP has thrown $2.3m in to Tuesday’s Democratic primary race for an open
congressional seat in Pennsylvania – one of a handful of contests targeted by the
group where a leading candidate is overtly sympathetic to the Palestinians.

The money has mostly been spent in support of a former Republican congressional
staffer turned Democrat, Steve Irwin, in an attempt to block a progressive state
representative, Summer Lee, who is leading in opinion polls in the solidly
Democratic district which includes Pittsburgh.

Lee has spoken in support of setting conditions for the US’s considerable aid to
Israel, has accused Israel of “atrocities” in Gaza, and has drawn parallels between
Israeli actions and the shooting of young black men in the US. She is endorsed by
Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, members
of the Squad who support the Palestinian cause.

Irwin has defended Israeli government policies and questioned whether Lee has “a
strong conviction that Israel has a right to exist”.

The UDP has also spent $2m in support of the North Carolina state senator Valeria
Foushee in today’s Democratic primary in an attempt to block Nida Allam, the
political director of Senator Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign and the
first Muslim American woman to hold elected office in North Carolina. Allam has
participated in pro-Palestinian rallies and has been endorsed by members of the
squad. She has also spoken out against antisemitism.

Aipac launched the UDP in December as a super political action committee, or Super
Pac, which is permitted to spend without restriction in support of candidates but
cannot make direct donations to campaigns.

The lobby group’s move into financial support for political campaigns for the first
time in its 70-year history was prompted by alarm in Washington and Israel at the

erosion of longstanding bipartisan support for the Jewish state in the US.

Opinion polls show younger Democrats, including American Jews, are growing more
critical of Israel and that there is rising support for the Boycott, Sanctions and Divest
(BDS) movement.

Israel is also concerned by the breaking of a longstanding taboo on comparing

Israel’s domination of the Palestinians to apartheid South Africa after the
publication of a series of international and Israeli human rights groups reports
accusing Israel of practising a form of apartheid.

The UDP has also spent $1.2m to protect the Texas Democratic congressman, Henry
Cuellar who faces a run off later next week against Jessica Cisneros a 28 year old
Cuellar, who faces a run-off later next week against Jessica Cisneros, a 28-year-old
immigration lawyer who has spoken in support of the Palestinians and is endorsed
by members of the Squad.

Jessica Cisneros campaigning with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Photograph: Eric Gay/AP

Cuellar is described as an ally by Aipac and co-founded the Congressional Caucus for
the Advancement of Torah Values to combat “anti-Israel bigotry”.

After Amnesty International joined other human rights groups in accusing Israel of
imposing apartheid, Cuellar accused the group of endangering Jews. “Israel is not an
apartheid state. Full stop. These inaccuracies incite antisemitic behavior against the
Jewish people,” he tweeted.

A smaller and more liberal pro-Israel group, J Street, has spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars in support of Cisneros, saying she is committed to a more just
solution to the conflict with the Palestinians.

J Street’s spokesperson, Logan Bayroff, accused Aipac of being a Republican front

organisation that strongly supported Donald Trump, and of attempting to intimidate
candidates into avoiding criticism of Israel by implicitly threatening to fund
campaigns against them.

“Aipac are taking all this money from Republican donors, and they’re obfuscating
the fact that they’re a very Republican-aligned organisation while trying to persuade
Democratic voters who they should support,” he said.
“The United Democracy Project sounds innocuous and the advertising that they’re
running in these districts is about healthcare and reproductive rights and things that
have nothing to do with Israel. Which makes sense because those are the things that
decide elections, not Israel. But the reason that they’re aligning with certain
candidates is because they are more aligned with their more hawkish positions on
Israel, and because they fear that other candidates will be more progressive and
aligned with the Palestinians.”

A UDP spokesman, Patrick Dorton, said the group was doing no more than running
legitimate political advertising. “All we are doing is talking about candidate’s public
record and that is something voters deserve to know,” he said.

Dorton said the group will be funding more campaigns.

“Our goal is to build the broadest bipartisan coalition in Congress that supports the
US-Israel relationship. We are proud to support pro-Israel progressive candidates
including women of colour,” he said. “We are looking at 10 to 15 other races where
there is a pro-Israel candidate and a candidate that, if elected, would undermine the
US-Israel relationship.”

Earlier this year, Aipac was accused by other leading supporters of Israel of being
“morally bankrupt” and of putting Israel’s interests ahead of American democracy
after it launched a separate political action committee that endorsed 37 Republicans
candidates who voted against certifying Biden’s victory after the 6 January 2021
storming of the Capitol.

Aipac said that it supports politicians from both parties who will “advance the US-
Israel relationship.

“It requires bipartisan support in Congress to adopt legislation that would advance
that relationship. Consequently, we support members from both parties in their

election races. In addition to the Republicans we have supported, we have made

contributions to over 120 House Democrats, including half of the Congressional
Black Caucus, half of the House Progressive Caucus, and the top Democratic leaders
in the House,” Aipac said in a statement.

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