AIPAC is still aiming to take down Summer Lee

AIPAC has been a lobbying force for years, but in December 2021 it dramatically changed its role in the U.S. election process. The pro-Israel group announced that it was changing its status so that it could financially support candidates through a PAC called the AIPAC Political Action Committee , and a super PAC called the United Democracy Project (UDP).

AIPAC went on to spend millions trying to influence Democratic primaries and they were often successful. UDP alone spent over $26 million on Democratic races during the last primary cycle. $10.5 million of that was spent on attack ads, but the group never mentioned Israel in any of them.

AIPAC has recalibrated its election strategy again. For the first time ever its spending on a general election race between a Democrat and a Republican. UDP has spent about $80,000 on mailers and nearly $1 million on ads attacking state legislator Summer Lee, the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania’s 12 congressional district. Lee is running against Mike Doyle, a GOP insurance executive.

UDP spent $2.7 million unsuccessfully trying to defeat Lee in the Democratic primary this May. Combined with efforts from its other PAC, AIPAC ended up spending $3,360,675 attempting to deliver an improbable victory to a pro-Israel former Republican staffer named Steve Irwin. They nearly succeeded, as Lee prevailed by less than a point.

AIPAC dubbed Lee as “anti-Israel” because she’s expressed some support for the human rights of Palestinians. “When I hear American pols use the refrain ‘Israel has the right to defend itself’ in response to undeniable atrocities on a marginalized population, I can’t help but think of how the west has always justified indiscriminate and disproportionate force and power on weakened and marginalized people,” Lee tweeted during Israel’s May 2021 attack on Gaza. “The US has never shown leadership in safeguarding human rights of folks its othered But as we fight against injustice here in the movement for black lives we must stand against injustice everywhere. Inhumanities against the Palestinian people cannot be tolerated or justified.”

When asked about the tweet during an April 2022 event organized by the Pittsburgh Jewish Federation, Lee did not back down. “I was seeing, as a black woman, somebody who has also experienced oppression– we as black folks have experienced global oppression– and really looking at the parallels and being startled,” she told the crowd. “That was I believe a year ago, also during Ramadan, where we saw a mosque being raided. Those are folks who are in their most vulnerable point and they’re holding on, praying and breaking fast, and that was an internationally-recognized event that happened that was an escalation unlike we had seen, and what I heard and what I continue to hear was instead of a cry out to say that was not OK… instead what I saw were American politicians rushing to use that phrase that Israel has a right to defend itself.”

“The question was what were they defending themselves against at that moment and I think that that was specifically what that tweet was speaking about,” she continued. “When we are saying that a powerful entity has a right to defend itself, when no one had done anything needing a defense, that was the parallel that was drawn between Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman who instigated it and then saying he had a right to defend himself. And that’s what I was seeing as a black woman and recognizing that parallel and the trauma that comes with it.”

UDP’s primary attack ads on Lee claimed that she was divisive force within the Democratic party and chided her for being unsupportive of President Biden’s agenda. “Summer Lee: more interested in fighting Democrats than getting results,” it declares.

As many people have pointed out, the group that criticized Lee for being insufficiently Democrat is now backing the Republican.

More than 240 members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish-American community wrote an open letter supporting Lee and condemning AIPAC’s spending. “All of us in the Jewish community and beyond who are concerned about the survival of democracy in the United States and around the world should do what we can to support candidates like Summer Lee–up and down the ballot–and to make clear that the harmful actions of AIPAC do not speak for us,” it reads.

AIPAC has faced increasing criticism from progressives over its backing of over one-hundred insurrectionist Republicans who voted to throw out the 2020 presidential election results. When confronted with this criticism the group has consistently cited its support for a bipartisan pro-Israel alliance in congress.

However, on the subject of spending on Democrats AIPAC’s messaging has been a bit cloudier. After Lee narrowly defeated Irwin in the primary UDP chief executive Rob Bassin told the Jewish Insider that the close race “suggests that [Lee’s] brand of anti-Israel, far-left, out-of-the-mainstream doesn’t resonate with the majority of Democrats.”

This week AIPAC touted its support of Democrats on Twitter. “We oppose Summer Lee because of her dangerous views of the US-Israel alliance,” the group wrote. “AIPAC and our 2 million grassroots members proudly support progressive candidates – including 148 Democrats this cycle – who don’t check their values at the door when it comes to standing with Israel.”

However AIPAC obviously does “check their values” as it spent millions on the Democratic primaries, but never mentioned Israel once. Recent polling indicates that support for Israel is diminishing among Democratic voters. A Brookings/University of Maryland‘s Critical Issues Poll from this summer even suggests that support for the BDS movement is growing among Democrats.

“You oppose Summer Lee because she’s supports equality and justice,” IfNotNow co-founder Max Berger tweeted at AIPAC this week. “Your organization exists to deny Palestinians basic human rights — no matter the consequences. You checked your support for American democracy at the door when you endorsed 109 pro-coup Republicans.”

“AIPAC is an anti-Palestinian organization,” he continued. “They accept huge contributions from billionaires who oppose the progressive shift in the Democratic Party. They use the pro-Trump money to keep working class women of color from gaining political power — all to deny Palestinians rights.”