“We will support candidates who are opposed by AIPAC, and who are advocates for peace and a new, just US policy toward Israel/Palestine.”

For decades, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (or AIPAC) has been the most powerful wing of the Israel lobby in the United States. Until recently, it enjoyed almost total support from politicians in both major political parties.

In the past few years, though, attitudes within the Democratic Party towards Israel, Palestine, and AIPAC itself have begun to shift dramatically, threatening AIPAC’s lobbying power. In response, AIPAC has begun aggressively intervening in Democratic primary elections, spending vast sums of money to defeat political candidates who might oppose the policies of the Israeli government. AIPAC recently boasted that it was “dollar for dollar, the largest contributor to candidates in the 2022 midterm elections,” and it has plans to spend even more money in 2024.1:59Much of AIPAC’s power and legitimacy derives from the idea that it broadly represents the views of American Jews. But Jews have never been a monolith, and, in the wake of Israel’s unrelenting assault on Gaza, more and more Jewish Americans are speaking up in favor of a different kind of politics.

The following open letter is a clear example of this. It has been signed by prominent Jewish Americans from every walk of life, all of whom have decided to publicly repudiate both AIPAC’s unconditional embrace of the Israeli government and its attempts to crush the nascent movement within the Democratic Party for a new approach to Israel and Palestine.

The text of the letter follows.

We are Jewish Americans who have varying perspectives. We’ve come together to highlight and oppose the unprecedented and damaging role of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its allied groups in US elections, especially within Democratic Party primaries. We recognize that the purpose of AIPAC’s interventions in electoral politics is to defeat any critics of Israeli government policy and to support candidates who vow unwavering loyalty to Israel, thereby ensuring the United States’ continuing support for all that Israel does, regardless of its violence and illegality.   

Given that Israel is so isolated internationally that it could not continue its inhumane treatment of the Palestinians without US political and military support, AIPAC is an essential link in the chain that holds in place the unbearable tragedy of Israel/Palestine. In the coming US elections, we need to break that chain in order to help free the people of Israel/Palestine to pursue peaceful coexistence.  

In the same 2021-22 election cycle in which AIPAC endorsed Republican extremists and dozens of Congress members who’d voted against certifying Biden’s victory over Trump, AIPAC’s network raised millions from Trump donors and spent the money inside Democratic primaries against progressives, mostly candidates of color. 

AIPAC is now vowing to spend even more millions in the 2024 Democratic primaries, targeting specific Democrats in Congress—initially all legislators of color—who’ve advocated for a Gaza cease-fire, a position supported by the vast majority of Democratic voters. AIPAC’s election spending increasingly works to defeat candidates who criticize Israel’s racist policies.

In contrast to AIPAC, we are American Jews who believe that US support for foreign governments should only be extended to those that respect the full human and civil rights, and right to self-determination, of all people. We oppose all forms of racism and bigotry, including antisemitism—and we support the historic alliance in our country of Jewish Americans with African Americans and other people of color in the cause of civil rights and equal justice.

Therefore, we strongly oppose AIPAC’s attempts to dominate Democratic primary elections. We call on Democratic candidates to not accept AIPAC network funding, and demand that the Democratic leadership not allow Republican funders to use that network to deform Democratic primary elections. We will support candidates who are opposed by AIPAC, and who are advocates for peace and a new, just US policy toward Israel/Palestine.