Social media graphic posted by office of US lawmaker Cori Bush

SNA (Tokyo) — The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the main pro-Israel lobbying group in the United States, is reportedly gearing up an effort to entirely eliminate progressive lawmakers from the House of Representatives in the 2024 election cycle with over US$100 million in planned spending.

In particular, AIPAC aims to recruit challengers and to spend massively on campaigns to defeat all seven members of “The Squad,” viewing their support for Palestinian rights and their calls for a ceasefire in Gaza as unacceptable.

“Close watchers now expect AIPAC to spend at least $100 million in Democratic primaries, largely trained on eliminating incumbent Squad members from their seats. It’s likely that even more money will be spent by affiliated super PACs, including the Democratic Majority for Israel PAC and the Mainstream Democrats PAC,” reports Alexander Sammon in Slate.

This spending would mark, in fact, simply an intensification of AIPAC’s ongoing efforts to crush the US progressive movement.

In last year’s midterm elections, pro-Israel lobbying groups were the largest single-issue outside spender in Democratic Party primaries, pouring in well over US$30 million to defeat progressive candidates. It was noted at the time that much of this funding comes from Republican Party-related sources and almost never mention Israel in the attack ads themselves.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the most prominent of the Squad members, responded to the report on social media: “Criticism of the Israeli gov is virtually nonexistent in US politics, but apparently that’s not enough. Gotta spend *$100 million* to unseat the few who believe in Palestinian human rights & a ceasefire that most Americans already support. The acceptable level of dissent is 0.”

Representative Ilhan Omar added, “If what AIPAC was lobbying for was truly popular in our districts, they wouldn’t need to spend millions to smear us.”

Squad member Cori Bush continued: “$100 million targeting Black and brown members of Congress for supporting a ceasefire, a position supported by 80% of our party’s voters. AIPAC is attempting to buy blue seats with GOP donor money.” Her office also posted a social media graphic with messages such as “AIPAC Incites Violence Against Black & Brown Members of Congress.”

The mainstream Democratic Party is expected to do little to defend its incumbent progressive lawmakers in spite of the fact that it insisted in recent years that support must be cut from all progressive challengers who have attempted to unseat more centrist or corporate Democratic incumbents.

In the last election cycle, House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accepted more money from the Israel lobby than from any other interest group.

Become a Shingetsu News supporter on Patreon and receive the “Japan and the World” newsletter by email each Monday morning.