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Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) speaks during a news conference on the situation in the Palestinian city of Rafah outside the U.S. Capitol on February 29, 2024 in Washington, DC. (photo)
This year AIPAC is planning to spend a $100 million to support pro-Israel candidates and defeat those who’ve questioned Israel’s killing of over 30,000 people in Gaza.
Here are the tech industry founders, Republican megadonors, and others funding AIPAC and its closely-tied allies this election cycle.
by Donald Shaw, David Moore, reposted from Sludge, Mar 4, 2024
For decades after its founding in the 1950s, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, declined to spend money directly on elections. But that has changed dramatically in recent years, and this year the group is planning to spend a massive amount of money to support pro-Israel candidates and defeat those who have questioned the Israeli military’s killing of more than 30,000 people in Gaza following the deadly October 7 Hamas attacks.
Politico and other outlets have reported that it is prepared to spend $100 million on ads and other political advocacy efforts ahead of the November elections to defeat progressive Democratic candidates.
Already, the group and its closely-tied allies and affiliates have spent about $30 million in the 2024 cycle, with the bulk of the spending coming from AIPAC PAC, which operates as a conduit for AIPAC supporters to earmark funds to candidates’ campaigns.
AIPAC’s super PAC, the United Democracy Project (UDP), has been spending millions on a California Democratic primary recently and is sitting on nearly $42 million in cash. An allied super PAC called Democratic Majority for Israel PAC (DMFI PAC) has been spending on pro-President Biden text messages and has nearly $3 million on hand.
DMFI PAC, which functioned as AIPAC’s primary outside spending operation until it founded its own super PAC in January 2022, is run by former AIPAC consultant Mark Mellman, and AIPAC has allowed its supporters to credit their contributions to DMFI towards their AIPAC contributions. The millions of dollars in outside spending unleashed by DMFI PAC in Democratic primaries in the 2022 cycle was widely seen as working in parallel with AIPAC’s electoral aims.
The largest donor has been Jan Koum, the billionaire founder of WhatsApp, and the largest donor to the pro-Nikki Haley super PAC SFA Fund. Koum donated a total of $5 million to UDP in September and October of last year.
Another large donor, David Zalik, has also been a Haley supporter. Zalik donated more than $80,000 to Haley’s campaign, super PAC, and joint fundraising committee last year, according to FEC records. He has also donated this year to the campaigns of Texas Republicans Rep. Mike McCaul and Sen. Ted Cruz. Zalik, the founder of Goldman Sachs affiliate GreenSky, earmarked $453,800 in political contributions through AIPAC PAC this cycle to dozens of Democratic and Republican candidates and donated $2 million to UDP. His spouse, Helen, also made $453,800 in contributions through AIPAC PAC.
Sludge analyzed the groups’ Federal Election Commission filings to reveal the top donors to AIPAC and its closely-tied political spending groups so far this election cycle. The chart below totals money donated to AIPAC PAC, DMFI PAC, and UDP from January 1, 2023 through January 31, 2024.
Donald Shaw is a Co-Founder and Editor at Sludge Media. David Moore is a Co-founder at Sludge Media.
The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Public Works and Housing says almost half of the structures (101) destroyed or damaged during Israeli raids are located in the Nablus governorate, mainly in the villages of Qusra and Duma.
The rest are in the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem (82) and in the Ramallah area (43).
The ministry said 54,000sq meters (580,000sq ft) of infrastructure has also been destroyed by Israeli forces during raids into Tulkarem and Jenin in April.
Colombia President says Netanyahu will go down in history as ‘genocide perpetrator’
Andalou Agency reports: Colombian President Gustavo Petro blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, in response to Netanyahu’s antisemitism accusation.
“Mr. Netanyahu, you will go down in history as a genocide perpetrator. Dropping bombs on thousands of innocent children, women and the elderly does not make you a hero,” Petro said in a post on X.
“You remain alongside those who murdered millions of Jews in Europe. Genocide, whether it is related to religion or not, is genocide. At least stop the onslaught that is continuing,” he said.
Colombia cut diplomatic relations with Israel on May 3, citing the ongoing attacks against the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has killed nearly 35,000 people in response to a Hamas incursion on Oct. 7, 2023 that claimed 1,200 lives.
The International Court of Justice in January found it is “plausible” that Israel committed acts that violate the 1948 Genocide Convention. In a provisional order, it said Israel must ensure that its forces do not commit any of the acts prohibited by the convention. The case, brought by South Africa, is ongoing in The Hague.
Brazil postpones Israel arms deal due to Gaza genocide
Brazil´s Defense Minister José Múcio Monteiro has postponed the signing of a contract with the Israeli company Elbit Systems for 36 armoured vehicles with 155 mm howitzers, a type of cannon with great range and precision. According to Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, the deal involved the import of the self-propelled vehicles for up to 750 million Brazilian reals, equivalent to $145m.
The newspaper mentioned that the postponement of the deal comes one day after human rights organizations and political figures put pressure on the Lula government to end the arms trade with the Israeli government which has been committing genocidal crimes against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip since last October.
UN Special Rapporteur Balakrishnan Rajagopal says what is happening in Gaza – the Israeli army forcing the population to move from one place to another – is a form of ethnic cleansing “with eventually, I suppose, the goal of not allowing them to live in a normal way”.
