The largest and most powerful pro-Israel lobby in the United States, AIPAC, is facing “intense challenges” in maintaining bipartisan support for Tel Aviv over its war on the besieged Gaza Strip in which it has killed over 31,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children, the New York Times said yesterday.
According to the paper, AIPAC has also had to confront the “tangled politics” of foreign aid on Capitol Hill, where money for Israel is caught up in the dispute over providing assistance to Ukraine.
Former President Donald J. Trump has swayed many of AIPAC’s traditional right-wing allies into opposing additional funds for Ukraine, it added, blocking the House from moving ahead with legislation that would also provide billions to Israel.
The paper quoted former US Ambassador to Tel Aviv and former special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Martin Indyk, as saying that the lobby supporting Israel in the United States is “going through an identity crisis.”
“It gets disguised by their formidable ability to raise money, but their life has become very complicated,” he added.
On Monday, a coalition of progressive interest groups launched an initiative called “Reject AIPAC,” in a bid to counter the $100 million that AIPAC is expected to spend to defeat congressional candidates who have decried the civilian suffering in Gaza produced by Israel’s war against the besieged enclave.
Watch: AIPAC lobbyists refuse to hear about starving children in Gaza