BAD IDEA

Pro-Israel Group AIPAC Sparks Backlash With Support for 2020 ‘Election Deniers’

The lobbyist group’s decision to back Republicans who supported Trump’s “Big Lie” has been called “morally bankrupt.”

The influential pro-Israel lobby group American Israel Public Affairs Committee has drawn condemnation for backing Republicans who sought to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory. The group’s newly launched political action committee threw its backing behind Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Scott Perry (R-PA) this month, both of whom encouraged then-President Trump to have then-Vice President Mike Pence block Biden’s 2020 win. The support was described as “morally bankrupt and short-sighted” by Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, who said it would “undermine democracy,” The Guardian reports. Dan Kurtzer, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel, also joined the chorus of criticism, urging AIPAC to rethink its decision. The group has doubled down, however, arguing that this is “no moment for the pro-Israel movement to become selective about its friends.”