The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC; , ) is an American pro-Israel lobbying group that advocates for policies strengthening the U.S.–Israel relationship. Founded in 1954 as the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs, the organization adopted its current name in 1959. AIPAC is considered one of the most influential lobbying groups in the United States.
Until 2021, AIPAC did not raise funds for political candidates itself; its members raised money for candidates through political action committees unaffiliated with AIPAC and by other means. In late 2021, AIPAC formed its own political action committee and announced plans for a super PAC, which can spend money on candidates' behalf. AIPAC's critics have said it acts as an agent of the Israeli government and that it has a "stranglehold" on the United States Congress. AIPAC has been accused of being strongly allied with Israel's Likud party and the U.S. Republican Party. An AIPAC spokesman has called this a "malicious mischaracterization".
AIPAC describes itself as a bipartisan organization. But reporting has found that its political spending has often supported efforts against candidates—mostly Democrats—considered "insufficiently supportive" of Israel. In the lead-up to the 2024 elections, The Guardian reported that AIPAC had recruited and supported challengers to candidates who had been critical of Israel's actions in the Gaza war. AIPAC has also been criticized as unrepresentative of the diversity of views among American Jews who support Israel, and for aligning closely with policies of right-wing Israeli governments.
As of 2025, AIPAC reports more than 5 million members in the U.S., 17 regional offices, and "a vast pool of donors". It was founded in 1954 by Isaiah L. Kenen, a lobbyist for the Israeli government,Nelson, Nancy Jo (1980) The Zionist Organizational Structure, Journal of Palestine Studies, 10:1, 80–93, . p.84. partly to counter international criticism of Israel's Qibya massacre of Palestinian villagers that year. AIPAC became an influential organization during the 1980s. In 2002, it expressed intent to lobby Congress to authorize use of force in Iraq, and in 2003, the Iraq War was defended at AIPAC events. In 2005, a Pentagon analyst pleaded guilty to espionage charges of passing U.S. government secrets to senior AIPAC officials, in what became known as the AIPAC espionage scandal.
History
Formation (1943–1970s) In 1943, Abba Hillel Silver, a rabbi from Cleveland, Ohio, formed the American Zionist Emergency Council (AZEC) to organize American Jews to contact their local representatives to support Jews in Mandatory Palestine. In 1949, AZEC was renamed the American Zionist Council (AZC). Isaiah L. Kenen, an American journalist and lobbyist for the Israeli government, was AZEC's information director.
In 1951 and 1952, Kenen began a lobbying effort to help Israel's troubled economy and secured $65 million and $73 million in U.S. aid for Israel.
In 1953, Kenan was worried he would be investigated by the State Department for not registering as a "foreign agent". He formed a separate entity that was not tax-exempt and could lobby for a foreign government, the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs (AZCPA).
Kenen had previously worked for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As a lobbyist, he diverged from AZC's usual public relations efforts by trying to broaden support for Israel among traditionally non-Zionist groups. The founding of the new organization was in part a response to international criticism of the October 1953 Qibya massacre, in which Israeli troops under Ariel Sharon killed at least 69 Palestinian villagers, two-thirds of them women and children. As the Eisenhower administration suspected the AZC of being funded by the Israeli government, it was decided that the lobbying efforts should be separated into a separate organization with separate finances.
In 1959, AZCPA was renamed the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, reflecting a broader membership and mission. Kenen led the organization until retiring in 1974, when he was succeeded by Morris J. Amitay. According to commentator M. J. Rosenberg, Kenen was "an old-fashioned liberal" who did not seek to win support by donating to campaigns or otherwise influencing elections, but was willing to "play with the hand that is dealt to us".
Rise (1970s to 1980s) By the 1970s, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and AIPAC had assumed overall responsibility for Israel-related lobbying within the Jewish communal landscape. The Conference of Presidents was responsible for speaking to the Executive Branch of the U.S. government, while AIPAC dealt mainly with the Legislative Branch. Although it had worked effectively behind the scenes since its founding in 1953, AIPAC only became an influential organization in the 15 years after the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
By the mid-1970s, AIPAC had achieved the financial and political clout necessary to sway congressional opinion, according to former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren. During this period, AIPAC's budget soared from $300,000 in 1973 to over $7 million during its peak years of influence in the late 1980s. Whereas Kenen had come out of the Zionist movement, with early staff pulled from the longtime activists among the Jewish community, AIPAC had evolved into a prototypical Washington-based lobbying and consulting firm. Leaders and staffers were recruited from legislative staff and lobbyists with direct experience with the federal bureaucracy. Confronted with opposition from both houses of Congress, President Gerald Ford rescinded his "reassessment".Michael Oren (2007). Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present (New York: W.W. Norton & Company) p. 536. "The infelicitous combination of Ford and Rabin produced the direst crisis in US-Israeli relations since Suez, with Ford pronouncing a "reassessment" of American support for the Jewish state. Rabin responded by mobilizing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee—AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby—against the president. Though founded in 1953, AIPAC had only now in the mid-70s, achieved the financial and political clout necessary to sway congressional opinion. Confronted with opposition from both houses of Congress, Ford rescinded his 'reassessment'." George Lenczowski notes a similar, mid-1970s time frame for the rise of AIPAC power: "It [the Jimmy Carter presidency] also coincides with the militant emergence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as a major force in shaping American policy toward the Middle East."
