AIPAC vs. AOC & The Squad: Pro-Israel Lobby Group to Spend $100M to Target Progressive Lawmakers

As we begin a pivotal election year in the United States, we look at the powerful U.S. lobby group AIPAC, which is set to spend more than $100 million to defeat progressives who are critical of Israeli human rights violations in Palestine. That includes Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress. AIPAC’s outsize influence in national campaigns comes with “an implicit threat,” says The Intercept's Ryan Grim, whose new book, The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution, was published last month. “That money will still be spent, but it will be spent against you instead,” he says about politicians who dare to turn down the pro-Israel lobby's deep pockets. “That really, to a shocking degree, constrained what Democratic candidates were willing to say when it came to criticizing Israel.”