A Democracy Drive Thread
The most powerful foreign-policy lobby in Washington spent more than $100 million in a single election to purge its critics from Congress — reaching Republican money into Democratic primaries — and collected near-unanimous support for arms, immunity, and money flowing to Israel from both parties in return.
A dated, sourced record of AIPAC and allied pro-Israel groups’ spending in U.S. elections and the policy that has followed: record-breaking primary money used to defeat members who criticized Israel, and the arms transfers, funding cutoffs, and legal cover the U.S. government has extended in the same period. Each entry links to its source.
June 25, 2024
On the ground
In the June 25, 2024 Democratic primary, AIPAC’s United Democracy Project spent roughly $12 million to defeat Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a member of the progressive “Squad” and a vocal critic of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, boosting challenger George Latimer. The outside money — more than any interest group had ever poured into a single House race — made it the most expensive House primary in American history at the time (a record later broken in the 2026 campaign against Rep. Thomas Massie), and Bowman became the first Squad member ever to lose a primary.
August 6, 2024
On the ground
In the August 6, 2024 Democratic primary, AIPAC’s United Democracy Project spent about $6 million to help prosecutor Wesley Bell defeat Rep. Cori Bush, a Squad member and outspoken critic of Israel’s war in Gaza. It ranked among the most expensive House primaries on record at the time, behind only Bowman’s — and made Bush the second Squad member the lobby unseated in a single cycle.
August 7, 2024
On the ground
Across the 2024 cycle AIPAC spent more than $100 million, much of it through the United Democracy Project — a super PAC financed heavily by Republican megadonors, its single largest backer being WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum at $5 million — to defeat progressive Democrats who criticized Israel. The arrangement let right-leaning money help decide Democratic primaries, and the lobby’s willingness to spend unlimited sums became a standing warning to any member of either party weighing a break with it.
February 4, 2025
On the ground
At a February 4, 2025 White House news conference with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Trump said “the U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip” and “own it,” proposing to move its roughly two million Palestinian residents elsewhere, level the territory, and redevelop it — and, asked about U.S. troops, said “if it’s necessary, we’ll do that.” Rights experts warned the plan would amount to forcible displacement barred under international law; it drew swift rejection across the Arab world, while Netanyahu called it worth “pursuing.”
On the ground
On February 4, 2025, Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the UN Human Rights Council — long attacked by Israel and its backers over its scrutiny of Israel — and permanently ending funding to UNRWA, the UN agency that provides food, health care, and schooling to Palestinian refugees. The U.S. had been UNRWA’s largest donor, giving more than $400 million in 2023, before Trump cut it off amid Gaza’s humanitarian collapse.
February 6, 2025
On the ground
On February 6, 2025, Trump signed Executive Order 14203 imposing sanctions on the ICC over what it called “illegitimate” actions targeting the U.S. and Israel; on February 13 the Treasury designated chief prosecutor Karim Khan — who had sought arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his former defense minister over alleged war crimes in Gaza — freezing his U.S. assets and barring Americans from dealing with him. A federal judge later blocked the order as an unconstitutional restriction on free speech.
March 1, 2025
On the ground
On March 1, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio used emergency authority under the Arms Export Control Act to waive congressional review and expedite about $4 billion in weapons to Israel — including tens of thousands of MK-84 bombs — without citing any specific emergency. It followed a separate arms package of more than $8 billion the administration had pushed past an informal hold by a senior House Democrat. The transfers continued even as the U.S. and Israel restricted humanitarian aid into Gaza.
May 19, 2026
On the ground
In Kentucky’s May 19, 2026 Republican primary, AIPAC’s super PAC and two other pro-Israel groups spent more than $15.8 million to defeat Rep. Thomas Massie, a libertarian Republican and outspoken critic of AIPAC and U.S. aid to Israel, backing challenger Ed Gallrein. Total spending reached about $32 million — making it the most expensive House primary in U.S. history, surpassing the records set against Bowman and Bush. After the race was called, AIPAC celebrated on X, casting the defeat as proof that “pro-Israel Americans” would “help defeat those who work to undermine” the U.S.–Israel alliance. Massie mocked the effort in his concession, joking that it took a while to reach his opponent “in Tel Aviv.”
May 30, 2026
On the ground
In 2026 the House Armed Services Committee, with support from both parties, kept Section 224 in the annual defense authorization bill (the U.S.–Israel FUTURES Act), directing the Pentagon to appoint a single “executive agent” to coordinate deep U.S.–Israel military integration: joint weapons co-production, shared research, and linked systems across artificial intelligence, cyberwarfare, and autonomous weapons. The Quincy Institute argued it would intertwine the two militaries more than the $200-plus billion in U.S. military aid Israel has received since 1948; an amendment to strip the provision drew only two votes.