JNS
Can AIPAC help lead a new bipartisan surge of support for Israel?
by Jonathan S. Tobin
December 20, 2021

To many casual observers of Washington politics, the news that AIPAC was, for the first time in its history, going to be contributing directly to candidates by forming two political action committees came as a surprise. Many familiar with the name of the pro-Israel lobby and its reputation as a formidable force on Capitol Hill, though not how the organization operated, probably assumed it had been making financial contributions to those running for the House of Representatives and the Senate all along. The PAC at the end of its acronym stood for “public affairs committee,” not “political action committee”—an expression that didn’t come into vogue until long after the group was brought into existence in 1963. READ MORE

JERUSALEM POST What’s behind the AIPAC strategy shift? AIPAC surprised many observers last week with the announcement that it would establish two new PACs that will allow the pro-Israel lobby to directly fund political campaigns. That was a major shift after 70 years in which the American Israel Public Affairs Committee avoided entering the campaign arena in order to be able to balance relationships with both sides of the aisle