AIPAC is a dirty word these days.
The American Israel Political Action Committee has long been involved in American politics, supporting candidates on both sides of the political aisle and actively getting involved in races where one candidate is friendly to Israel and another not-so-much.
It's a pretty standard thing in American politics. Citizens who stand united on an issue form groups to promote their issue and back candidates who agree with them. For all the complaints about "single issue" groups, many or most of us get involved to some degree with one when an issue we are passionate about becomes controversial.
Interested in abortion politics? There are Pro-Life groups and Pro-Abortion groups. There are groups on both sides of the gun issue and environmental issues.
It is actually a fairly small lobbying group, barely ranking in the top 200. It does play a larger role in electoral politics, but it is still dwarfed by progressive groups who together spend gobs of money to get their candidates elected, and which are currently backing some of the most radical candidates in America.
AIPAC, despite "Israel" being in its name, is not associated with Israel the sovereign state. Its members are Americans who support Israel's right to exist, even if they may disagree with one Israeli government or another.
AIPAC spent $30 million trying to defeat Abdul El-Sayed in the primary. They lost.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 6, 2026
Now, they plan to spend tens of millions more against him in the general election.
This is not democracy. This is oligarchy and a corrupt billionaire-funded campaign finance system.
Fight back.
Democrats used to seek AIPAC's support for obvious reasons: 70 percent of Jews are Democrats, and they also play an outsized role in Democratic fundraising. Other "ethnic" groups may have larger constituencies — only 2.4 percent of Americans are Jewish, which is less than 1/6th the black population and a similarly small fraction of the hispanic population; they are more financially established and more politically generous than either of those groups.
I appreciate AIPAC proving it doesn’t belong in the Dem Party and especially our primaries.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 5, 2026
From endorsing Jan 6th members to ensuring Congress remains in the hands of a 34-count felon, AIPAC is an org committed to undermining democracy at home and abroad.
See you in November. https://t.co/EKpNSaxcv3
But as "Jew" became a term of opprobrium in the Democrat Party, AIPAC became a factio non grata. AIPAC is now a dirty word, and if you are associated with it you are automatically discredited with the progressive wing of the party.
People say Israel “buys” American politicians. So let’s follow the money.
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 5, 2026
Abdul El-Sayed built his campaign around attacking Israel and AIPAC, accusing the organization of buying influence, punishing critics of Israel, and using antisemitism to silence opposition. After narrowly… pic.twitter.com/UAvybU4jcw
People say Israel “buys” American politicians. So let’s follow the money.
Abdul El-Sayed built his campaign around attacking Israel and AIPAC, accusing the organization of buying influence, punishing critics of Israel, and using antisemitism to silence opposition. After narrowly defeating Rep. Haley Stevens, he framed AIPAC’s spending against him as retaliation for his opposition to U.S. military aid to Israel.
So what is AIPAC really? For starters, it's not a foreign lobby. It's an American organization, and compared with the biggest power players in Washington, its spending is far from exceptional. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Realtors, Amazon, and other major corporations spend far more on lobbying and elections.
Israel doesn’t control American politics. So why is so much attention focused on it?
There is a tremendous amount of attention focused on American support for Israel, which is actually pretty small, and most of the people screaming bloody murder about it have supported vastly more support for Ukraine, to the tune of $195 billion.
Let's just say that "America First" is not their motivation in this case. All those arguments about funding schools here or Iron Dome over there are distractions, or worse.
I am a Democrat. @AOC, I have personally worked with you. I am also a supporter of Israel and reject your characterization of AIPAC. I find your comments reprehensible, and while they might work with your DSA friends, pushing the party away from people like me won't work. We… https://t.co/pM5wyr3KIp
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) August 5, 2026
I am a Democrat. @AOC, I have personally worked with you. I am also a supporter of Israel and reject your characterization of AIPAC. I find your comments reprehensible, and while they might work with your DSA friends, pushing the party away from people like me won't work. We have Trump because of these tactics, and we may not do well in November because of these tactics. At least you can win a primary, Mazel Tov!!!
For all the progressive talk about AIPAC and Israel being problematic, but, Jews being just great, we all know that this is a line of BS. Not that supporters of Jews can't criticize Israel, but there is a reason why the Attorney General of Michigan felt she couldn't go to the Democrat Party convention.
This is sickening to me.
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) July 31, 2026
What has happened to our lives that a D AG is scared to show up at her party’s convention because she will be harassed on account of her religion?
Enough is enough.
The crazies who are taking over the D party must be stopped. https://t.co/wQuQGFgwnT
"AIPAC" and "Israel" have become code words for "Jew." It is much more socially acceptable to attack these entities than to explicitly say "Jewish."
It's not wrong to say that you disagree with Bibi Netanyahu on various issues, or, for that matter, to be worried about the behavior of some Jewish settlers on the West Bank (I really don't know enough about that issue to have much of an opinion). Those are policy questions on which a diversity of opinions should be expected and fought out among people of good will.
But we are living in an environment where soon-to-be Congresswomen protested in favor of Hamas on October 8th, and it's difficult to get Democrats to even concede that Israel has a right to exist. If you dismiss the violence of October 7th, support Hamas and Hezbollah, refuse to condemn terrorism or even 9/11, you are the bad guy.
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