In 1980, Thomas Dine became the executive director of AIPAC, and developed its grassroots campaign. By the late 1980s, AIPAC's board of directors was "dominated" by four successful businessmen—Mayer (Bubba) Mitchell, Edward Levy, Robert Asher, and Larry Weinberg.
AIPAC scored two major victories in the early 1980s that established its image among political candidates as an organization "not to be trifled with" and set the pace for "a staunchly pro-Israel" Congress over the next three decades. In 1982, activists affiliated with AIPAC in Skokie, Illinois, backed Richard J. Durbin to oust U.S. representative Paul Findley (R-Illinois), who had shown enthusiasm for PLO leader Yasir Arafat. In 1984, Senator Charles H. Percy (R-Illinois), then-chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a supporter of a deal to allow Saudi Arabia to buy sophisticated airborne early warning and control (AWAC) military planes was defeated by Democrat Paul Simon. Simon was asked by Robert Asher, an AIPAC board member in Chicago, to run against Percy.
Contemporary period (Post–1980s)
In 2005, Lawrence Franklin, a Pentagon analyst pleaded guilty to espionage charges of passing U.S. government secrets to AIPAC policy director Steve J. Rosen and AIPAC senior Iran analyst Keith Weissman, in what is known as the AIPAC espionage scandal. Rosen and Weissman were later fired by AIPAC. In 2009, charges against the former AIPAC employees were dropped.
In 2016, nearly 20,000 delegates attended the AIPAC Policy Conference, about 4,000 of them American students. For the first time in AIPAC's history, the conference's general sessions were held in Washington, D.C.'s Verizon Center to accommodate the large number of delegates. Keynote speakers included Vice President Joe Biden, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Governor John Kasich, Senator Ted Cruz, and Speaker Paul Ryan. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had spoken to AIPAC before in person, addressed the conference via satellite on its final day. Support among congressional members includes a majority of members of both the Democratic and Republican Parties. According to AIPAC, the annual Policy Conference is second only to the State of the Union address for the number of Federal officials in attendance at an organized event. In February 2019, freshman U.S. representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), one of the first two Muslim women (along with Rashida Tlaib) to serve in Congress, tweeted that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-California) support for Israel was "all about the Benjamins" (i.e. about money). The next day, she clarified that she meant AIPAC. Omar later apologized but also made another statement attacking "political influence in this country that says it is okay to push for allegiance to a foreign country." The statements aroused anger among AIPAC supporters, but also vocal support among the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and "revived a fraught debate" in American politics over whether AIPAC has too much influence over American policy in the Middle East, while highlighting the deterioration of some relationships between progressive Democrats and pro-Israel organizations. On March 6, 2019, the Democratic leadership put forth a resolution on the House floor condemning antisemitism, which was broadened to condemn bigotry against a wide variety of groups before it passed on March 7.
In August 2024, AIPAC's headquarters in Washington, D.C. were vandalized by anti-Israel activists. In the 2024 election cycle, AIPAC spent a record $45.2 million to defeat two progressive legislators critical of Israel, Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush.
In 2025, several Democratic politicians who had previously received AIPAC support, including Deborah Ross, Valerie Foushee, Morgan McGarvey and Seth Moulton, said they would no longer accept donations from AIPAC. According to The Nation, "Clearly, the pro-Israel consensus has evaporated among the Democratic and liberal base. Not only that—being uncritical of Israel and its regime of control over Palestinians today is becoming an impediment to Democratic politicians." David Frank, a professor of communication at the University of Oregon, said, "AIPAC is on the ropes. It's being defeated and losing its hold on the American public. The Track AIPAC is grassroots in identifying how powerful AIPAC is. The founders wanted to show how much money is going to each member of Congress. They want to make the money toxic, so that even the recipients of smaller donations will want to return the money."
Aims, activities, size, and successes
AIPAC's stated purpose is to lobby the Congress of the United States on issues and legislation related to Israel. AIPAC regularly meets with members of Congress and holds events where it can share its views.
Size