Pro-Israel groups are stepping up their congressional lobbying efforts, as senators prepare bipartisan legislation to provide funding to help the country in its war sparked by a Hamas attack.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee and J Street are among groups reaching out to members of Congress, even as the House has remained mostly at a standstill without an elected Speaker. The push comes as about a dozen House Democrats introduced a resolution calling for a “ceasefire” backed by such outside organizations as the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Marshall Wittmann, a spokesperson for AIPAC, said in an email that the group’s primary focus now “is to ensure that America provides Israel the resources it needs as quickly as possible so it can permanently dismantle Hamas, which perpetrated the barbaric, terrorist attack on the Jewish state.”
AIPAC spent $2.2 million on federal lobbying from January through September of this year, according to filings with Congress.
It also started a political action committee last election cycle. It brought in nearly $19 million in donations during the 2022 campaigns, and so far this cycle had reported $10.5 million in donations through Aug. 31.
The group has sent large donations to the Republican National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the National Republican Congressional Committee, as well as donations to individual candidates on both sides of the aisle, Federal Election Commission reports show.
J Street, seen as more liberal than AIPAC, calls itself on its website the “political home and voice for pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy Americans.” The group’s spokesperson Logan Bayroff said there’s a range of views among progressives and liberals and said J Street was confident in its position of supporting Israel while also urging protections for civilians in Gaza.
J Street spent $260,000 on federal lobbying during the first six months of this year, according to its filings through June.
Israel relies on lobbyists and other advisers in the United States from law firms Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, Holland & Knight, and Sidley Austin according to Justice Department filings under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), who led a delegation to Israel over the weekend, said during his trip that he would direct Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who chairs the Appropriations Committee, and other committee heads to work on an aid package that the Senate can take up “hopefully within the next few weeks.”
Israel Resolutions
Pro-Israel groups on both sides of the aisle, said they were working to add sponsors to a resolution of support for Israel, led by Reps. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.). The resolution, which had more than 420 co-sponsors as of Monday, says that lawmakers stand by Israel “as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists.”
“All across the country, people are reaching out to their members of Congress, to their senators, to ask for their help,” said Mark Mellman, a consultant and president of Democratic Majority for Israel.
Mellman said his group’s message to Democratic lawmakers includes “trying to explain to them the horrific nature of these attacks by Hamas, the absolute need to dismantle Hamas as part of Israel’s right and responsibility to defend itself.”
Democratic Majority for Israel planned to send an email urging supporters to contact their senators in support of President Joe Biden’s pick to serve as Ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, a Treasury Secretary during the Obama administration, Mellman said. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has scheduled a Wednesday hearing on Lew, who has generated criticism from some Republicans who opposed Obama’s Iran policies.
J Street also was urging swift confirmation for Lew, said Bayroff.
The Republican Jewish Coalition has mobilized its members to build support for the supporting-Israel resolution and a Senate bill that would block Iran from accessing $6 billion in Qatar banks that had been part of a previous Biden administration deal with Iran. RJC plans to intensify its efforts when an emergency Israel aid bill is introduced, said spokesman Sam Markstein.
No Democrats or independents in the Senate have signed onto the Iran money bill, but eight of them last week called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to freeze the assets in question. Most in that group face competitive re-election races next year, including Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who chairs the Banking Committee with jurisdiction over the bill.
Competing Resolutions
Several of the lawmakers who have not signed onto the House measure standing with Israel introduced their own resolution Monday that calls for a ceasefire and aid to civilians in the Gaza strip. Backers of that resolution who did not sign on to the Israel resolution include Democratic Reps. Cori Bush (Mo.), Jamaal Bowman (N.Y), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Summer Lee (Pa.), Delia Ramirez (Ill.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.).
Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called the ceasefire measure a “commonsense resolution.”
“The Israeli government is subjecting Palestinians trapped in Gaza to a total blockade and a relentless bombing campaign that has already killed more than two thousand civilians, and over 1,000 children,” Awad said in a statement.
Murray said in a statement last week that she would work with Biden and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle “to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself.”
Some Democrats want to tie the Israel aid package to more funding for Ukraine, which is likely to spur opposition from House Republicans. Democratic strategist Steve Elmendorf said that Senate Democrats were unified in their support for Israel and for Ukraine. He said the House Democratic opposition to Israel aid was much smaller than GOP dissent over funding for Ukraine.
Zach C. Cohen in Washington also contributed to this story.
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