Pro-Israeli PACs fund members of Congress and influence US Policy on Israel/Palestine

When US President Joe Biden said in a statement on October 7th, “In this moment of tragedy, I want to say to them and to the world and to terrorists everywhere that the United States stands with Israel. We will not ever fail to have their back,” he demonstrated that money influences policy.

Since 1990, the group OpenSecrets.org has been tracking how campaign contributions and lobbying has influenced public policy. On the matter of almost unanimous US support for Israel, the collective group of Pro-Israel Political Action Committees (PACs), have contributed a total of $227,209,019 to members of Congress or those running for seats in Congress.

When it comes to President Joe Biden, who has been a member of Congress since before 1990, the Pro-Israel PACs have contributed $4,228,614 to Biden’s coffers, making him the number 1 recipient of Pro-Israeli PACs since Open Secrets started tracking campaign contributions in 1990.

In the graph above, you can see the top 20 recipients of Pro-Israel PAC money since 1990. Notice that there are 14 of the top 20 Pro-Israel PAC campaign contributions are Democrats. In fact, for every election cycle since 1990, Democratic Party candidates have garnered more contributions from the Pro-Israel PAC groups that the Republican, as you can see in the graphic here below.

Now, the influence of Pro-Israel PACs are not the only reason that the US Congress unconditionally supports Israel, but it is a major contributing fact. In their seminal work on the Pro-Israel Lobby, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, authors of the book, The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, make it clear that the role of the Pro-Israel Lobby is an integral part of why US policy not only supports Israel, but makes Israel the number one recipient of US Military aid on an annual basis. Other, more recent books on this topic, which are well worth reading are How Israel Made AIPAC: The Most Harmful Foreign Influence Operation in America, by Grant Smith, and Architects of Repression: How Israel and Its Lobby Put Racism, Violence and Injustice at the Center of US Middle East Policy, by Walter Hixson. 

The next graph to look at here below, shows that since 1990, the Pro-Israel PAC groups have only increased their contributions to those running for Congress, with a significant increase beginning in 2020. Part of this increase is due to the Pro-Israel PACs funding candidates that are challenging the most progressive members of Congress, BIPOC members known as The Squad. The Squad currently includes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. 

One last graph shows that since the late 1990s, the Pro-Israel Lobby has been spending millions annually to influence US foreign policy. This is due in part to the growing foreign and domestic opposition to the ongoing illegal Israeli occupation, the ongoing brutalization of Palestinians by the Israeli Military and the system of Racial Apartheid that Israel has created against the Palestinian population. 

Like any issues that the US Congress deals with, whether it is energy policy or US Foreign Policy, we all need to get in the habit of following the money. Politicians don’t act independently, they often do the bidding of those who contribute the most money to their campaigns. And this is certainly a major contributing factor in the near unanimous US government support of Israel.