Editing AIPAC (section)

==History==
===Formation (1953–1970s)===
Journalist and lawyer [[Isaiah L. Kenen]] founded the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs (AZCPA) as a lobbying division of the [[American Zionist Council]] (AZC), and they split in 1954.<ref name="Rossinow 2018 pp. 23–43" /> Kenen, a lobbyist for the Israeli government,<ref name="TG1">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/22/aipac-pro-israel-lobby-group-us-elections|title=The pro-Israel groups planning to spend millions in US elections|work=The Guardian|date=22 April 2024|accessdate=26 June 2024}}</ref> had at earlier times worked for the [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Israel)|Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs]]. As a lobbyist, Kenen 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 the negative international reaction to the October 1953 [[Qibya massacre]], in which Israeli troops under [[Ariel Sharon]] killed at least sixty-nine Palestinian villagers, two-thirds of them women and children.<ref name="Rossinow 2018 pp. 23–43"/> As the Eisenhower administration suspected the AZC of being funded by the government of Israel, it was decided that the lobbying efforts should be separated into a separate organization with separate finances.<ref name="Rossinow 2018 pp. 23–43"/>

In 1959, AZCPA was renamed the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, reflecting a broader membership and mission.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rossinow |first1=Doug |title="The Edge of the Abyss": The Origins of the Israel Lobby, 1949–1954 |journal=Modern American History |date=2018 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=23–43 |quote=In 1959, the AZCPA was renamed AIPAC, 'Israel' replacing 'Zionist.' The new name acknowledged ostensibly non-Zionist participants in the committee.... American Jews redefined Zionism to mean providing staunch and generally unquestioning support for the State of Israel, so long as the leaders of Jewish Israel maintained respect for the legitimacy and integrity of American Jewry as a Jewish community.|doi=10.1017/mah.2017.17 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-american-history/article/edge-of-the-abyss-the-origins-of-the-israel-lobby-19491954/E1690BDB5CA87C66B2B65D12CA1D716A |language=en |issn=2515-0456}}</ref><ref name="Wertheimer95">{{cite journal |last1=Wertheimer |first1=Jack |title=Jewish Organizational Life in the United States Since 1945 |journal=[[The American Jewish Year Book]] |date=1995 |volume=95 |pages=3–98}}</ref> Kenen led the organization until his retirement in 1974, when he was succeeded by [[Morris J. Amitay]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Langer |first=Emily |date=February 13, 2023 |title=Morris Amitay, ardent advocate for Israel, dies at 86 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/02/13/morris-amitay-aipac-israel-dead/ |access-date=August 8, 2023 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> 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."<ref name=bruck-53>{{cite magazine|last1=Bruck|first1=Connie|title=Friends of Israel|magazine=The New Yorker|date=September 1, 2014|page=53|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/01/friends-israel|access-date=September 9, 2014}}</ref>

=== 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 lobby|Jewish communal landscape]]. The Conference of Presidents was responsible for speaking to the [[Federal government of the United States#Executive branch|Executive Branch]] of the U.S. government, while AIPAC dealt mainly with the [[United States Congress|Legislative Branch]]. Although it had worked effectively behind the scenes since its founding in 1953, AIPAC only became a powerful organization in the 15 years after the [[Yom Kippur War]] in 1973.<ref name="Wertheimer95" />

By the mid-70s, AIPAC had achieved the financial and political clout necessary to sway congressional opinion, according to former [[List of ambassadors of Israel to the United States|Israeli Diplomat to the United States]] [[Michael Oren]].<ref name = MO /> 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.<ref name="Wertheimer95" /> Confronted with opposition from both houses of Congress, [[President of the United States|United States President]] [[Gerald Ford]] rescinded his '[[Gerald Ford#Middle East|reassessment]].'"<ref name = MO>[[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'."</ref> [[George Lenczowski]] notes a similar, mid-1970s timeframe 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."<ref>{{cite book | last=Lenczowski | first=George | author-link=George Lenczowski | year=1990 | title=American Presidents and the Middle East | publisher=[[Duke University Press]] | isbn=978-0-8223-0972-7 | page=157 }}</ref>

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]].<ref name=bruck-54>{{cite magazine|last1=Bruck|first1=Connie|title=Friends of Israel|magazine=The New Yorker|date=September 1, 2014|pages=53–4|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/01/friends-israel|access-date=September 9, 2014}}</ref>

