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No. AIPAC Does Not Control the U.S. Government, Or Congress... [1]
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Date: 2025-09-10
Turns out, where lobby money is concerned, AIPAC does not even break the top 20.
What interests are higher up in terms of $$$? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Big Pharma/Health, The Media, fossil fuels, AARP, to name a handful. Let’s do a thought experiment: If you believe that some foreign government in the Middle East is guiding the hand of the US government (and given the lobbying power of the fossil fuel industry), you might say Saudi Arabia would be a more appropriate entity to blame for influencing American foreign policy than Israel. Nor did the Israelis cause 9/11, to allude to another popular anti-Semitic trope. But I digress...
To believe in the all-encompassing power of AIPAC is to ignore the fucking complicity and free will of the said American politicians in taking donations from AIPAC, much less ANY donations from ANY interest group. That is to say, we might want to be more careful, because suggesting Israel (and by extension, Jews) is especially adept at controlling government policy through money and guile, is just about the oldest anti-Semitic trope in the book.
I don’t believe that most people of good will, who are rightly appalled by the government of Israel, would be on board with the “the Protocol of The Elders of Zion” a vile Russian anti-Semitic conspiracy that goes back a couple of centuries, which suggests a sinister Jewish cabal at the heart of government--- so why the fuck have we seized on this particular angle-of-critique concerning the genocide?
In truth, it is hard to measure the effectiveness of AIPAC’s power, because its secrecy of course reinforces suspicion. We do know that there are politicians who explicitly reject such money, who weather its bullshit attacks, who regularly win, and in places where you might think it would be difficult--consider AOC. But again, this points to another anti-Semitic article of faith, that “The Jews” mostly move in lock step politically with Isreal. As we have seen, with the election of Mamdani in the primary ( over a beloved progressive, Jewish candidate, Brad Lander) much less over Cuomo ( Bibi’s lawyer), in the city with the highest density of Jewish residents in the world, proves this kind of conceit is bullshit, but totally on brand for America.
Also, if it is AIPAC’S pay-to-play that we are appalled by, then we should be working to get rid of the entire corrupt campaign finance system.
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