Update on AIPAC: It’s All About the Benjamins.”

NYTimes:

… AIPAC has criticized at least one Republican lawmaker recently, but its campaign spending in this year’s election has focused largely on opposing candidates in Democratic primary elections it judges not to be in sync with its agenda. AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, has already spent money seeking to defeat candidates in Democratic primaries for House seats in California and Illinois deemed insufficiently supportive of Israel, including a Chicago community organizer who has described Israel’s offensive in Gaza as “genocide.”

And AIPAC has blasted its closest — though far smaller — rival, the more dovish pro-Israel group J Street, which has criticized Mr. Netanyahu and called for a negotiated stop to the war.

J Street “is many things,” AIPAC has said repeatedly on social media, “but it is not pro-Israel.”

Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street’s president, responded, “Intra-communal bickering and organizational food fighting does nothing to advance the security and well being of the people of Israel.”

AIPAC’s bare-knuckled approach has sparked protest. On Monday, a coalition of progressive interest groups launched an initiative called “Reject AIPAC,” an effort to counter the $100 million that AIPAC is expected to spend to defeat congressional candidates who have decried the civilian suffering in Gaza produced by Israel’s war against Hamas. …

Marshall Wittmann, a spokesman for AIPAC, said in a statement: “Our sole criteria for evaluating candidates from both parties is their position on strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship. We believe it is entirely consistent with progressive values to stand with the Jewish state.” [!!! Actually, he’s probably right. Many progressives in the West would have no problem with genocide if it was against White Christian conservatives.]

AIPAC’s bare-knuckled approach has sparked protest. On Monday, a coalition of progressive interest groups launched an initiative called “Reject AIPAC,” an effort to counter the $100 million that AIPAC is expected to spend [$100,000,000! Just try to find that kind of money to promote our ethnic interests. Jewish activism begins and ends with money—and media and academic power.]  to defeat congressional candidates who have decried the civilian suffering in Gaza produced by Israel’s war against Hamas. [AIPAC: “There has been absolutely zero civilian suffering in Gaza.”] …

AIPAC’s tactics have had a chilling effect in Congress, according to some Democrats.

“I’ve seen people who have said I really can’t vote this way because I don’t want an AIPAC opponent,” said Representative Mark Pocan, Democrat of Wisconsin and an outspoken critic of the group. “That gets said a lot.” [Politicians being politicians. No principles. Just get elected.]

AIPAC remains one of the most powerful interest groups in Washington. It raised a record amount of money in 2023, and its super PAC began this year with more than $40 million on hand to spend in campaigns. Some of its biggest donors are Republicans like the hedge-fund manager Paul Singer and the WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum. …

[At an AIPAC conference,] Officials [never shy about pressuring Jews for money] urged the donors to give more, casting the moment as perilous for the group’s mission, even as the programming demonstrated AIPAC’s enduring clout.

On Sunday evening, Michael Herzog, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, spoke at the conference. On Monday, attendees heard from President Biden’s Middle East coordinator, Brett McGurk, as well as Senator 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 area of southern Gaza where Hamas leaders are believed to be hiding — was a question of when, not if, one listener said.

Mr. Schumer received a standing ovation when he declared that “as long as Hamas exists, there will never be a two-state solution,” according to two people who heard his remarks, “with Israel and a Palestinian state living side by side in peace, prosperity, security and dignity.” [What a joke. The two-state solution is nothing more than a sick joke at this point, but useful for Israeli propaganda.]