This week, Important Context and Sludge collaborated on an article about the censure of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). On Tuesday, the House passed a GOP-led resolution to censure its only Palestinian member over comments she made about Israel and Gaza. While the overwhelming majority of the yea votes were Republicans, 22 Democrats broke ranks and supported the resolution.
Using available data from the D.C.-based nonprofit OpenSecrets, we tracked American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) contributions to those 22 Democrats in the last election cycle. Our results were unsurprising. All but four had accepted funds from the pro-Israel lobbying group. AIPAC was the top contributor for six of them.
In recent years, AIPAC has come under fire for supporting far right election-denying politicians and targeting left-wing Democrats it sees as insufficiently supportive of Israel. Tlaib and her colleague and fellow Muslim, Ilhan Omar (D-MN), have been favorite targets.
Check out the piece here:
