How Much Control Over Middle East Policy Has AIPAC Bought? Will Its Demands For War With Iran Work?

You'd Be Surprised How Many Members Of Congress Put Israel First

Randy Fine (R), the crackpot Florida congressman better known for advocating nuking Gaza and for threatening violence against Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), also caused a bit of a stir when he tweeted “There is a reason the first time I shook Netanyahu’s hand, I did not wash it until I could touch the heads of my children.” [Note: the children were not removed from the home.] Fine is the most recent of the Likud’s Floridian Members of Congress, joining craven Israel-First members: 

• Debbie Wasserman Schultz (New Dem)- $1,038,534 in bribes

• Mario Diaz Balart (R)- $906,461 in bribes

• Brian Mast (R)- $700,480 in bribes

• Lois Frankel (D)- $675,354 in bribes

• Rick Scott (R)- $657,001 in bribes

• Darren Soto (New Dem)- $258,747 in bribes

• Jared Moskowitz (New Dem)- $397,398 in bribes

• Maria Salazar (R)- $250,081 in bribes

• Carlos Gimenez (R)- $233,687 in bribes

• Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D)- $194,793 in bribes

• Byron Donalds (R)- $121,507 in bribes

17 other Floridians are also on AIPAC’s payroll, but for less than $100,000 each. Wasserman Schultz was the first in Florida to go over the million dollar mark, but others in Congress who always put Israel first and who have been rewarded with over a million dollars each include:

• George Latimer (New Dem-NY)- $19,102,140 in bribes

• Wesley Bell (New Dem-MO)- $12,281,104 in bribes

• Adam Schiff (D-CA)- $6,234,034 in bribes

• Haley Stevens (New Dem-MI)- $5,480017 in bribes

• Sarah Elfreth (New Dem-MD)- $4,831,778 in bribes

• Shontel Brown (New Dem-OH)- $4,325,674 in bribes

• Janelle Bynum (New Dem-OR)- $3,563,367 in bribes

• Glenn Ivey (New Dem-MD)- $2,998,054 in bribes

• Jimmy Gomez (D-CA)- $2,697,740 in bribes

• Jacky Rosen (D-NV)- $2,310,392 in bribes

• Josh Gottheimer (New Dem-NJ)- $2,001,136 in bribes

• Tom Cotton (R-AR)- $1,197,827  in bribes

• Mitch McConnell (R-KY)- $1,951,910 in bribes

• Ted Cruz (R-TX)- $1,872,038 in bribes

• Tony Gonzales (R-TX)- $1,831,586 in bribes

• Steny Hoyer (D-MD)- $1,820,994 in bribes

• Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)- $1,742,105 in bribes

• Chuck Schumer (D-NY)- $1,727,974 in bribes

• Ritchie Torres (New Dem-NY)- $1,497,402 in bribes

• Henry Cueller (New Dem-TX)- $1,413,362 in bribes

• Don Davis (New Dem-NC)- $1,262,549 in bribes

• Mark Messmer (R-IN)- $1,352,310 in bribes

• Dick Durbin (D-IL)- $1,131,900 in bribes

• Brad Schneider (New Dem-IL)- $1,301,534 in bribes

• Don Bacon (R-NE)- $1,286,175 in bribes

• Ron Wyden (D-OR)- $1,280,376 in bribes

• Steve Scalise (R-LA)- $1,099,764 in bribes

• Miss Lindsey (R-SC)- $1,000,580 in bribes

Perhaps a better way of demonstrating the pervasiveness of AIPAC’s control over Congress is to list the ONLY members of Congress who have rejected all contributions from AIPAC and the rest of the Israel-First lobby:

• Hank Johnson (D-GA)

• Chuy Garcia (D-IL)

• Andre Carson (D-IN)

• Thomas Massie (R-KY)

• Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)

• Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)

• Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)

• Ilhan Omar (D-MN)

• Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ)

• Nydia Velazquez (D-NY)

• AOC (D-NY)

• Jeff Merkley (D-OR)

• Summer Lee (D-PA)

• Jasmine Crockett (D-TX)

• Greg Casar (D-TX)

• Bernie (I-VT)

• Pramila Jayapal (D-WA)

