Pro-Israel donors raise hundreds of thousands in last-minute funds to unseat Ilhan Omar
A group of wealthy pro-Israel political donors in the US have spent the last few days raising hundreds of thousands of dollars, in an eleventh-hour campaign trying to unseat Congresswoman Ilhan Omar in her primary election this week.
The campaign follows a string of losses for "Squad" members Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman earlier this year, after the pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), spent tens of millions of dollars in campaign spending against the progressive lawmakers.
Until now, Omar had not faced an Aipac offensive in her primary election this year and has been able to raise triple the amount of funds that her opponent Don Samuels has. Omar has raised $1.6m, compared to Samuels' $535,000.
But after Bush lost her primary election last week, largely in part to a massive spending campaign by Aipac and its Super PAC, The Intercept obtained access to a WhatsApp group, titled, "Zionists for Don Samuels Against Ilhan Omar", where a screenshot was posted saying that nearly $100,000 was raised in 24 hours for the campaign against Omar.
One participant in the chat, entrepreneur Michael Sinensky, said he had worked with a Super PAC, called, Make a Difference MN, to raise over $120,000 for Samuels since 31 July, the Intercept reported, based on messages Sinensky sent to the group.
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“I’ve heard dozens of questions of where is AIPAC,” Sinensky said in the WhatsApp group. “We are fucking AIPAC now.”
Sinensky told The Intercept he was not affiliated with the Samuels campaign. “To clarify, I’m not affiliated with Don Samuels’ campaign,” he said. “I was disappointed to learn that AIPAC wasn’t supporting Samuels and stepped in late to fill that void by rallying friends and family to donate.”
MEE reached out to Sinensky for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Pro-Israel groups have been spending heavily in this year's election to try and help elect moderate Democrats in favour of progressives who have spoken critically against Israel or pushed for legislation in favour of Palestinian rights.
While these efforts have been taking place for the past several years, the political spending campaign by these groups has accelerated since Israel's war on Gaza began last October, and has resulted in several wins, such as in the case of Bush and Bowman losing their primary elections.
Omar herself is no stranger to attacks from pro-Israel groups. Since being elected to Congress in 2018, the Minnesota lawmaker has been a main target of attacks from advocates of Israel.
In 2019, Omar tweeted, "it's all about the Benjamins", criticising how Aipac and other pro-Israel groups lobby and spend big money on lawmakers who turn around and push policy in favour of Israel. The tweet was widely condemned by Democrats and Republicans as antisemitic and Omar ended up walking back the comments.
In 2022, The United Democracy Project, the Aipac-affiliated Super PAC, spent $350,000 in a failed attempt against Omar in her primary election.
Current polling shows that Omar has a sizeable, double-digit lead over Samuels in this year's race, and other prominent progressives like Rashida Tlaib have easily defeated their primary challengers.
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