Every U.S. Senator Has Taken AIPAC Money

W.J. Astore

Incremental Genocide and Displacement and Replacement in Gaza

Courtesy of OpenSecrets.org, I saw a chart on AIPAC contributions to U.S. senators that showed that all 100 senators have taken AIPAC money. Leading the way are senate “giants” like Mitch McConnell (nearly two million dollars) and Chuck Schumer (roughly $1.7 million). Talk about bipartisanship! I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that the U.S. Senate is so strongly pro-Israel. It obviously has nothing to do with the power of AIPAC and all that money.

Bipartisanship and no divisiveness. Who says we have a dysfunctional and divided Congress? Nonsense!

Here’s how AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) describes itself on its own web site:

The Largest Pro-Israel PAC in America

WE STAND with those who stand with Israel. The AIPAC PAC is a bipartisan, pro-Israel political action committee. It is the largest pro-Israel PAC in America and contributed more resources directly to candidates than any other PAC. 98% of AIPAC-backed candidates won their general election races in 2022.

That last sentence is a killer. AIPAC is reminding Members of Congress that if you want to be elected, or win reelection, you very much want AIPAC on your side. And if you don’t kowtow to their agenda, they will do everything in their power to defeat you.

Imagine if there was an American Palestine Public Affairs Committee, an APPAC, that contributed hundreds of thousands if not millions to every U.S. senator and that boasted of a 98% success rate in getting APPAC-anointed candidates elected or reelected. Do you think maybe the U.S. Senate would have a different position on Gaza and the West Bank?

Speaking of Gaza, I watched Chris Hedges interview Ilan Pappé, an Israeli historian. Pappé put it simply and clearly: Israel is engaged in “incremental genocide” against the Palestinian people, a genocide in slow motion, a strategy of “displacement and replacement.” The “displacement” of the Palestinians is done by mass bombing, mass destruction, mass death, and (hopefully for the Israelis) mass migration, and the “replacement” will come when Jewish settlers take possession of Gaza (after a lot of munitions cleanup and infrastructure redevelopment, I suppose, probably paid for by the U.S. taxpayer).

There’s an Orwellian term for this. For mass death followed by forced expulsion, Israel is using the term “voluntary migration” (or “voluntary” emigration). But of course there is nothing “voluntary” about any of this.

If U.S. government officials appear clueless about what’s happening in Gaza, they’re not. They’re just bought and paid for.

5 thoughts on “Every U.S. Senator Has Taken AIPAC Money”

  1. I am going to take an oppostional position here. I think there is a double standard that is applied to Israeli actions compared to the actions of other countries or organizations. OK, so all 100 senators have taken money from AIPAC. How many senators have taken money from Saudi Ariabia? or Qatar? or Exxon-Mobile, or the NRA? Why don’t you list some of those statistics? By not doing so you imply that taking money from those countries or organizations is somehow less evil than taking money from a Zionist lobby.

    People in the US are publicly protesting the death of innocent civilians in Gaza and the complicity of the US in that. That is appropriate. But, … where were they when the Saudis were bombing innocent civilians in Yemen with US arms? When Assad was killing innocent civilians in Syria? Apparently if Arabs kill other Arabs then its OK, but if Jews kill Arabs then they are guilty of crimes against humanity????

    I don’t know if you have ever talked to or read accounts from Jews who lived in other countries in the MIddle East. I have and the hatred they experienced on an ongoing basis was intense. A substantial number of Arabs want the Jews exterminated. Iran, and its proxies Hamas and Hezbollah have publicly stated that they are dedicated to the destruction of the state of Israel and the murder of the Jews in Palestine. Read the Hamas charter. It specifically calls for the creation of an Islamic state in all of Palestine by violence and explicitly rejects negotiation. These people are not going to change their minds or behaviors even if all the Israelis embraced non-violence and the IDF traded in its weapons for flowers.

    None of this makes the Israeli actions moral or right. People seem to operate under the delusion that if they can prove one side is wrong in any manner than the other side must be right. They seem incapable of realizing that both sides can be immoral.

    FYI I was completely against the Israeli assault on Gaza and I wrote to my federal representatives stating that I wanted them to support a ceasefire. I made it clear that in my opinion the Israeli assault was STUPID. It is going to kill a lot of innocent people and fail to stop the cycle of violence. It doesn’t matter how justified an action is. If it is not going to work, the justification is irrelevant.

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    1. The point here is simple. AIPAC has a lot of money and power and a heavy influence on U.S. politics. As another person pointed out to me, the biggest recipient of AIPAC funding over the decades is Joe Biden, more than double that of Mitch M. and Chuck S. Is it any wonder why Joe Biden gives Israel a blank check when AIPAC has handed him so many checks in the past?

      There is no APPAC, my imaginary construct for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. There is no price for U.S. politicians to pay if they criticize Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestinian Authority, or Palestinians in general. Indeed, with the rarest of exceptions, being fervidly pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian is applauded and rewarded in U.S. politics.

      This is a big reason why the U.S. is enabling “incremental genocide” in Gaza.

      Do you oppose this narrative and explanation?

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  2. Thanks for this. If someone had asked me how many US senators have accepted money from Israel, I think I would have said “All 100 of them.” But I’d have said facetiously. It’s good to know that it’s a fact.

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