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A pro-Israel network of political action committees, coordinated by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has spent more than $12 million during the current election cycle in direct donations, and millions more through coordinated Super PACs, to oppose any candidate who questions or challenges Israel, according to officials who monitor US election financing.
Dale Sprusansky, an editor at Washington Report on Middle East Affairs magazine who tabulates and investigates pro-Israel PAC money, said that the amounts involved dwarf the money spent in support of pro-Arab and pro-Palestinian candidates.
He told Arab News that in many cases, the donations and activities tied to AIPAC do not even address Israel directly and instead focus on local issues that are twisted, distorted or fabricated to undermine candidates who either support Palestine and criticize Israeli authorities, or who generally support Israel but do not consistently stick to the accepted pro-Israeli agenda.
“What we can track thus far for the current campaign cycle is $12 million but that is … not the dark money,” Sprusansky said on Wednesday during an appearance on The Ray Hanania Radio Show.
“So, and every study shows this on this issue and on other issues, the dark money is multiples of what the overt money is — I would say hundreds of millions sounds right to me.”
AIPAC does not necessarily promote messages that express direct support for Israel, he explained. Instead, most of the money is used to attack the records of candidates it believes are not loyal enough to the Israeli state, and target mainstream issues and local policies in an attempt “to erode voter support” for the candidates it opposes, he added.
“It takes so much gall to act like they care, right?” Sprusansky said. “They are running ads saying she is bad for her constituents who have needs, when their real focus is on a country that is half a world away. They don’t (care) about her constituents, so it is astonishingly disingenuous.
“Maybe in districts perceived as being very Zionist, like South Florida, New York and California, you will see ads actually mention Israel. But for the rest of the country, 90 percent of the districts, no pro-Israel ad is going to mention Israel.
“They know that the average American is going to sit there and say, ‘Why are they talking about Israel when I have 10,000 issues in front of me as an American?’ That is their strategy: To get you in a fury over something other than the issue they are causing you to vote for.”
Sprusansky described such methods as “deceitful and disingenuous.”
The estimate of the AIPAC money does not include the millions raised by another, affiliated PAC called the United Democracy Project, which makes no direct mention of Israel in its messages but targets any candidate that does not embrace a pro-Israel agenda.
One the people it targeted was former Representative Donna F. Edwards who served 10 years in Congress but stepped down in 2017 to pursue an unsuccessful run for the Maryland Senate. When she attempted a return to congress in the contest for Maryland’s 4th Congressional District this year, she was defeated in the Democratic primary on July 19 by Glenn Ivey.
Sprusansky said the UDP spent more than $6 million in attack adds targeting Edwards that accused her of lying to voters about her record on mainstream American issues. Ivey is considered a strong supporter of Israel.
“If you look at Donna Edwards’s record (on Palestine), it is better than most congresspeople but it is not phenomenal; she is not Rashida Tlaib and she is not Ilhan Omar,” Sprusansky said.
“Edwards did vote to support Israel on multiple occasions but she did (say) several things that did not completely toe the line. And … when you don’t completely, 100 percent toe the line, (when) you are bad on one out of 100 (issues), you are bad and you can expect $6 million to be poured against you in a local election campaign.”
Sprusansky also highlighted the Democratic primaries due to take place on Aug. 2 in Michigan, in which several candidates are being targeted by AIPAC, UDP and “dark money” sources. They include Palestinian candidate Huwaida Arraf in the 10th District, Jewish American Congressman Andy Levin in the 11th, and Palestinian Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib in the 12th.
Levin “is so middle of the road” and supports the “two-state solution, which many people view as perpetuating the status quo and injustice,” Sprusansky noted. “AIPAC originally started as supporting the two-state solution (but) now views (it) as somehow being anti-Israel. So much of the deck is already stacked before you even get to the ballot box.”
AIPAC’s strategic-funding approach to US elections is both legal and effective, and far outspends pro-Arab donations, he said.
“Why does a local official, city council member or school board member pass a resolution supporting Israel in Gaza, which is more than 9,000 miles away from the little voter constituency where they hold offices?” Sprusansky asked.
“It happens in so many ways. For a lot of them, they (the candidates) get approached very early in their careers by pro-Israel groups and they become activists, city council members, at the most local of levels. School board members.
“Often (they are approached) by groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and others. And they basically start slowly cultivating them toward their views. And the next thing you know they are going on trips to Israel — free, paid for — and it becomes very clear to them that being pro-Israel is good for raising money and it is good to keep trouble off of your back.
“Not only did Donna Edwards have $6 million (spent opposing her) but she (faced) attacks ads and it was a double whammy of trouble when you don’t have pro-Israel money behind you.”
According to a seven-page analysis published in this month’s Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, AIPAC has donated more than $100,000, and as much as $892,000, to 25 candidates in election races in Ohio, Michigan, New York, Virginia, Maryland, Texas, Illinois and New Jersey.
Sometimes the donations are designed to soften the opposition, as in the case of Illinois congressmen Jesus Garcia, who has received $19,600 from APIAC, and Danny K. Davis, who has received $56,484. Both have presented themselves to Arab Americans as being supportive of Palestinian rights.
The Ray Hanania Show is broadcast live every Wednesday at 5 p.m. EST on WNZK AM 690 radio in the Greater Detroit area, including parts of Ohio, and WDMV AM 700 radio in Washington D.C., including parts of Virginia and Maryland. It is rebroadcast on Thursdays at 7 a.m. in Detroit on WNZK AM 690 and in Chicago at noon on WNWI AM 1080.
