Rep. Mike Johnson’s Largest Donor Was AIPAC. He’s Trying to Cut Free Tax Filing to Send Weapons to Israel

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, was the top donor to Rep. Mike Johnson during his most recent campaign, chipping in $25,000 between 2021 and 2022, according to an OpenSecrets analysis of his political contributors. Johnson’s first order of business as speaker of the House is to seek budget cuts in exchange for a $14 billion aid package for Israel.

AIPAC Targets Black Democrats — While the Congressional Black Caucus Stays Silent

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the country’s most influential pro-Israel lobbying group, is recruiting candidates to challenge progressive members of the Congressional Black Caucus in primaries next year.

The CBC has been silent on the AIPAC bid to challenge at least three of its members who are part of the so-called Squad, a loose group of progressive representatives. According to media reports and The Intercept’s investigation, the only incumbents AIPAC has targeted so far in this election cycle are CBC members.

What a Journalist Learned During 3 Days Undercover at the Israel Lobby’s Biggest Policy Conference

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a cult, and like most cults, its followers would probably object to the characterization.

To AIPAC’s 100,000 members and to the 18,000 delegates who attended its annual convention last week in DC, the organization serves a heroic purpose by securing the protection of Israel, and by extension, the Jewish people. To its detractors, it is a manifestation of the most toxic elements of Zionism and a symptom of the corruption that allows lobbying groups to further their agendas by buying politicians (though not a PAC itself, Israel lobbies politicians through a series of small affiliated PACs).

Meet The Jews Who Protested Trump’s AIPAC Speech

When businessman and Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump took the stage for his controversial speech to the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference on Monday evening, the largely Jewish crowd at the Verizon Center stadium erupted into raucous applause. Trump grinned as he waved and shook hands with attendees of the massive gathering convened by the influential Israel lobbying group, beaming in the spotlight as he waited several seconds to allow the cheering to subside.

Hillary Clinton Goes Full Neocon at AIPAC, Demonizes Iran, Palestinians

I once heard Hillary Clinton give her AIPAC speech at a university.  It doesn’t change much, just as US policy toward the Mideast doesn’t change much.  She was still a senator then.  Much of the audience was Middle East experts, who could barely keep themselves from gagging.

Clinton used her speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee meeting, the gathering of some of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington, to lambaste Donald Trump for saying he’d try to be neutral in heading up negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.  Donald Trump should be lambasted. He is wrong on everything most of every day.  But, like a clock, he is right twice a day and this a point on which he is correct. The US cannot be an honest broker in the Mideast conflict if it is more Israeli than the Israelis, which it typically is.  Palestinian negotiators over the years complained that they’d get an Israeli proposal, then go to the US to tweak it, and get back the same proposal from Dennis Ross or some other American partisan of Israel who had been put in a position to shape negotiations on the American side.

Major Israel Lobbying Group Under Fire From Jews For Hosting Donald Trump

A growing chorus of Jewish voices are blasting a major Israel lobbying group for inviting Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump to speak at its annual conference, arguing his inflammatory rhetoric and sometimes anti-Semitic supporters are out-of-step with the values of Judaism.

Last Friday, the influential Jewish and Israel lobbying organization American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) announced that it was inviting Donald Trump to speak its annual policy conference in Washington, D.C., on March 20-22. The group regularly invites major political players to its conference (Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden are also slated to speak), and Trump is already building hype for the speech, citing it as his excuse for skipping out on the now-canceled Fox News Republican debate originally scheduled for March 21.

 AIPAC Spent Millions of Dollars to Defeat the Iran Deal. Instead, It May Have Destroyed Itself.

It is hard to exaggerate the damage inflicted on AIPAC by the congressional defeat of its efforts to torpedo the Iran nuclear deal. It is not as if AIPAC won’t live to fight again, because it will, but this defeat has ruptured the status quo, possibly forever.

