AIPAC is an unhealthy force for both America and Israel
Readers of The Dossier already know that I’m a big supporter of the State of Israel, for reasons I’ve addressed at length and won’t be repeating here.
Does that mean I support AIPAC? No. Not at all. In fact, I think AIPAC is a political mess, harmful to American and Israeli interests, and it even feeds anti-Israel sentiment, but not for the reasons many believe to be true.
Here’s the deal on AIPAC:
Founded in 1963, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) exists today almost solely to facilitate a very specific military aid package, which is advertised as a necessary and robust infusion of supplies and hardware to Israel. Despite arguably noble intentions, the aid package has significantly damaged the health and mutual independence of the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Whatever else AIPAC does, from its public messaging to lower priority endeavors through which the organizations involves itself, is all a variey of window dressing and bumper stickers. We will get to that in a moment.
The fundamental problem with AIPAC is not some kind of internet-spawned stealthy tinfoil hat conspiratorial campaign to undermine democracy or whatever, but in the public, overt details of its longtime political and lobbying efforts.
For several decades, AIPAC has been on the forefront of securing a multi billion dollar annual aid package that incentivizes Israel to chip away at its own sovereignty in exchange for a poison pill handout. AIPAC’s prized initiative is its annual lobbying spree for the next big aid bill. It amounts to a semi permanent Beltway welfare program, leaving American taxpayers on the hook for an unproductive deal that has led to an incredibly unhealthy dynamic between two sovereign states.
Americans who suport free people and free markets understand pretty quickly how foreign aid by default turns independent states into client states and leads to all kinds of corruption and malfeasance. The D.C. liberals who run AIPAC, however, don’t seem to understand this reality.
The Israel aid packages are made toxic not just because of the “foreign aid” layout, but because of the stipulations within the annual aid bills that force Israel to use all of the money solely on Beltway defense contractors.
The much-discussed and debated U.S. aid to Israel isn’t really categorized accurately. It’s much better understood as an exclusive gift card than an unrestricted pile of cash. It’s not like Jerusalem is pocketing the cash and using it on some kind of social welfare programs for its citizens. Under the Obama Administration, the aid was unanimously reoriented to act as an indirect means to fill the coffers of Boeing, Lockheed, Raytheon, and the gang. This is why the D.C. Uniparty loves it. It’s a win-win for all of the power players in Washington.
Over the years, Israeli governments across many political stripes have made the mistake of embracing these handouts. In doing so, Israel has not made the necessary investments into building up its own military industrial order within its sovereign territory. And unsurprisingly the Israelis have been forced to become more and more reliant on U.S. defense contractor hardware to the point that their sovereignty is routinely put in a vulnerable position. See: the Biden Administration recently halting an arms shipment to Israel over political disagreements regarding how Israel is pursuing the war in Gaza.
Somewhat paradoxically, anti-Israel administrations, such as the Biden and Obama regimes, don’t mind the aid packages, because it provides them with enormous leverage, allowing for the White House to strongarm Israel into bending to their will.
Now let’s talk about the often-cited false procalmations made by various people of the internet, many of whom simply hate Jews and/or Israel and use AIPAC as a proxy to spew venom into the public domain.
There are two giant political misconceptions about AIPAC that I continue to encounter. Perhaps the most prominent — a favorite of the especially ignorant — is the idea that AIPAC is some kind of nefarious force that exists to generate broadly astroturfed pro Israel sentiment in the United States.
It’s incredibly ignorant of reality. It’s akin to someone like Beto O’Rourke declaring that the NRA exists to psyop conservative Americans into believing that we should be allowed to own guns. Of course, that’s ridiculous. Most Americans who lean right already love guns, just as a vast majority of the right already supports Israel. AIPAC doesn’t need to do any lobbying legwork to convince republicans legislators to support Israel. Most of them already cherish the U.S.-Israel alliance, in part because their constituents overhwelmingly support it. Israel is a winning issue for republican politicians, and they don’t need an AIPAC lobbyist to remind them of that reality.
The second big misconception is the idea that AIPAC exists to advance the interests of Israel, with some going as far as to claim that AIPAC is a foreign-directed entity that should be made to register as a foreign agent of Israel.
For one, the AIPAC leadership roster — which is exclusively led by uniparty democrats — is made up of American citizens who are using their dollars to lobby for their interests. I think AIPAC’s mission is a waste of money, in addition to being destructive and dishonest. But there is nothing illegal about that.
Lobbyists register as foreign agents because they are being paid by a foreign government to work on their behalf. Regarding AIPAC, no such dynamic with Israel exists. More importantly, as someone who is proudly pro-Israel, I believe AIPAC is not a beneficial force for the advancement of Israel’s sovereign interests. So, at least in my view, none of the aforementioned critiques hold any real weight.
There is one very real psyop that AIPAC devotes much energy to pursuing, and that is the effort to cast the Democrat Party as pro-Israel. In 2024, they are spending almost all of their non aid package-related efforts on campaigns for mildly pro-Israel democrats, lighting milions and millions of donor money on fire with the hopes to carve out some congressional seats to slow down the inevitable Hamasification of the left. And despite being labeled as some kind of all powerful lobby, AIPAC has continued to hemhorrage political capital with the party that has been its primary focus.
AIPAC is nothing more (and nothing less) than a group of influential pro-Israel American democrats who think they know what’s best for both America and Israel. But in their misaligned political efforts, AIPAC hurts the standing of both the United States and Israel in the process of attempting to maintain the delusion of a united front.
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