OPINION - AIPAC’s influence on the US' politics

• AIPAC and most of the scores of other Zionist groups that comprise the broader Israel lobby will continue to work effectively against any two-state solution

The author is a retired distinguished professor of history and the author of several books on U.S. foreign policy, most recently Architects of Repression: How Israel and its Lobby Put Racism, Violence and Injustice at the Center of U.S. Middle East Policy (Washington: Institute for Research, Middle East Policy, 2021).

ISTANBUL

The signature of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the spearhead of the broader Israel lobby, was written all over the celebratory appearance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the United States (US) capitol on July 24th.

Is the boycott of Netanyahu by Democrats challenging AIPAC?

The Israeli prime minister, politically beleaguered at home and condemned for war crimes abroad, can always count on receiving a laudatory hero’s welcome in the US, which has long funded and enabled Israeli aggression and repression of Palestinians. AIPAC prides itself on ensuring a strongly pro-Israeli policy from both major American political parties, but Benjamin Netanyahu is clearly aligned with the Republicans and especially with Donald Trump, who gave Israel everything it wanted during his presidency, including formal recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

While the Republicans are unabashedly behind Netanyahu, despite the mass slaughter that has been unfolding in the Gaza strip for months, about half of all Democrats boycotted the syrupy celebration of the Israeli leader, which included 79 bursts of applause and repeated standing ovations. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (California Democrat Party) even condemned Netanyahu’s speech, which contained no reference to a potential ceasefire in Gaza, as "the worst presentation of any foreign dignitary" ever to appear before the US Congress.

The sharp criticism and boycott of Democrats presents an unprecedented challenge for AIPAC, which undoubtedly kept careful track of those who celebrated Netanyahu and those who did not. The lobby organization, which is extremely well-funded by billionaire donors, has hundreds of employees, and operates out of a multi-story office building on Washington’s H Street, can be expected to support and financially reward the members who embraced Netanyahu and target for defeat in the next election cycle those who boycotted. To cite one example of how the lobby operates, AIPAC is spending some $4.6 million backing the opponent of Republican Cori Bush (Democrat-Missouri) in the August 6th primary election, according to Federal Election Commission records. Bush is a member of the small left-leaning contingent in Congress and one of the few who openly condemns Israeli repression.

Despite the criticism and the Democratic boycott, AIPAC remains firmly in control of Congress on the crucial issues of funding Israeli militarism and enabling the ongoing dispossession, repression, and slaughter of Palestinians. President Joe Biden, who has had a tense relationship with Netanyahu dating to his service as vice president in the former US President Barack Obama administration, nonetheless has brought no meaningful pressure on Israel amid the Gaza assault while paying lip service to calls for a ceasefire and negotiation of the mythical two-state solution to the Palestinian question.

Israel proves itself to be an apartheid state by laws

Vice President Kamala Harris, who cited a scheduling conflict preventing her from assuming the vice presidential role of presiding over the foreign leader’s appearance, also brings no sticks to the table. Her husband, Douglas Emhoff, assured a group of Jewish voters on July 24th that Harris maintains her unstinting support of the ''Jewish state'' of Israel. A Jewish state is, by definition, an apartheid state as it privileges a single ethnic group over all others. Israel has also positioned itself as a genocidal state, not solely through the indiscriminate slaughter of some 40,000 residents of Gaza, which Netanyahu brazenly misrepresented in his congressional address, but also through the Knesset’s renunciation of the creation of a Palestinian state. The resolution, which passed by a vote of 68-9 on July 17th, in effect means that Palestinians have no right to exist, and it is therefore tantamount to a declaration of genocide, or at best, apartheid.

Despite the outspoken criticism and Democratic boycott of Netanyahu, AIPAC’s pervasive influence over American politics will ensure there is no threat to the ongoing US support of Israel, a small nation of some 9 million people that, since 1948, has received more than $150 billion in US financial assistance—more than any other country in the world. AIPAC and most of the scores of other Zionist groups that comprise the broader Israel lobby will continue to work effectively against any two-state solution, which has long since become impractical, with more than 700,000 "settlers" illegally occupying the West Bank while subjecting the indigenous population to relentless oppression and second-class citizenship.

AIPAC is by far the most powerful lobby representing the interests of a foreign country in American history. Its influence is comparable to some of the more powerful lobbies in Washington, including the gun, real estate, medical, pharmaceutical, and elderly lobbies. Few in Congress openly discuss AIPAC, but all are fully aware of its political clout.

*Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Anadolu