Micha Danzig
Every few weeks, a new wave of performative outrage washes across social media and op-ed pages about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee: AIPAC is destroying our democracy. AIPAC is buying Congress. AIPAC is subverting America.
The strangest thing about this supposed moral panic is not how hysterical it is, but how selectively hysterical it is.
If the concern were truly “foreign influence” or “money in politics,” the loudest AIPAC critics would be shouting from the rooftops about Qatar, China, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates — and the tens of billions of dollars that they pour into American universities, think tanks, media outlets and lobbying operations.
They would be demanding hearings on the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), the Iranian-American lobby. They would be calling out the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), the Turkish Coalition of America and Beijing’s sprawling influence networks.
Instead, they have only one boogeyman: the Jewish one.
Every major Diaspora community in America has lobbying arms, many of them far better funded than AIPAC. The Indian-American lobby, the Armenian National Committee, the Hellenic-American Council, the Cuban-American National Foundation, Iranian- and Arab-American groups, the Turkish lobby and the Chinese Communist Party’s many influence platforms all pour money into Washington.
Yet only AIPAC is treated as a threat to the republic.
The far-left’s favorite line — “AIPAC is a dark-money foreign lobby!” — collapses under one basic fact: AIPAC does not take foreign money. Its donors are Americans, overwhelmingly American Jews. That, of course, is the real issue for many of its loudest critics.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) calls AIPAC “the biggest threat to democracy.” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) reduced Jewish political participation to: “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.” The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) proclaims that “AIPAC is an enemy of working people.”
Meanwhile, these same figures are silent when Qatar funnels more than $5 billion into U.S. universities (per Department of Education filings); bankrolls think tanks; funds Hamas’ propaganda ecosystem; and provides lawmakers with taxpayer-funded luxury trips.
None of that raises their suspicion. Only American Jews participating in American politics — exactly as other minority groups do — triggers outrage.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) recently announced that he was “returning all AIPAC donations,” a performance widely praised in the media.
Left unmentioned? Moulton has taken free trips to Qatar and accepted donations from NIAC, an organization that multiple national-security officials have described as functioning as a de facto mouthpiece for the Iranian regime.
Returning donations from an American-Jewish organization is supposedly “principled.” Accepting support connected to a regime that funds terror, kills protesters and murders women for showing their hair? Apparently fine.
This isn’t ethics. It is antisemitism or cowardice dressed up as virtue.
The hypocrisy hit a new peak when, during a Friday sermon in California, USCMO Secretary-General Oussama Jammal declared: “AIPAC corrupted the soul of America. Sen. Ted Cruz’s support for Israel is treason, not patriotism — we are the ones who care about American values.”
This was said by the head of a national lobbying umbrella group. A lobbying group attacking another lobbying group for lobbying — and, predictably, only the Jewish one is illegitimate.
Imagine the outcry if a Jewish organization were to accuse a Muslim-American group of suborning “treason” for engaging in constitutionally protected political advocacy. The accusations of Islamophobia would be endless. But when Jammal hurls that slur at American Jews, many of the same people who claim to oppose bigotry applaud.
This is what AIPAC’s critics never mention:
- Qatar has spent more money buying influence in American universities than any country in modern history.
- China has poured billions into Confucius Institutes and elite institutions in the United States.
- Turkey spends tens of millions annually on lobbyists.
- The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt run massive Washington operations.
- NIAC lobbies aggressively on policy positions aligned with Tehran.
- CAIR and USCMO lobby and mobilize voters nationwide.
Where is the outrage? Where are the articles? Where are the viral videos about “foreign money buying our democracy”?
There are none, because the panic isn’t about lobbying. It’s about Jewish lobbying.
Even stranger is how perfectly the far-left and the far-right now align on this point.
Nick Fuentes: “AIPAC owns Congress.” David Duke: “AIPAC controls American foreign policy.” DSA activists: “AIPAC is destroying democracy.” CAIR leadership: “AIPAC is treason.”
Different aesthetics, identical obsession: American Jews are supposedly disloyal and too influential.
This convergence is not accidental. Antisemitic narratives have always migrated between extremes. But rarely have both fringes adopted the same slogans so seamlessly.
The issue isn’t money. It isn’t foreign influence. It isn’t democracy. It’s that American Jews remain politically active in support of the U.S. alliance with the only Jewish state and refuse to apologize for it.
AIPAC is the perfect scapegoat because it is generally effective and represents a minority community that refuses to play the role that its detractors prefer. It is not passive. It is not silent. And it does not treat support for Israel as something shameful.
If AIPAC were advocating for Ukraine, Qatar, Turkey, Iran or China, none of these voices would care. They don’t oppose lobbying. They oppose Jewish lobbying.
Because at its core, the AIPAC double standard has nothing to do with threats to democracy. It has everything to do with discomfort over American Jews exercising political agency — responsibly, legally, unapologetically — in ways that upset both far-left fantasies of Jews as perpetual victims and far-right conspiracies about Jewish power.
The real scandal in American politics is not that American Jews want a strong U.S.-Israel alliance and a safe and thriving Israel. It is that so many voices on the far-left and far-right now treat Jewish political engagement as a crime.
And that they no longer feel the need to even try to be subtle with their open hate and double standards.
Micha Danzig served in the Israeli army and is a former police officer with the New York Police Department. An attorney, he is active with a number of Jewish and pro-Israel organizations, including StandWithUs, T.E.A.M. and Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.
No other U.S.-based lobbying organizations connected to foreign governments directly fund or coordinate political donations to U.S. congressional candidates the way AIPAC’s affiliated PACs do.