Either way, they are certainly flexing their influence, aren’t they?

And yes. They’re not gonna go quietly. Last week I was sticking with DeGette.

I just voted for her opponent . . Enough already!

Nothing divides like religion.

Actions of Israel is antisemitism since they are not inherently responsible for what Israel does. So criticizing Israel or pacs that support Israel is antisemitism? Can’t have it both ways. To be clear, I 100% agree with the first part.

They are aligned with the Zionist state of Israel. Nothing against Jewish people. Everyone is OK with them.

Can't blame Jews for the actions of Israel because Jews are not responsible for what Israel does. To do so is anti-semitism (TRUE!)

Can't criticize Israel because then you are blaming Jews (HUH?? Now Jews ARE responsible? FALSE!)

Netanyahu claimed that he represents all Jewish people in the world. This conflation, combined with his genocidal actions, make him the biggest driver of anti-semitism in the world. Maybe he's the biggest anti-semite just for how he is harming Jews!

Logically, it would make sense for the sake of Jewish safety and well-being, for all people, including Jewish people, to work towards getting rid of Netanyahu and his ilk in Likud and the extremist parties. Starting with saying no to AIPAC.

If this sentiment were said about any other ethnic group, it would be called out.

Can you imagine any white person bouncing out there with, "If X people only took care of their bad elements, they'd be much safer!" while implying they're partially responsible for their own mistreatment?

Like, that would be crazily racist sentiment to toss out there in a liberal space.

But when it's said about Jews, it's just common sense!

This is abhorrent. I'm sorry. It's one thing to be against what's happening in Gaza - I think nearly all of us here are. But when people start sounding like they just read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion for the first time, it's gone too far. This stuff is hedging into collective responsibility - which is racist.

I don't think people recognize in themselves the road they're allowing their ideology to take them down.

I cannot believe this is getting posted to DU. Fucking crazy. The post October 7th influx of this - yes, racism - needs to be called out already.

"But Gaza . . ." is not an excuse for the fucked up shit that's getting posted here about Jews on the regular lately.

Shame.

They need to suck it up.

Is AIPAC a ‘monster’ that decides Congressional races? The data shows otherwise

----

On the left — and, more quietly, the right — versions of the “monster” narrative are spreading, suggesting that AIPAC is an electoral force with bottomless pockets that decides who serves in Congress.

The truth is quite different. To find it, I pulled both primary and general election outcomes for every Congressional candidate that AIPAC’s traditional PAC backed in 2022 and 2024 — 788 candidates across the two cycles — from the Federal Electoral Commission. I ran the same exercise for 17 peer single-issue PACs, including the NRA and Planned Parenthood.

The data shows that while AIPAC has an impressive operation, its electoral results do not outperform those of any other major single-issue lobby. AIPAC itself cites a 95% win rate on endorsed candidates as evidence of its political muscle, but that high level of success is partially attributable to the fact that, according to my sample, some 86% percent of AIPAC’s endorsements go to sitting members of Congress. And incumbents win about 95% of general elections — regardless of who funds them.

What’s more remarkable than the number of elections AIPAC wins is how often it gets credit or blame — depending on your politics — for deciding races.

more...

I hope AIPAC continues to drive its opposition to the polls.

If it's a choice for me between a Dem that takes money from Israeli lobbies and one that doesn't, I would count this against the former, probably motivating me to vote against them in a primary.

In the general election, I would always vote for the Democrat.

I believe Israel has a right to exist. But, only within its current borders. I am against any expansion of territory in the West Bank, Gaza, or Lebanon.

More AIPAC means more war.

"More AIPAC means more war."

I say that it is your post that is mere hay pretending to be substance.

A few years ago, I was a full supporter of Israel.

But now, that basically amounts to sending Israel weapons and money so Netanyahu can continue Israel's aggressions against its neighbors.

The only way I can agree is if Israel is given only defensive weapons.

That truth helps make clear how dangerous the disproportionate attention AIPAC receives from the media, and from candidates opposed to its priorities, can be. To single out a well-funded lobby with many Jewish members, and to cast it as the secret hand behind every contested race, isn’t just wrong on the data. It rhymes with the oldest antisemitic trope there is: that Jews quietly run the world.

