When asked by the Washington Post, “Is there anything that a candidate who supports Israel could support that would rule them out for AIPAC support?” AIPAC CEO Howard Kohr responded, “I’d have to think about that.”
“It’s staggering that AIPAC needs to be prompted to think about the impact of their actions and the risks of supporting anti-democratic candidates,” said Dylan Williams, Senior Vice President of Policy and Strategy at J Street. “They clearly need to think harder about their values, the direction they’ve chosen and setting some moral red lines. They need to listen to the clear majority in the pro-Israel community who know there can be no excuse or justification for giving financial support to the most dangerous pro-conspiracy theory, anti-democratic Trump Republicans.”
After being broadly criticized for endorsing 109 lawmakers who voted to overturn the election results on January 6, AIPAC has doubled down on a strategy that even some supporters have criticized for threatening America’s democracy. The group’s Super PAC has overwhelmed several primaries with millions of dollars in advertising attacking democratic candidates, using money donated in part by Republican billionaires. They continue to actively fundraise for Republican lawmakers who sought pardons from Donald Trump for their role in the January 6 insurrection, and several lawmakers who continue to promote the deadly, antisemitic ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory.
“AIPAC’s aggressive support for dangerous politicians and massive spending from far-right donors is harmful to American foreign policy, harmful to our democracy and, ultimately, harmful to bipartisan support for the US-Israel relationship,” Williams said. “Rather than building sustainable, bipartisan support, AIPAC is turning Israel into a hyper-politicized wedge issue and using its Super PAC to defeat pro-Israel, pro-peace leaders who actually represent the balanced, nuanced views of the majority of Jewish Americans. Our shared democratic values are the foundation of the US-Israel relationship. Undermining those values on either end of that relationship undermines its future.”