Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza
As co-head of Senator Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, Cleveland activist Nina Turner was expected to win both Democratic Party primary races for a seat in the US House of Representatives in 2021 and 2022.
At one point in the 2021 race, Ms Turner, a long-time critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, held a 30-point lead over her opponents.
Then pro-Israel interest groups entered the scene.
She ended up losing both primary elections to a candidate who received more than $1 million in funding from a lobbying organisations affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or Aipac, and other groups.
Reports show that Democratic Majority for Israel, a pro-Israel super Pac, spent more than $1.5 million on attack advertisements and other efforts during Ms Turner’s campaigns.
Super Pacs are independent “expenditure-only political action committees” that can raise unlimited amounts of money to support – or attack – politicians and candidates.
“They don’t care about what happens to a child in Cleveland or in Chicago. They only care about Israel,” Ms Turner said of the groups.
Gaza protest in Washington – in pictures
-
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators take part in a protest against the continuing war in Gaza outside Union Station in Washington on February 1. EPA -
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed since the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7. EPA -
Israeli has responded with a military onslaught in the Palestinian enclave. EPA -
The rally in the US capital drew protesters from far and wide. EPA -
Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has said Joe Biden's administration must do more to address the issue of the besieged Palestinian people. EPA -
Mr Austin said in regular talks with Israel he has stressed the need to protect civilian lives and provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. EPA -
Demonstrators block a junction near the US Capitol as President Joe Biden attends the National Prayer Breakfast. Getty Images -
Protesters in Washington call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Reuters -
Pro-Palestine demonstrators shut down interstate ramps on the street on Capitol Hill, Washington. Reuters -
Gaza protests in Washington. The National -
A person participates in the protest in Washington. The National -
Metropolitan Police Department officers as members of the anti-Zionist Jews group Neturei Karta join pro-Palestinians people blocking a street close to the US Capitol in Washington DC. AFP -
Members of the anti-Zionist Jews group Neturei Karta join pro-Palestinians people blocking a street close to the US Capitol in Washington. AFP
“So, you have a lobbying force that advocates in the open for Israel, not for Americans. Now [in Gaza], we are seeing, in a very visceral, bloody way what that means.”
With the US going to the polls in hundreds of key election races between now and November, the role of pro-Israel lobbyists is coming into sharp focus.
Politicians who have expressed pro-Palestine sentiments, such as Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and other, lesser-known figures, are expected to face opponents backed by wealthy pro-Israel groups.
Last week, in a bid to counter this, more than 20 progressive groups formed the “Reject Aipac” coalition.
“Everything about Aipac and the Israel lobby’s intervention in American politics we oppose because it aligns itself with the right-wing Israeli government that has shown itself to have no meaningful commitment to the lives of Palestinians,” says Alan Minsky, executive director of Progressive Democrats of America, one of the groups in Reject Aipac.
By its own admission, Aipac supported 365 pro-Israel political candidates with more than $17 million during elections in 2022, claiming that 98 per cent of those candidates won their races.
“It’s such an overwhelming amount of money that they dropped in the 2022 [elections] and there’s even more [expected this year],” said Mr Minsky.
“It’s a massive reality in American politics and one that, of course, skews the whole democratic process tremendously.”
Why is the US struggling to pass Israel funding during the war in Gaza? – video
In at least 14 races, Aipac has spent millions of dollars to back centrist Democratic Party candidates running against their progressive colleagues who are critical of Israel or supportive of Palestinian rights.
“Their rhetoric to the public was to claim that I was not going to be sufficiently loyal to the Democratic Party, that I was an angry black woman,” said Ms Turner of her experience with pro-Israel Pacs and super Pacs.
Pro-Israel lobby groups have a long and influential history with the Democratic Party.
The Jewish Democratic Council of America, an organisation that pushes Israel’s interests, has spent nearly $2 million on political candidates.
