Here’s how AIPAC could lose its bipartisan status
The American Israeli Public Action Committee has managed to work with Democrats and Republicans alike. Will that change now that Israel has tacked to the right?
The American Israeli Public Action Committee, widely known as AIPAC, has managed to remain bipartisan for nearly 70 years. Its membership is divided roughly equally between Democrats and Republicans. Leaders from across the American political spectrum – everyone from Vice President Mike Pence to Sen. Kamala Harris – have spoken at the influential lobbying group’s conferences.
But as a political scientist who teaches and writes about U.S. foreign policy and Middle East politics, I have been observing changing political landscapes within the United States and Israel. Growing competition between AIPAC and J Street, a relatively new pro-Israeli lobbying group, along with changes in how American Jews regard increasingly hardline and conservative Israeli policies, reflect a growing partisan split. I believe that ultimately these changes could make AIPAC’s agenda more attractive to Republicans than to Democrats, with potentially significant consequences for American-Israeli relations.
Social welfare
AIPAC is a nonprofit that promotes close ties between the U.S. and Israeli governments. It lobbies members of Congress directly, organizes trips to Israel for legislators across party lines, and hosts an annual conference at which a prominent lineup of American and foreign leaders speak. The American Israel Education Foundation, a charity that operates as a branch of AIPAC, supports its educational activities and funds trips to Israel for lawmakers and what it calls “other political influentials.”
Although he is campaigning for re-election and is slated to be indicted by Israel’s attorney general for corruption, Benjamin Netanyahu will address attendees at AIPAC’s upcoming annual conference in Washington that begins March 24. The Israeli settler leader Oded Revivi has told the Israeli media that he will also be on the roster, as has Benny Gantz – Netanyahu’s rival in the upcoming elections.
One thing that AIPAC does not do, despite suggestions to the contrary, is directly finance political campaigns. Perhaps the confusion owes something to its name. The letters “P-A-C” typically signify that a group is a political action committee, or PAC, whose purpose is to raise campaign cash. The “PAC” in AIPAC is different. As a social welfare group, technically known as a 501(c)(4) organization under the tax code, it is primarily devoted to legislative advocacy through lobbying, activism and education.
AIPAC does, however, connect sympathetic candidates to a formidable base of donors, who may then contribute directly to political campaigns.
The U.S. is home to the world’s largest Jewish population, estimated at 5.7 million as of 2010. It is an ideologically and politically diverse group and not uniformly represented by AIPAC. According to the group’s own website, not all of the organization’s 100,000 members are Jewish.
https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/heres-how-aipac-could-lose-its-bipartisan-status/