You can listen to the radio show’s podcast by visiting ArabNews.com/rayradioshow.
DAKAR: Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Mali claimed responsibility on Saturday for an attack on the country’s main military base, which it said was a response to governmental collaboration with Russian mercenaries. Friday’s raid on the Kati base 15 km (10 miles) outside the capital Bamako killed at least one soldier and represented the first time in Mali’s decade-long insurgency that Islamist militants have hit a military camp so close to Bamako. The raid, carried out using two car bombs, also wounded six people, while seven assailants were killed and eight arrested, Mali’s military said. The media unit for Al-Qaeda’s local affiliate, Jama’at Nusrat Al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), said in a statement its Katiba Macina branch had carried out the attack, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist statements. The Malian military had blamed Katiba Macina for the attack in a statement on Friday. The JNIM statement said a Malian fighter had detonated a car bomb at the base’s gate and a fighter from Burkina Faso detonated another inside the base, allowing additional fighters to enter the camp. It justified the attack by citing the presence in Mali of mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group, which began supplying hundreds of fighters last year to support the Malian military and has since been accused by human rights groups and local residents of participating in massacres of civilians. “We say to the Bamako government: if you have the right to hire mercenaries to kill the defenseless innocent people, then we have the right to destroy you and target you,” it said. The Russian government has acknowledged Wagner personnel are in Mali but the Malian government has described them as instructors from the Russian military rather then private security contractors. Wagner has no public representation and has not commented on the accusations of human rights violations. In a separate statement on Saturday, JNIM also claimed responsibility for attacks in five central and southern Mali towns on Thursday, which the Malian military said had killed one soldier and wounded 15.
ATHENS: Residents were evacuated on Saturday as a wildfire which started in mountainous forests in the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos threatened properties at the beach resort of Vatera. Thick billowing smoke fanned by strong winds could be seen in the area. One fleeing resident told state TV ERT that her home was on fire. “We are battling to save homes,” Taxiarchis Verros, mayor of western Lesbos, told the broadcaster. Vatera, an 8 km (five miles) long sandy beach in the southern part of Lesbos, is a popular tourist attraction. A wildfire in mountains near Athens earlier this week damaged homes and forced hundreds of people to flee, with authorities calling this summer one of the toughest in the Mediterranean. Last year, wildfires ravaged about 300,000 acres (121,000 hectares) of forest and bushland across Greece during the country’s worst heatwave in 30 years.
KYIV: Russian missiles hit infrastructure in Odesa in southern Ukraine on Saturday, the Ukrainian military said, dealing a blow to a landmark deal signed just the day before to unblock grain exports from Black Sea ports and ease global food shortages caused by the war. The deal signed on Friday by Moscow and Kyiv and mediated by the United Nations and Turkey was hailed as a breakthough after nearly five months of punishing fighting since Russia invaded its neighbor. It is seen as crucial to curbing soaring global food prices by allowing grain exports to be shipped from Black Sea ports including Odesa. UN officials had said on Friday they hoped the agreement would be operational in a few weeks but it was not yet clear if that would still be possible given Saturday’s strikes. Two Russian Kalibr missiles hit infrastructure at the Odesa port, while another two were shot down by air defense forces, Ukraine’s Operational Command South wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “In the context of what is currently happening with Ukrainian grain, the strike was carried out exactly where the grain is,” said Yuriy Ignat, spokesperson for the Ukrainian air force. The cruise missiles were fired from warships in the Black Sea near Crimea, he added. A Russian defense ministry statement on Saturday outlining progress in the war did not mention any strike in Odesa. The ministry did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment. The strike appeared to violate the terms of Friday’s deal, which would allow safe passage in and out of Odesa and two other Ukrainian ports. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “unequivocally condemned” the reported strikes, a spokesperson said, adding that all parties had committed to the grain export deal. “These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people in need around the globe,” spokesperson Farhan Haq said in a statement. “Full implementation by the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey is imperative.” On Friday, Guterres had called the deal “a beacon on the Black Sea.” A blockade of Ukrainian ports by Russia’s Black Sea fleet since Moscow’s Feb. 24 invasion of its neighbor has trapped tens of millions of tons of grain and stranded many ships. This has worsened global supply chain bottlenecks and, along with Western sanctions on Russia, stoked food and energy price inflation. Friday’s export deal seeks to avert famine among tens of millions of people in poorer nations by injecting more wheat, sunflower oil, fertilizer and other products into world markets including for humanitarian needs, partly at lower prices.
TOKYO: The man accused of assassinating Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe is set to undergo an examination of his mental condition around the time of the incident, local media reported Saturday. Abe was gunned down on the campaign trail on July 8 in the western city of Nara, two days before the country’s upper house elections. His accused killer Tetsuya Yamagami is in custody and reportedly targeted Abe because he believed the former leader was linked to the Unification Church. On Friday, the Nara District Court approved a request by the local public prosecutors office for a psychiatric examination of 41-year-old Yamagami, the Asahi Shimbun and other local media reported, citing unnamed investigative sources. The examination is expected to wrap up in late November, the reports said. Investigative questioning of the suspect will be halted during the mental examination. Prosecutors will determine whether Yamagami can bear criminal liability based on the examination before making a decision on whether to indict him, the reports said. Abe was Japan’s best-known politician, maintaining a prominent place in public life even after resigning in 2020 for health reasons. He was also a divisive figure who faced cronyism allegations and was criticized for his staunch nationalist views. Prosecution and court officials could not immediately be reached to confirm the local media reports.