Its chief executive, Halie Soifer, was national security adviser to current US Vice President Kamala Harris when she was a senator in California.
Aipac has also endorsed politicians in the Republican Party who voted to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory.
In Maryland, Aipac and Democratic Majority for Israel spent more than $6 million – an unprecedented amount – on an attack advertisement campaign against Donna Edwards, a progressive Democrat, in 2022.
Nida Allam, who became the first Muslim woman elected to public office in North Carolina in 2020, was defeated by Valerie Foushee in a Democratic Party primary election for the House of Representatives in 2022.
That was after pro-Israel groups such as United Democracy Project – an initiative of Aipac – and Protect Our Future spent more than $3.5 million to support Ms Foushee.
Latest from the Israel-Gaza war – in pictures
-
Displaced Palestinians hold a white flag as they pass an Israeli tank position while fleeing the Hamad Town district of Khan Younis. Bloomberg -
A Palestinian woman cuts material to be used for sewing nappies at a workshop in Rafah. AFP -
Smoke rises following an explosion in Gaza, as seen from southern Israel. AP -
Parachutes carrying relief for Palestinians drop from an Egyptian Air Force cargo plane over central Gaza. Bloomberg -
A Palestinian boy who is suffering from malnutrition is treated at a healthcare centre amid widespread hunger. Reuters -
Palestinian children attend an English class in the library of the school housing displaced people in Rafah, the southern Gaza Strip. AFP -
An UNRWA-run school housing displaced Palestinians in Rafah. AFP -
Palestinians search for bodies and survivors in the rubble of a residential building destroyed in an Israeli air strike in Rafah. AP -
A wounded Palestinian man who lost his wife and daughter walks past a neighbours' house destroyed by Israeli bombing in Rafah. AFP -
An injured man is rescued from the rubble after an Israeli air strike on the Rafah camp in Gaza. EPA -
Palestinians walk amid the rubble of houses destroyed by the Israeli bombardment of Gaza city. AFP -
Aid is dropped into Gaza from US military aircraft. Reuters -
Palestinians gather at air lorries in Gaza. More than 100 were killed when Israeli troops opened fire. AP -
The sun sets behind destroyed buildings in Gaza. AFP -
A Palestinian man enters a heavily damaged house following an Israeli strike in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP -
A wounded Palestinian is assisted at the site of an Israeli strike in Deir Al Balah, in the central Gaza Strip. Reuters -
Palestinians gather in the hope of getting bags of flour carried by air lorries near an Israeli checkpoint in Gaza city, as the enclave's residents face crisis levels of hunger. Reuters -
Palestinian children wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues in Gaza. Reuters -
A displaced Palestinian child holds a crying baby in a camp in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. Reuters
Actor Hill Harper, best known for starring in TV shows such as The Good Doctor and CSI: NY, turned to politics last year, running for a US Senate seat in Michigan.
He drew the attention of deep-pocket political donors including Michigan businessman Linden Nelson, who reportedly offered Mr Harper $20 million to run against Ms Tlaib, the Palestinian-American politician and critic of Israel’s war in Gaza.
“I will not be bought, or bossed, or bullied,” he said in a statement in November. “I’m not going to run against the only Palestinian-American in Congress just because some special interests don’t like her.”
Aipac says it played no part in the incident, although Mr Nelson has donated to pro-Israel groups in the past.
A representative for the group did not respond to numerous requests for comment from The National.
Ms Turner said the language often used in describing Israel’s war in Gaza is inaccurate, and that the consequences for America’s support of Israel in the long term could be grave.
“We’re calling this a war but it’s really a one-sided siege," she said.
"It is a travesty of epic proportions, and it pains me greatly that the leaders of the United States could stop this carnage and choose not to. None of us is going to get out of this unscathed.
"What the United States is doing by giving our money to bomb other people’s children … we are going to reap what we sow collectively.
“It’s going to come to our door in some kind of way. This country is adding fuel to the fire.”