“This is a matter of great concern because it is a very grave war crime under international law, particularly given Israel’s status as an occupying power,” he told Al Jazeera.
Balakrishnan said the destruction of vast amounts of infrastructure and housing in Gaza by the Israeli army constitutes a “domicide”.
“What we have seen in the case of Gaza is clearly a case of domicide and constitutes an act of genocide as well because the purpose of that destruction, exceeding 70 to 80 percent across Gaza, is to make the place uninhabitable for the people of Gaza,” he added.
“The way I see it, it’s like a form of what in America we call a ‘turkey shoot’. They are just doing target practice on the people of Gaza. To me, there’s nothing that resembles this in any other conflict in the world.”
Gaza prisoners endure ‘barbaric treatment, systematic torture’ by Israeli forces: Rights group
Prisoner rights group Addameer is calling for an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into war crimes against Palestinian detainees and urges international action for accountability.
In a report, Addameer described severe violations against prisoners, including systematic torture during interrogation and assaults, in prisons like Ofer, Naqab (Negev) and others.
Israeli soldiers, the group said, use dogs to attack prisoners. Many are shackled with steel handcuffs, leading to limb amputations, and all are subject to “a deliberate policy of starvation”, it added.
Detainees are not allowed to change their clothes or cut their hair, beard or nails. Showers are few and far between. “They complained about the foul odours emanating from their clothes, saying they feel like they are living in a ‘livestock pen’,” Addameer said.
The group said there is a “reasonable basis to claim that the occupying forces are committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against prisoners from the Gaza Strip”, and it called on the prosecutor of the ICC to conduct an investigation and take measures to hold those responsible to account.
CNN spoke to Israeli whistleblowers who worked at a prison camp that holds Palestinians detained during Israel’s invasion of Gaza. They describe a facility where doctors sometimes amputated prisoners’ limbs due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing; where the air is filled with the smell of neglected wounds.
NOTE: Israel is currentlyholding about 9,500 Palestinian prisoners ininhumane conditions where many aresystematically tortured – 200 of them are children, 80 are women, and over 3,600 are administrative detainees – being held without charge or trial. Administrative detention is intended to be used only in “exceptional” circumstances, but Israel uses it widely. Read more here.Israel also has a long history ofdetaining,imprisoning, and eventorturing Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinians lined up in an unknown location, with Israeli soldiers guarding them (photo)
Israel protests after Nobel laureate denounces Gaza invasion at Vatican
Reuters reports: Israel’s Embassy to the Holy See issued a protest on Monday after a Yemeni Nobel Prize winner accused Israel of “genocide” in Gaza during an event hosted by the Vatican.
The International Court of Justice ruled in January that Israel is plausibly committing genocide.
The Israeli embassy said it felt “indignation and shock” over the comments from rights activist Tawakkol Karman made on Saturday evening during a conference organized by the Fratelli Tutti Foundation created by Pope Francis.
Karman, who won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her role in the Arab Spring protests, told an audience in the atrium of St. Peter’s Basilica: “The world is silent in front of the genocide and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
In an open letter posted on X on Monday, the Israeli embassy rejected Karman’s accusations as “lies”.
“The site was contaminated by a flagrantly anti-Semitic* speech,” it said.
“We regret that such a speech was pronounced without anyone feeling the moral duty to intervene to stop this disgrace,” it added.
After mentioning Gaza, Karman got a loud round of applause from the audience which was made up of fellow Nobel prize laureates, politicians and church officials. The pope himself was not present.
*NOTE: Actual antisemitism is not as prevalent as Israel partisans would like us to think. A large portion of what they call antisemitism is simply criticism of Israel, the self-proclaimed “Jewish State.” Most of the animosity Israel experiences is opposition to Zionism. Zionism is not a benign philosophy, but a racist ideology – the ideology under which Israel dispossessed 750,000 Palestinian people and exiled them to Gaza and other locations. The so-called “demonization” of Israel is in most cases a legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies ofoccupation, apartheid, and genocide, and other illegal practices.
Lindsay Graham: Israel should drop atomic bombs on Gaza
NBC News reports: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Sunday compared Israel’s war against Hamas to the U.S. decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan in World War II during an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
“Israel, do whatever you have to do to survive as a Jewish state. Whatever you have to do.”
Palestine Chronicle: Hind Rajab and the Student Protests – Unfurling Love from the Window
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – MAY 12:
Palestinian death toll from October 7 – May 12: at least 35,543* (35,091 in Gaza*, and at least 509 in the West Bank (117 children). This does not include an estimated 7,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children).Euro-Med Monitor reports 42,510 Palestinian deaths.
At least 42 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 14 from West Bank).
At least 31 Palestinian children and several adults have died due to malnutrition**.
About 1.7 million, or 75% of Gaza’s population are currently displaced.
About 1.1 million (out of total population of 2.3 million) are facing Catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – May 12: at least 83,827 (including at least 78,827 in Gaza and 5,000 in the West Bank).
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – May 12: ~1,426 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 272 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza;, 16 in the West Bank) and~8,730 injured.
Times of Israel reports: The IDF also listed 41 soldiers killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents – nearly 16%.
*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that muchevidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.
**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.
Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.
