On June 16, as Benjamin Netanyahu continued his year-long defiance of Joe Biden over the war in Gaza, eight U.S. House members and two staffers arrived at Tel Aviv’s luxurious Kempinski Hotel for a four-day immersion in Israeli politics.
The lawmakers and aides toured the nation and met with a lineup of speakers largely aligned with the Israeli prime minister’s right-wing views — including Netanyahu himself.
The trip, like hundreds of others over the past decade, was hosted by the nonprofit arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC, which calls itself “America’s pro-Israel lobby,” is one of the most influential lobbyist organizations in the U.S. and promotes the Israeli government’s agenda.
After a roughly five-month pause following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, the AIPAC trips have continued apace this year, with eight trips by 71 House members and staffers from March through early September. Slightly more Republicans traveled with AIPAC’s nonprofit arm in that period than Democrats.
Now, as lawmakers face pressure from both sides on U.S. aid — with critics like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) calling for a halt to arms sales in the face of Israel’s Lebanon offensive and supporters such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) demanding more funding for Israel to beef up its defenses — members are drawing on the lessons from their AIPAC travel to shape their views.
Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.), who’s taken two AIPAC trips since September 2023 and who benefited from $6 million in independent expenditures from AIPAC in his first run for Congress in 2022 — said his time in Israel has been valuable in understanding a key U.S. partnership.
“It’s useful to try and get out and see things firsthand,” he said. On the June trip, for instance, Ivey said the most powerful moments he experienced were meeting with hostages’ families and visiting the location of the music festival where scores of civilians were killed or wounded.
“It was a very somber trip,” Ivey said. “There’s no question about that.”
While AIPAC is well known for sponsoring trips for lawmakers and aides to Israel in an effort to build support for the Jewish state, the full extent of that travel has not been clear until now.
A new analysis of thousands of records shows that, thanks largely to AIPAC’s nonprofit arm, Israel is far and away the No. 1 destination for privately sponsored foreign travel by members of the House and their aides.
More than a quarter of the roughly 4,100 privately sponsored foreign trips they have reported taking since 2012 were for travel to Israel, according to a study by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland, which is publishing its findings in partnership with POLITICO.
That’s more trips to Israel than to the entire Western Hemisphere and the continent of Africa combined.
The Howard Center created a database of all House travel during the last decade. Each of the approximately 17,000 trips represents travel by one U.S. House representative or staffer, either alone or as part of a delegation and sometimes with a family member. The vast majority of trips — at least three in four — were taken by staffers, who play important roles in shaping policy and drafting legislation.
The much smaller Senate reported more than 2,600 trips during the same period, but Senate disclosure forms do not provide sponsors or destinations in a format that can be readily analyzed.
In addition to travel disclosures, nonprofit tax records and lobbying registrations, the Howard Center examination of House travel used data collected by OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan government watchdog organization, and by LegiStorm, a public affairs information platform, to document the extensive links between lobbyists and travel sponsors.
Critics maintain the trips have left lawmakers with a one-sided understanding of U.S.-Israel relations and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — one that magnifies the hardline policies of the current Israeli government.
“Whoever frames the discussion wins the debate,” said former Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.), a progressive Jewish politician and critic of AIPAC, which helped orchestrate his defeat in 2022.
The vast majority of trips to Israel — about 75 percent — were sponsored by AIPAC’s charitable affiliate, the American Israel Education Foundation.
AIPAC’s use of AIEF allows it to legally get around a 2007 law that limits lobbyists’ direct involvement in most privately sponsored travel. An exception in the law allows some 501(c)(3) organizations such as AIEF to sponsor travel. AIPAC lobbied for this exception and it is known by some as the “AIPAC loophole.” Without the exception, AIPAC would be limited to sponsoring one-day trips as an organization that employs lobbyists.
While other organizations have taken advantage of the loophole, none have contributed more than AIPAC to what U.S. representatives and House staff see and what messages they hear on trips to Israel and the occupied West Bank.
AIPAC spokesperson Marshall Wittmann declined multiple requests for interviews but in a written statement responded to what he described as the Howard Center’s “false characterizations about our trips.”
Wittmann wrote:
“AIEF-sponsored trips help educate bipartisan political leaders about the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship through firsthand experiences in Israel, briefings by experts on Middle East affairs, and meetings with Israeli leaders from across the political spectrum.
“The trips are uniquely policy focused and comprehensive on a wide array of issues concerning US-Israel cooperation including regional security, technology, health and science.
“In the aftermath of the horrific Hamas attack of October 7th, these trips provide Members of Congress with a deeper understanding of the threats that Israel faces from Iranian terrorist proxies on its borders.
“Members of Congress have indicated that they found these trips very useful giving them a unique perspective on challenges facing the US and our ally Israel in a critical region.”
Trips to Israel are only one piece of a multipronged strategy for promoting Israel’s interests. AIPAC hosts an annual conference for elected officials in the Washington, D.C., area, which former Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) called the “largest gathering of members of Congress” other than the State of the Union.
But on this trip, Ivey said, “the focus was totally different.”
During his September 2023 trip, he said there was a stronger focus on “trying to figure out… potential paths to a two-state solution.”
When asked whether the potential for a two-state solution was still a topic of conversation or consideration this June, Ivey said he isn’t supposed to share the particulars of the meetings.
But, he added, outside of the U.S., “there’s a lot of folks who doubt that that’s a possibility.’’
“I think that’s true in Israel. I think that’s true… among many Palestinians,” he said. “Many people doubt or have questions about whether it is still a realistic option.’’
Together, AIPAC’s nonprofit arm spent $68,000 to underwrite Ivey’s two trips, which included luxury accommodations. Ivey was joined by his wife on his first trip — a unique AIEF trip that brought nine House members of the Congressional Black Caucus to Israel and Rwanda to discuss the relationship between Israel, Rwanda and the U.S.
