US House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has accepted large donations from a pro-Israeli lobby to push in Congress for the approval of a hefty $14 billion aid package for Israel.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) donated around $95,000 to the Speaker of the US House of Representatives after he pushed through a $14 billion aid package for Israel in November, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission records reported by The Intercept on Saturday.
Johnson, a hitherto unknown backbencher and acknowledged Christian nationalist, was appointed as the Speaker after a far-right faction of Republican lawmakers ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, claiming he had been too soft on US President Joe Biden over the US fiscal budget, as well as other issues disputed between the Republican and Democratic parties’ Congress lawmakers.
Meantime, the pro-Israel lobby group regularly donates money to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to push Tel Aviv’s agenda ahead.
AIPAC lobbyists have been Johnson’s top donors in 2023.
Last year, AIPAC poured tens of thousands of dollars into his campaign coffers just after he led the passage of a $14 billion aid package to Israel.
In 2023, AIPAC’s political action committee donated a total of $104,000 to Johnson with the majority of donations coming right after the Israeli war machine had launched the months-long genocidal war against the hapless Palestinians trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Analysts believe the fact that AIPAC feels the need to donate large sums to the Republican House Speaker to push pro-Israeli policies is a significant shift.
In the past, military aid was the “holy grail” of the relationship between Washington and Tel Aviv, according to Yousef Munayyer, a Palestinian-American analyst who is a non-resident fellow at the Arab Center Washington, DC.
Co-author of “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy,” Stephen Walt told The Intercept that US policy toward the Middle East is the foreign policy issue on which various K Street lobbyist groups wield the most influence.
“In terms of foreign policy, this is probably the one issue where money in politics has had the greatest negative effect,” said Walt, a professor of international relations at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Meantime, US Muslim leaders in swing states pledged to rally their communities against US President Joe Biden’s bid for re-election in 2024 due to his continued support for Israel and his months-long refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Muslim community leaders gathered last month in Dearborn, Michigan, to protest Biden’s refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, warned Biden that his pro-Israeli stance could affect his votes in crucial swing states in the upcoming US presidential election.
“This #AbandonBiden 2024 conference is set against the backdrop of the upcoming 2024 presidential election and the decision to withdraw support for President Biden due to his unwillingness to call for a ceasefire and protect innocents in Palestine and Israel,” the group said in a statement.
Democrats in Michigan said Biden’s handling of the Israeli war on Gaza could cost him enough support within the Arab American community to sway the outcome of the 2024 US presidential election.
