AOC Says Dems Hurt By Yielding To AIPAC's 'Wildly Unpopular' Pro-Israel Agenda

Progressive New York Rep. Alexandrio Ocasio-Cortez kicked a hornet's nest on Sunday afternoon when she pointed to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as one of the powerful special interest groups that push a "wildly unpopular agenda" on Democratic politicians to the party's detriment.   

AOC's comment came in a response to a social media post by Jeremy Slevin. "Weird to have a whole discourse about 'special interest groups' that completely leaves out corporate and industry lobbies—by far the most influential 'groups' in the Democratic Party," wrote the senior advisor to progressive Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. 

Implying that Slevin was himself omitting an important special interest group, AOC characterized AIPAC as "a special interest group pushing a wildly unpopular agenda that pushes voters away from Democrats," and said Democrats were "overly influenced" by the big-spending organization.  

Having long been an enormously influential lobbying group, AIPAC began pursuing a new avenue of influence in 2022, and started spending money directly on political campaigns, and rapidly became one of the most prolific outside spenders in US politics, targeting members of Congress who dared to push back on unconditional military and financial aid to Israel. 

The 2024 election saw Democrats lose the White House and the Senate while failing to take over the House of Representatives. While there's no indication that the issue was decisive, the Biden-Harris administration's eager provision of weapons and billions of dollars to Israel for the pursuit of its astoundingly destructive war on Gaza doubtlessly dampened Democrats' enthusiasm and turnout. 

A September Pew Research poll found that half of Democrats felt Israel's military operation was "going too far", while an Economist poll found that just 14% of Democrats held more sympathy for Israelis than Palestinians. With full knowledge of these dynamics, party standard-bearer Harris nonetheless pressed on with full-throated support of Israel, failing to stake out any policy difference with Biden on the Gaza War. 

AIPAC quickly fired back at AOC's social media post, sharing screen shots that spotlighted the group's ousting of progressive Democratic representatives Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman. Both were guilty of criticizing Israeli government policies and voicing sympathy for Palestinians -- and both were removed by Democratic primary challengers backed by AIPAC to the tune of a combined $14 million. AIPAC's spending on the Bowman race helped make it the most expensive House primary contest ever.

To describe AIPAC's retort as misleading would be a huge understatement. As it did frequently through the 2024 cycle, the group implied that support of Israel was the key to the success of the candidates it backed. However, that claim is defied by an odd and unsettling aspect of the Israel lobby's participation in these races: Advertising that pro-Israel groups injected into 2024 campaigns almost never mentioned Israel. Instead, the ads focused on unrelated domestic issues. AIPAC's dedication to concealing its hand in political campaigns extends to the name of its super PAC, which it vaguely calls the "United Democracy Project."

It's a well-established fact of Western politics that one can talk with relatively impunity about the power wielded by any number of special interest groups -- but not the pro-Israel lobby. Predictably, AOC's post about AIPAC triggered a deluge of responses accusing her of bigotry: 

Backers and beneficiaries of AIPAC face no such condemnation for noting the group's power in US politics. In the wake of this month's election, the Jerusalem Post lauded AIPAC for "strengthening pro-Israel presence in Congress," saying the group "aided 318 Zionist candidates to win."  Wesley Bell, who took out Cori Bush in the primary, thanked AIPAC, saying he was "not getting across the finish line without you." Watch for him to be a reliable "yes" vote on every pro-Israel piece of legislation that hits the House floor in the upcoming 119th Congress.