Ivey said people have not questioned whether his travel on AIEF’s dime has influenced his positions. “They focus more on the $7 million in independent expenditures in my election. My view is that, you know, it’s fair game, it’s all publicly disclosed, people can take a look and draw their own decisions. And as far as I know, we follow the rules.”
According to FEC data, AIPAC’s super PAC — United Democracy Project — spent $6 million in independent expenditures during Ivey’s 2022 primary. Ivey’s campaign also benefited from roughly $750,000 of contributions that supporters sent through another AIPAC affiliate, and over $400,000 in outside spending from another pro-Israel group, Democratic Majority for Israel.
Ivey voted for the Israel military aid package on April 20, which his staff said reflected both his desire to help Israel defend itself and to ensure the flow of additional humanitarian aid to Gaza. He voted against a November version of the bill that didn’t include aid for Gaza.
Edwards (D-Md.), who served in Congress from 2008 to 2017, refused to travel with AIPAC while in office and instead visited Israel, the occupied West Bank and Gaza with more liberal organizations, including the pro-Israel advocacy group J Street.
She said traveling with J Street, she saw firsthand how the spread of Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank have become a serious obstacle to a two-state solution.
“You can see how antithetical that is to a desire for a two-state solution. Where in the world would you draw the two states?” Edwards said.
According to itineraries and interviews, travelers on AIPAC trips meet fewer Palestinians than on J Street trips.
The Howard Center contacted more than 30 current and former members of the House and House staff who traveled to Israel between 2012 and 2023, including 23 members and staffers who traveled with AIPAC at least once. The only AIPAC travelers who agreed to an interview were Ivey and Baird, whose 1999 AIPAC trip is not captured in the Howard Center database.
Among those who declined requests for an interview were Rep. Mike Levin, a Democrat from California, and Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Levin traveled to Israel three times between 2012 and 2023, twice with AIPAC and once with J Street.
In that same period, Jeffries traveled to Israel four times with AIPAC, most recently leading a Democratic delegation in August 2023.
In his 2022 disclosure report, Levin said the U.S.-Israel relationship “is an issue that my constituents raise with me, and the trip to the country will help me make decisions informed by the situation on the ground.”
Meanwhile Jeffries said in his 2023 disclosure report, “As the Democratic leader of the U.S. Congress, I have been asked to engage in my leadership capacity in issues related to the US-Israel relationship for this trip. These issues — as outlined by AIEF — are connected to my leadership and representational official duties.”
Both Levin’s and Jeffries’ communication teams did not respond to requests for an interview or comment.
AIPAC takes the position that to be pro-Israel means supporting the Israeli government, which for much of the 21st century has meant supporting the right-wing polices of Prime Minister Netanyahu, said Dov Waxman, professor and director of the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies.
Among the achievements touted on its website, AIPAC credits its efforts in recent years for Congress’ continued funding of billions in unconditional military and security assistance to Israel and for increased sanctions on Iran. AIPAC has also lobbied Congress to limit individuals’ and companies’ abilities to participate in the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israeli companies and supports Israel continuing the war in Gaza until Hamas’ military and government are dismantled.
For the first several decades of its existence, AIPAC was “unrivaled within the pro-Israel lobby,” according to Waxman. But he said the emergence and growth of the more liberal J Street threatens to erode AIPAC’s influence.
J Street was founded in 2007 and has sponsored congressional travel to Israel since 2010. It was the second-largest sponsor of travel to Israel from 2012-2023.
Yet the volume of travel sponsored by J Street — which similarly identifies as pro-Israel but is more open to criticizing the Israeli government — is surpassed nearly seven times over during that period. AIPAC has also attempted to maintain its dominance on the Hill, and as a travel sponsor, by painting J Street as anti-Israel — a characterization that both Waxman and J Street dispute.
Even when covering the same ground, AIPAC and J Street trip participants reported markedly different experiences. In February 2022, two AIPAC delegations — one Democratic and one Republican — and a Democratic J Street delegation visited Israel and the West Bank at the same time, with both Democratic groups even staying in the same hotel. The groups met separately with Mohammad Shtayyeh, the then-Palestinian Authority prime minister.
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) had traveled to Israel with AIPAC in 2013, but this time he traveled with J Street. In a YouTube video posted by J Street, Huffman said he traded notes with his colleagues traveling with AIPAC after the meetings with Shtayyeh. Shtayyeh’s use of the word “apartheid” drew contrasting responses, he said.
“They were there to some extent to do pro-Israel combat and I think we were there to listen and learn,” said Huffman in the YouTube video.
Huffman did not respond to requests for an interview.
One of the only sponsors of congressional trips to the region that focuses on meetings with Palestinian families living in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank is the small organization Rebuilding Alliance.
Four groups of House staffers — and no members — traveled there between 2018 and 2023 with the organization, which took them to witness Israeli military court proceedings against Palestinian children and to meet with Palestinian families whose homes had been destroyed by the Israeli military.
Nisreen Malley, senior advocacy coordinator at Rebuilding Alliance, said, “When you’re physically [visiting someone] who’s talking to you about how their home was demolished… it’s hard to ignore that when you’re thinking about your policies.”
Andy Levin argues the scale of Congress’ focus on — and travel to — Israel overall has caused the U.S. to lose sight of other key international issues.
“Israel and Palestine are very important,” he said. “But so are Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. … Obviously, Asia — South Asia, East Asia — there are many important conflicts and difficult conflicts and economic opportunities.”
Baird agreed.
“I think we’ve neglected our own hemisphere, and to our detriment, because the Russians and the Chinese surely have not neglected our hemisphere,” Baird said. “The focus on the Middle East takes the oxygen out of the room for so many other issues.”
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