As Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman (New York), Ilhan Omar (Minnesota), Summer Lee (Pennsylvania), and Cori Bush (Missouri) — members of the far-left, anti-Israel "Squad" who have called for a cease-fire and demanded an end to U.S. aid to Israel — are seeing record fundraising dollars, pro-Israel political action committees like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) are pledging to spend tens of millions to defeat them in Democratic primaries and general elections this year.
AIPAC spent around $27 million in 2022 targeting far-left candidates, and its war chest this election cycle is expected to be more than twice that amount. However, Arab American and Muslim groups are also organizing in record numbers to keep the Squad in office.
"This is only natural that AIPAC should fund people trying to unseat them within the Democratic Party," responds conservative activist and columnist Robert Knight. "I'm kind of heartened by this because the Squad has no love for traditional America. Now it's lined up against Israel, and they're getting some big pushback from AIPAC. This is very welcome."
And Knight hopes American Jews, who traditionally tend to vote for Democrats, are paying attention.
"A lot of them are having second thoughts now as they see the Democratic Party not fully supporting Israel anymore," he notes. "So, Republicans should sit back and watch and probably take encouragement from this internecine warfare within the Democrat Party."
The Associated Press reports that in the last quarter alone, AIPAC was the largest donor to George Latimer, Bowman's opponent in the Democratic primary, giving the Westchester County executive more than $600,000, or more than 40% of his $1.4 million in contributions so far.
Bowman managed to raise more than $730,000 in total last quarter — the majority of which his campaign says came from grassroots Arab and Muslim groups and individual donors.
AIPAC, which has a history of supporting member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, says standing with the Jewish state is "entirely consistent with progressive values."