• Mark Pocan (D-WI)

That’s it, out of 535 Members of Congress, just 16 Democrats and 1 Republican have not been bribed by AIPAC or any other components of the Israel-First lobby. Most members and candidates I spoke with said they’d rather not talk about it. “I avoid it like the plague,” one progressive told me. Everyone recalls the $19 million that the pro-genocide coalition deployed against Jamaal Bowwman and the $12 million it spent against Cori Bush. People with longer memories remember how AIPAC destroyed Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), Earl Hilliard (D-AL), James Abourezk (D-SD), Charles Percy (R-IL), Tom Campbell (R-CA), Paul Findley (R-IL), even William Fulbright (D-AR), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1974, after he blasted them by publicly stating that “AIPAC controls the U.S. Senate,” while prioritzing U.S. interests over Israel’s.

Travis Terrell, the progressive Democrat taking on AIPAC puppet Mariannette Miller Meeks in southeast Iowa put it like this: “The ‘America First’ crowd sure loves putting Israel first, and AIPAC is their weapon of choice. AIPAC doesn’t represent American interests, and it sure as hell doesn’t represent the Jewish people. It represents a corrupt, authoritarian government led by a right-wing extremist who is on trial for bribery. And in all honesty, it’s disgusting how Netanyahu and AIPAC pretend to speak for all Jews when countless Jewish Americans and Israelis themselves have taken to the streets to oppose his government’s extremism. But the moment you criticize any of it, they scream antisemitism. Not because they care about protecting people, but because they care about protecting power. It’s not hate to hold the corrupt accountable.”

Emily Berge is running for the western Wisconsin congressional seat. She has two conservative opponents, first Blue Dog Rebecca Cooke in the primary and then like-minded Republican Derrick Van Orden (each of whom took around $100,000 from AIPAC and the Israel-First coalition last year). Yesterday, Emily told me that “Most of us agree that big money in politics is a serious problem. I knew about politicians accepting money from big pharma or big oil, and I see how those donations block progress. But I didn't realize how many politicians accept money from groups that lobby to promote foreign policy preferences.  Because as a voter, I would never want to wonder if my representatives were thinking of their donor base when they were deciding to put  American troops in harm's way. This is why it's not OK for candidates to accept money from any group that's advocating for international issues. Right now, the question of war with Iran is looming. Two members of Congress, AOC and Republican Thomas Massie, are leading the charge to block war with Iran. Those are two of the small number of people in Congress who haven't accepted this money. Maybe that's a coincidence. I don't know. But we shouldn't have to wonder if it's money, or conscience, shaping the decision to go to war.”  

Please consider contributing to Emily's and Troy's campaigns here on the ActBlue Flip Congress page. Neither of them will ever take any money from any corporate PACs, let alone from a PAC pushing the agenda of a foreign power... and both of their opponents have done exactly that.

Yesterday, Sarah Lazare and Adam Johnson noted that although some Democrats are fighting to prevent a war with Iran, AIPAC-owned Democratic leaders are not among them, some actually cheering Trump on. Some Dems are trying to get a bipartisan War Powers Act passed  but “the Democratic Party’s most powerful politicians refuse to mount any meaningful opposition to a strike. Many outright favor direct U.S. involvement in yet another regime change war.” They were particularly pointing to Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, two wholly owned AIPAC subsidiaries from Brooklyn.

Schumer boasted about a little performative opposition to Trump on No Kings Day but “when it comes to the prospect of a direct war with Iran, Schumer is not only supporting Trump, but less than three weeks ago was goading the administration to be ‘tough’ on Iran and not make any ‘side deals’ without Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approval. ‘The United States’ commitment to Israel’s security and defense must be ironclad as they prepare for Iran’s response,’ he said in a follow-up statement released on June 13, after Israel attacked Iran. ‘The Iranian regime’s stated policy has long been to destroy Israel and Jewish communities around the world.’”

Then House minority-leader Dick Gephardt (D-MO) pulled the same kind of crap with Bush and the Iraq War and his deputy, Nancy Pelosi, explicitly used it to oust him and take over leadership of the party.