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.<ref name="Stolberg-too-powerful-4-3-2019"/>  In 1982, activists affiliated with AIPAC in [[Skokie, Illinois]], backed [[Richard J. Durbin]] to oust U.S. representative [[Paul Findley]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|R]]-[[Illinois]]), who had shown enthusiasm for [[PLO]] leader [[Yasir Arafat]]. In 1984, Senator [[Charles H. Percy]] (R-Illinois), then-chairman of the [[United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations|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 (politician)|Paul Simon]]. Simon was asked by Robert Asher, an AIPAC board member in Chicago, to run against Percy.<ref name="Stolberg-too-powerful-4-3-2019"/>

===Contemporary period (Post-1980s)===
In 2005, Lawrence Franklin, a [[The Pentagon|Pentagon]] analyst pleaded guilty to espionage charges of passing [[Federal government of the United States|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.<ref name="ynn">{{cite news |url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3151394,00.html|title=Guilty plea entered in Pentagon Spy Case|work=Ynetnews|agency=Associated Press|date=June 10, 2005|access-date=August 26, 2022}}</ref> In 2009, charges against the former AIPAC employees were dropped.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/us/politics/02aipac.html | work=The New York Times | first1=Neil A. | last1=Lewis | first2=David | last2=Johnston | title=U.S. to Drop Spy Case Against Pro-Israel Lobbyists | date=May 2, 2009}}</ref>

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 [[United States one hundred-dollar bill|Benjamins]]" (i.e. about money).<ref name="BADE-11-2-19">{{cite news |last1=Bade |first1=Rachael| author-link1 = Rachael Bade|last2=Phillips|first2=Kristine|last3=DeBonis|first3=Mike|last4=Flynn|first4=Meagan|title=Democratic leaders call Ilhan Omar's Israel tweets 'deeply offensive' |url=https://www.twincities.com/2019/02/11/ilhan-omar-democrat-minnesota-again-accused-anti-semitism-over-tweets-benjamins-baby/ |access-date=8 March 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post|date=11 February 2019}}</ref> The next day, she clarified that she meant AIPAC.<ref name=Ygl19>{{cite news |last1=Yglesias |first1=Matthew |title=The controversy over Ilhan Omar and AIPAC money, explained |url=https://www.vox.com/2019/2/11/18220160/ilhan-omar-aipac-benjamins-kevin-mccarthy |access-date=8 March 2019 |work=Vox |date=6 March 2019}}</ref> 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,<ref name="Stolberg-too-powerful-4-3-2019">{{cite news |last1=Stolberg |first1=Sheryl Gay |title=Ilhan Omar's Criticism Raises the Question: Is Aipac Too Powerful? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/us/politics/aipac-congress-democrats.html |access-date=8 March 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=4 March 2019}}</ref> while highlighting the deterioration of some relationships between progressive Democrats and pro-Israel organizations.<ref name=Ygl19/> On March 6, 2019, the Democratic leadership put forth a resolution on the [[United States House of Representatives|House]] floor condemning anti-Semitism, which was broadened to condemn bigotry against a wide variety of groups before it passed on March 7.<ref name="Stolberg-7-3-2019">{{cite news |last1=Stolberg |first1=Sheryl Gay |title=House Votes to Condemn All Hate as Anti-Semitism Debate Overshadows Congress |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/07/us/politics/ilhan-omar-anti-semitism-vote.html |access-date=8 March 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=7 March 2019}}</ref><ref name="Friedman-6-3-2019">{{cite news |last1=Friedman |first1=Thomas L. |title=Ilhan Omar, Aipac and Me |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/opinion/israel-ilhan-omar.html |access-date=8 March 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=6 March 2019}}</ref>

In August 2024, AIPAC's headquarters in Washington, D.C. were vandalized by anti-Israel activists.<ref>{{cite news |last= Starr|first= Michael|date= 27 August 2024|title= AIPAC headquarters vandalized by anti-Israel activists|url= https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-816645|work= Jerusalem Post |access-date= 28 August 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last= Strack|first= Haley|date= 7 August 2024|title= Anti-Israel Radicals Vandalize AIPAC Headquarters in Washington|url= https://www.nationalreview.com/news/anti-israel-radicals-vandalize-aipac-headquarters-in-washington/|work= National Review|access-date=28 August 2024}}</ref>