AIPAC-offshoot spent millions on lavish Israel trips for dozens of US lawmakers since 7 Oct: Report

The trips were described as a ‘litmus test’ for politicians seeking to signal a pro-Israel stance to donors  

News Desk - The Cradle 

The American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), a nonprofit affiliate of AIPAC, has spent more than $4.2 million on luxury travel to Israel for dozens of US lawmakers and their staff since the start of the genocide in Gaza on 7 October 2023, The Guardian reported on 2 June.

A Guardian analysis of congressional ethics filings reveals that at least 52 Republicans and 26 Democrats have participated in approximately 15 delegations to Israel during this period.

The luxury trips, which cost an average of $26,600 per member, featured stays at high-end hotels such as the King David in Jerusalem and the Magdala in Galilee. 

Participants reportedly received briefings from senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his opposition leader, Yair Lapid. 

Itineraries also included visits to military installations near the Lebanese border and briefings at Alfei Menashe, an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank. 

AIEF spokesperson Deryn Sousa framed the missions as designed to “educate participants about the US–Israel relationship” and provide “well-rounded insights” into the region’s complex politics.

While pro-Israel groups have sponsored such travel for decades, the report notes that the continued participation of Democratic lawmakers is notable given changing domestic sentiment, as recent polling shows that 80 percent of Democrats and 60 percent of all US citizens overall hold unfavorable views of Israel. 

Stephen Walt, a professor of international relations at Harvard, described the trips as a “standard tool” for building Capitol Hill support and a “litmus test” for politicians wanting to signal a pro-Israel stance to donors.

The AIEF operates as a legally distinct entity from AIPAC, allowing it to bypass federal lobbying restrictions on funding overseas travel for officials, though it utilizes AIPAC’s offices and infrastructure.

The analysis found that some members, including Democrats Steny Hoyer and Brad Schneider, attended multiple trips during the reporting period. 

These missions continued even as international condemnation towards Israel grew over its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing campaign in the occupied West Bank.
The Guardian noted that no lawmakers or staffers who participated in the trips responded to requests for comment.

Earlier polling from April echoed the general decline in public attitudes towards Israel among the US public, with the 60 percent figure rising from 53 percent the previous year.

For the first time in US history, sympathy for Palestinians had surpassed that for Israelis, with 41 percent and 36 percent recorded respectively.

As the AIPAC brand becomes increasingly “toxic” in the US public view, the lobby has resorted to obscuring its influence through elaborate financial shell games. 

By funneling millions through deceptive online portals and candidate-specific links, the organization is effectively “erasing AIPAC’s fingerprints” from public data, allowing politicians to pocket lobby cash while avoiding the political liability of a public association. 

This subversion of transparency extends to the creation of political action committees with intentionally misleading names like the “United Democracy Project” and “Elect Chicago Women,” which mask their pro-Israeli agenda under unrelated domestic issues.

This systemic infrastructure of control reportedly culminates in the assignment of an AIPAC “minder” to every member of Congress, fueling accusations from targeted lawmakers that the lobby is essentially “buying seats” to maintain its grip on American legislative outcomes.