Lazare and Johnson also noted that Hakeem “responded to Israel’s attack with a toothless statement that was vaguely supportive of war and packed with every pro-Israel cliche in the book. ‘Our commitment to Israel’s security is ironclad,’ he said. ‘It is clear that the Iranian regime poses a grave threat to the entire free world. There is no circumstance where Iran can be permitted to become a nuclear power.’ Jeffries, too, mentioned diplomacy, but with no urgency. ‘As soon as is practical, it is imperative to find a rigorous diplomatic path forward and avoid any situation where U.S. troops are put in harm’s way,’ he said. As with Schumer, ‘diplomacy’ is a box to be checked, a vague normative preference, but not a demand— and certainly not a requirement. A host of powerful Democrats issued strikingly similar statements. They repeatedly reinforced every premise of Trump’s pending bombing campaign, namely the alleged imminent danger posed by Iran. This premise is undermined by U.S.intelligence assessment and and leaks to both the Wall Street Journal and CNN, which suggest Iran hadn’t decided to make a bomb and would be three years away from producing one if it did.”

[M]any members of Congress are simply copy and pasting approved language from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, the flagship pro-Israel lobby group. These outlets found that, in statements on congressional websites and social media, nearly 30 members of Congress used nearly identical language about how they “stand with Israel” and another 35 gave their unequivocal support in similar terms but without the magic words. 

Among the influential Democrats pledging their unflinching support for Israel was Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Like many others, Meeks hauled out a talking point about how “Israel has a right to defend itself”— meant to front-run any discussion of Israeli aggression by asserting the premise that any and all military action is inherently defensive. It’s a dubious premise in most contexts, but especially Orwellian in this one since Israel preemptively attacked Iran based on claims of an “imminent threat” in direct contradiction of US intelligence. Even if one thinks Israel has a “right to defend itself” in the abstract, under no neutral reading of international law is Israel doing so by bombing another country without legal basis to do so.

The decidedly unhelpful approaches by powerful Democrats don’t end there. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), influential members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, respectively, both issued mealy-mouthed statements trying to split the baby between “diplomacy” rhetoric and reinforcing every pretense for U.S. involvement in Israel’s bombing of Iran.

These non-positions— or worse, positions in favor of unprovoked, almost certainly illegal war— are notable precisely because there are some lawmakers who are at least trying to do something to stop a direct, all-out conflict between the U.S. and Iran… A total of 27, or 12.7 percent, of House Democrats have lent the bill their support. 

There is another effort afoot, too: the No War Against Iran Act that was already in motion before Israel attacked Iran on June 13, though it was introduced after the attacks began. The Senate bill, spearheaded by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) would prevent federal funds from being used for a war that’s not approved by Congress. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) are among its eight Senate supporters.

Democratic leaders, however, are leaving their colleagues out to dry. Schumer, for instance, declined to join Sanders’s bill as a cosponsor— despite having cosponsored the same effort in 2020.

This tacit and open support for Trump’s war aren’t limited to active leadership; the upper echelons of the party establishment have been noticeably silent.

Biden Obama, Hillary and Kamala are all mum. “Surveying these responses— somewhere between muted disinterest and consent— there’s only one plausible conclusion,” wrote Lazare and Johnson: “Democratic elites by and large agree with both Israel’s unprovoked attacks on Iran and Trump’s direct involvement in this potentially catastrophic regime change war. It’s unlikely most Democratic hawks will come out in open support of an attack that carries such political risks; like with Iraq 20 years ago, things could quickly go off the rails. Yet, even as party leaders seek to burnish their credentials as the ‘resistance’ to Trump, they’re tacitly, and sometimes openly, giving Trump a green light to lurch America into yet another open-ended war of choice.”

Of the most prominent candidates for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, only Chris Murphy is speaking out publicly in favor of negotiations instead of bunker-busters. Pathetic centrists Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer and Pete Buttigieg are hiding under their beds, while Josh Shapiro is hysterical about Iran being “the largest state sponsor of terrorism” and Israel’s right to self-defense, apparently forgetting this war started with an Israeli surprise attack last week. He’s a complete AIPAC shill. Murphy is the only one with strong, direct opposition to the AIPAC/GOP/Likud position… the only one, ironically, with an America First position!