The extent of its efforts to defeat the deal was unprecedented even for a lobby known for its no-holds-barred wars against past White House initiatives it considered unfriendly to Israel, going all the way back to the Ford administration. AIPAC, and its cutout Citizens For A Nuclear Free Iran, reportedly budgeted upwards of $20 million for a campaign that included flooding the airwaves with television spots; buying full-page newspaper ads, arranging fly-ins of AIPAC members to Washington, organizing demonstrations at offices of AIPAC-friendly members of Congress who were believed to be wavering, and ensuring that problematic legislators were officially warned by precisely the right donor. Rank-and-file AIPAC members were largely irrelevant to the process. Money did the talking, and also the yelling and the cursing when necessary. As one congressional staffer put it to me, “Taking money from AIPAC is like getting a loan from the mob. You better not forget to pay it back. They walk into this office like they own it.”

If It’s Going to Push Us to War, Is It Time for AIPAC to Register as a Foreign Agent?

Most polls show that Jewish Americans are the Americans most enthusiastic about the diplomatic deal reached at Vienna between Iran and the UN Security Council over its civilian nuclear enrichment program.

Lindsey Graham Promises AIPAC Members He Will Cut UN Funding and Derail Iran Negotiations

WASHINGTON -- Speaking to the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference Sunday morning, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) threatened to cut funding to the United Nations, who he believes is alienating Israel in the international community and tolerating anti-Semitism in Europe. His promise was met with applause and a standing ovation by the nearly 15,000 AIPAC members in attendance.

Though it wasn’t mentioned explicitly, a majority of lawmakers in Congress are protesting the Palestinian Authority's recent ascension to the International Criminal Court, the body responsible for prosecuting war crimes. The court, which has retroactive jurisdiction back to June 13, 2014, in Palestinian territories, would be able to investigate possible violations of the laws of war during last summer’s Gaza-Israel conflict. Graham was one of 75 senators who signed a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry in January, urging for a cessation of U.S. funding to the Palestinian Authority.

One of Congress’s Most Pro-Israel Lawmakers Isn’t Pro-Israel Enough for AIPAC

A recent letter attacking Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is causing an internal brouhaha at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, The Cable has learned. The powerful lobbying outfit, known for its disciplined non-partisan advocacy for Israel, recently issued an action alert about the Florida congresswoman's waffling on Iran sanctions legislation. The letter urged members to contact Wasserman Schultz and cited a disparaging article about her in a conservative website founded by a prominent Republican political operative.

Inside AIPAC's Syria Blitz

WASHINGTON -- As Jews all over the world marked the start of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, on Friday, uncertainty loomed over both the U.S. and Israel as to what role the United States, Russia, and the international community would play in resolving the brutal civil war in Syria.

On Tuesday night, President Obama made the case to the American public that Congress should authorize airstrikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad's military, in response to Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons. But as Obama was honing his argument Monday, Russia came forward with a surprise proposal whereby Assad would surrender his vast stockpile of non-conventional weapons, and by doing so, avert a U.S.-led military intervention.

John Baird's presence at AIPAC confirms Harper government's uncritical support of Israel

John Baird, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs is confirmed to deliver a keynote address at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual policy meeting taking place March 3 – 5, 2013 in Washington, D.C.

His presence there further cements the Harper government's uncritical support of Israel in face of its deteriorating record of massive human rights violations in Occupied Palestine. "Canada stands shoulder to shoulder with Israel," said Mr. Baird in November 2012. His invitation to address AIPAC reflects that this government's position has not altered in face of Israel's widening breaches of international and humanitarian law against the people and land of Palestine.

Attacking Iran, AIPAC, Israel-Palestine and Obama with Rashid Khalidi and Jonathan Tobin

herePresident Obama addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Sunday, assuring the pro-Israel lobbying group he will not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran and reiterating his unwavering support for Israel. As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Obama at the White House today, we host a debate between Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University and Commentary magazine’s Jonathan Tobin. "It is true [Iran does not] have the weapon now, the question is are we going to wait until ... they are one screwdriver away from doing it or not," says Tobin. "[Iran’s] policy has been to forthrightly proclaim it wishes to destroy Israel — to wipe it off the map. Letting it have nuclear weapons is a threat to the entire region." But Khalidi argues that war with Iran "would guarantee that no responsible Iranian leadership in the future would allow Iran to be without a nuclear weapon after it had been attacked in an unprovoked fashion either by the U.S. or Israel." Khalidi adds, "It will be a disaster that would make Iraq and Afghanistan look like tea parties." Tobin and Khalidi also debate the relationship between Iran and Syria.

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