ETA: " So, for you, the problem is not the ideology of AIPAC. It's just that it's not 100% successful." THAT was the strawman.

AIPAC is not 100% successful. You said that already. You seem stuck on this point.

AIPAC lobbies for weapons and money for Israel. I am against it.

>> It rhymes with the oldest antisemitic trope there is: that Jews quietly run the world.

I do not accept your inference. I am against Israeli aggression, not Jewish people. Like Bibbi, you can try to blur the difference, but that's another strawman from you.

Like all other lobbies, AIPAC does its best to influence how the world is run.

Resorting to insults doesn't make your case.

Instead of what they are advocating for which is what we keep pointing out.

… the code evolves, but the underlying meaning remains crystal clear.

Had some pleasant chats with him. It was before Oct 7.

Lobbying group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was by far the largest PAC contributor to members of Congress and federal candidates in the 2023-2024 election cycle, funneling hard dollars to the campaigns of lawmakers who approved military aid packages for Israel’s war in Gaza.

Below are the complete totals of how much money congressional campaigns, leadership PACs, and party committees received from AIPAC PAC last cycle, according to Federal Election Commission data.

The money that AIPAC PAC contributed during the election cycle was overwhelmingly provided by individual donors who used the group as a conduit that passed their money along to candidates and other political groups.

The data table below also includes the totals of how much AIPAC’s super PAC, the United Democracy Project (UDP), spent in the elections, largely opposed to candidates that the group deems insufficiently supportive of Israel, as well as spending that supported its endorsed candidates.

AIPAC’s PAC and UDP spent nearly $126.9 million combined during the 2023-2024 election cycle, according to the FEC. This includes more than $55.2 million in donations given to federal candidates—at least $45.2 million of which went to the campaigns of members of the new 119th U.S. Congress, Sludge identified.

UDP made almost $61 million in disbursements last election cycle, of which around $37.9 million was independent expenditures supporting or opposing candidates for U.S. House. In 2023 and 2024, UDP received seven-figure sums from more than a handful of billionaire donors. Its spending went in large part to media and ad blitzes that did not mention the issue of Israel. In addition, UDP made nearly $8.6 million in contributions to six other PACs last cycle.


https://readsludge.com/2025/01/24/here-is-all-the-money-aipac-spent-on-the-2024-elections/


And the money it gives to seated congress people:


The pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, which has opposed efforts at diplomacy with Iran and is applauding the U.S.-led strikes, has delivered $28 million to the campaigns of members of Congress in the 2025–2026 election cycle, according to a Sludge analysis of FEC data, including earmarked PAC contributions.

The money AIPAC PAC contributes is overwhelmingly provided by U.S.-based individual donors who use the group’s website to select which candidates to support. The money is disbursed by AIPAC PAC, and the group highlights on its website that credit goes to both the individual donor and AIPAC, strengthening the pro-Israel group’s ties to the candidates.

Here is how much every member of Congress has received from AIPAC PAC from Jan. 1, 2025 through the end of January 2026.

https://readsludge.com/2026/03/01/here-is-how-much-aipac-has-funneled-to-every-member-of-congress/

Rabbis across the Country are worried about spreading more Anti-Semitism.

Anti-Zionist stickers given to kids 'an innocent mistake,' Michigan mom says

snip***

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221330562

☮️💙 🌻🕯️🕊️

Scream antiseminism to comments about Israeli genocide doesn't penetrate the wall of opposition from a majority of the countries of United Nations

I know DU isn't terrribly agronomistic but, everyone REAPS what the SOW.

Live through it, do better. The critisims won't hold forever. It's just criticism, not like AIPAC and Israeli politicians don't do that to the US.

Say they are worries about increasing antisemitism stemming from normalization of anti-zionism and the response is "get used it"?

I think that's true across the US. So things are more likely to go unread on the radar.

New York has larger Jewish population and traditionally, more attention given to their issues.

I don't think anyone has an inherent right to a country especially one that thinks that right comes from a religion.

Do they have a right to a country?

I don't think anyone has an inherent right to a country. There is is an adjective you missed that modifies it.

and having an inherent right?

