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AIPAC

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Itamar Ben-Gvir leads incursion into the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, January 3, 2023. (Photo: Social Media)

Israel’s boosters across the political spectrum are panicking over the far-right’s victory in Israel’s election, and the reactions are telling. “We cannot remain silent knowing the enormous impact that the words and actions of Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich as senior ministers would have on the US-Israeli relationship,” writes Israel lobby stalwarts Dennis Ross and David Makovsky.

Netanyahu and Biden meet, July 14, 2022. Photo by Israeli government press office.

The Israel lobby just led an attack on Rashida Tlaib to stop any criticism of Israeli colonization of Palestinian land. What else can it do? It has helped stop the Iran deal and promoted Abraham Accords, bribery of Arab monarchies to normalize Israel and overlook Palestinian human rights. But surely the biggest sign of the lobby’s power is that it is not scrutinized in the press. When it is called out for corrupting influence, it says the criticism is antisemitic.

U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar speaking with supporters of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders in Las Vegas, Nevada, February 2020. (Photo: Gage Skidmore)

Filings from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) reveal that the pro-Israel group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spent more than $350,000 trying to defeat Rep. Ilhan Omar in the Democratic primary for Minnesota’s 5th district. Additionally the group spent over $400,000 to help defeat New York 10th district candidate Yuh-Line Niou, a progressive assembly member who expressed support for the BDS movement. Both races were very close, Omar’s unexpectedly so.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu speaking at the AIPAC 2015 Policy Conference (Image: Getty Images)

Israel and its proxies in Washington are stepping up their efforts to promote war against Iran in response to the increasingly positive outlook for a renewed Iran Nuclear Deal. Their arguments, however, can be easily debunked.

Former federal prosecutor Dan Goldman is the beneficiary of AIPAC spending in a NY congressional primary victory over a progressive, while AP’s Matt Lee quizzes the State Department about why it’s had Israel’s supposed evidence for designating Palestinian human rights groups as terrorists for nearly a year and not been able to say there’s nothing there.