If you don't have an inherent right to a country when what is it that gives you that right? Conquest?

- existing in someone or something as a permanent and inseparable element, quality, or attribute; inhering.
permanent and inseparable element
You don't even have to be Jewish to have a right to that country according to the Israeli laws. You just have to convert to Judaism and then you have an inherent right to be a citizen there. But if you are Jewish and convert to another religion before you go there you do not have that right.
If me and my family have not lived somewhere for hundreds of years, or never, why should we have a right to live in that place especially over the people that have been there for hundreds of years?

What we are against are the violent actions of Zionists who refuse to live in peace with their neighbors. The destruction and the land grabbing and genocide of the Palestinians. And those horrible Israeli settlers that foment violence and atrocities. Furthermore we do not want another penny of our tax dollars to go to the Zionist government of Israel who is supported by AIPAC in this country. They are going to have to get used to that.

Interested in peaceful coexistence? Never has seemed like it.

Then why have they made it this long?

Is that why there is so much antisemitism?

He claimed the lobby feared democracy and “the end of the genocide and Netanyahu’s wars.”

AND? for this he should apologize? I applaud him.

From ChatGPT

The key passage, as reported by multiple outlets, was:

"The monsters that we are up against, they take many different forms."

He then went on to single out AIPAC, saying it was an organization:

"for whom the only thing more frightening than democracy being allowed to run its course is an end to genocide and Netanyahu's wars."

He also accused AIPAC of moving:

"millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal, to preserve their power so that they can turn us against one another instead of our leaders turning towards the moral change we all know to be necessary."

The remarks were widely interpreted by critics as calling AIPAC and its supporters "monsters," while Mamdani later disputed that interpretation.

When asked about the controversy, he said he was invoking a line commonly attributed to Antonio Gramsci:

"The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters."

Mamdani said:

"I used the term to describe all those who are preventing the birth of a new world. My use of the term is a broad use..."

So, to answer your question precisely:

There is no verified quote in which Mamdani called "Israeli supporters" generally "monsters."
There are verified reports that he used the word "monsters" in a speech that immediately turned to

for pro-Israel and pro-AIPAC political purposes.

There's a word for that.

A genocidal freak.

I refuse to whitewash and excuse him because of his religion/ethnicity. If that makes me an anti-semite in the eyes of the monster's defenders, I'll wear that false smear with honour.

Bye.

Have created a more unfavorable opinion of Israel in the past couple of years. Nearly 60% of the U.S. public disapproves of Israel's military actions in Gaza. That is a historic high. When you make criticism of Israel, its policies and a PAC that pushes only for supporting Israel anti-Semitic then yes that would increase antisemitism. The top post proves that. Criticizing AIPAC is supposed to be anti-Semitic according to them. The ADL defining anti-Zionism as anti-Semitic when plenty of Jewish people are not Zionist and plenty of non Jewish are Zionist. In a world where more people dont support Israel than they used to and they keep making things that are not anti-Semitic but valid criticisms of the policies of Israel and a PAC that supports them anti-Semitic,,,, I dont know what you want me to believe. You have 700 Rabbis telling us that thinking a PAC that pushes support for a country that is clearly on the route to if not actually being a far right authoritarian state a bad thing is antisemitic. That's antisemitic?.

I don't know much about this situation. But, my opinion is Israel should rid themselves of Netanyahu. As for Mamdani, I don't know enough to comment.

Wait, I don’t care about them, either.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2026-06-18/ty-article/bleeding-support-in-u-s-over-failed-iran-war-israel-triples-its-influence-efforts-there/0000019e-db73-d2be-abbf-fbffca7b0000

Supporting Bloatass to the detriment of liberty, truth and honor is monstrous. My Jewish friends agree.

Sorry but there are some really fucked up people in the Israeli government who want to see Palestinians wiped out as much as Hamas wants to see Israel wiped out. The double-standard is not helpful.

(IMHO) This specific discussional seems to have ceased being a part of "General Discussion" and has devolved into something else (?).

Perhaps it should be 'moved' (certainly NOT deleted) to another forum OR to a newly created forum wherein a bit of additional leeway would serve the participants more appropriately...