Skip to main content

← Who Pushed the Iran War

AIPAC, Campaign Money, and the Pro-Israel Lobby in the Iran War

AIPAC is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, founded in the 1950s and renamed in 1963. It is the most powerful foreign-policy lobby in Washington. It lobbies Congress directly and, since 2021, runs a political action committee (AIPAC PAC) that gives to candidates and a super PAC, the United Democracy Project (UDP), that spends on ads for and against them. It is registered as a domestic lobby, not as an agent of a foreign government under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), because it says its members are Americans. Its critics, including a sitting Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, say it acts for Israel's government.

If you have only heard that American bombs are falling on Iran, here is why AIPAC matters. This investigation's thesis is that the U.S. government was steered into the war by Israel's government and its American lobby. When Joe Kent, the President's own counterterrorism chief, resigned in March 2026, he wrote exactly that: "it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby" (Al Jazeera, March 17, 2026). And the President himself, two months after the June 2025 strikes, said of the lobby: "They had total control over Congress, and now they don't" (Spectator Index, September 1, 2025). This page shows how the lobby works, what it did during both Iran wars, and what it got.

June 2025: "literally 100 phone calls"​

In the nine days between Israel's first strikes on Iran (June 13, 2025) and America's (June 22), AIPAC went to work on Congress. Drop Site News and The American Prospect reported on June 18:

"The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has been furiously urging House Democrats to release messages of steadfast support for Israel in its war with Iran... even as bipartisan lawmakers come together on a War Powers Act resolution to prevent U.S. troops or funds being used in yet another Middle East conflagration."

"One member relayed that a colleague had received literally 100 phone calls from members of AIPAC and its allied pressure groups." AIPAC wanted members to say they "stand with Israel" and that Iran "must never have a nuclear weapon." Twenty-eight House Democrats used that language or close to it (Drop Site News, June 18, 2025). When the bombs fell on June 22, AIPAC praised the President's "historic and decisive action," saying Iran "was on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon," three months after the Director of National Intelligence told Congress Iran was not building one (AIPAC press release).

Read more: The "Stand With Israel" campaign, June 2025

"Lifelines" inside the administration​

In February 2025, AIPAC's CEO Elliot Brandt told a private pro-Israel gathering that the lobby had cultivated all three of the President's top national-security picks, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, because they "all served in Congress" and "have relationships with key AIPAC leaders from their communities." Of Ratcliffe: "This is a guy that we had a chance to speak to, so there are a lot of – I wouldn't call them lifelines, but there are lifelines in there." (Angelo Giuliano on X, June 21, 2025, video). On January 29, 2026, a month before the second war, the Israeli Prime Minister's office listed AIPAC's senior vice president and its Israel director as attending Netanyahu's meeting with five U.S. congressmen (Israeli PM on X). Kent later described the result: "you have AIPAC bragging that they helped get them the jobs that they currently have," which gives "members of the Israeli government and Israeli donors the ability to go point to point directly to them" (Going Underground on X, September 26, 2026).

Read more: Lifelines: Rubio, Waltz, Ratcliffe

The money, and the punishment​

AIPAC's PAC and super PAC reported spending about $95 million on the 2024 elections, more than double 2022, including $14.6 million to defeat Rep. Jamaal Bowman and $8.6 million against Rep. Cori Bush (Sludge). In May 2026, the Republican who led the House effort to stop the Iran war, Thomas Massie, lost what has been called the most expensive House primary in U.S. history after more than $9 million in pro-Israel spending against him. Massie called it a "referendum on whether Israel gets to buy seats in Congress" (Wikipedia). Senator Ted Cruz, asked by Tucker Carlson whether he takes AIPAC money: "So AIPAC raises a lot of money for me" (Podscripts).

Read more: Election spending and punishment

The bills it lobbied​

AIPAC's lobbying filings list the Iran measures it worked on in 2025: the Enhanced Iran Sanctions Act, the Solidify Iran Sanctions Act, a bill to make the Iran Sanctions Act permanent, and a Senate resolution setting the "acceptable outcome" of any nuclear deal. It reported $844,410 in total lobbying expenses in the first quarter of 2026, the quarter the war began, lobbying Congress, the National Security Council, and the Departments of State, Treasury, Energy, and Defense. It also lobbied at the Pentagon itself for the US-Israel Futures Act, whose language became Section 219 of the defense bill (OpenSecrets; Goldness on X, September 22, 2026; The Guardian, June 5, 2026).

Read more: Lobbying filings and the Iran bills and Section 219: merging the militaries

In its own words​

AIPAC's public statements trace the arc of the war. June 16, 2025, three days into Israel's campaign: "Israel's actions make America safer!" (AIPAC on X). March 2026: it reposted a letter from 72 retired generals backing the joint strikes. June 2026, when a peace memorandum was announced, it told Congress to demand "the removal of all enriched uranium from Iran and the dismantlement of all enrichment sites," objected that the deal could free up "as much as $100 billion" for Iran, and complained that it might limit Israel's freedom to strike Hezbollah (AIPAC memo, June 18, 2026). The lobby that says it only supports the President's decisions was, by its own words, working to keep a peace deal from ending the war on terms Israel's government opposed. Vice President Vance described the same fight from the other side: a "very discreet, extremely well-funded campaign to try to derail the negotiation" (BBC, July 16, 2026).

Read more: AIPAC in its own words

An old pattern: Franklin, AIPAC, and Iran​

This is not the first time AIPAC has been at the center of American Iran policy. In 2005, Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin pleaded guilty to passing classified information about U.S. deliberations on Iran to two AIPAC officials, who passed it to Israel. Charges against the AIPAC officials were later dropped.

Read more: The Franklin, Rosen, and Weissman case

The largest donor​

Miriam Adelson, the Israeli-American billionaire and widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, was one of the largest donors of the 2024 election. Kent named her first when asked how the "echo chamber" around the President was built; Massie said the President's biggest mistake "is letting Israel control too much of his policy. Perhaps it was taking $200 million from Miriam Adelson."

Read more: Miriam Adelson

When the President and his ambassador answer​

Israel's ambassador, Yechiel Leiter, called the idea that AIPAC and Netanyahu forced the war "sheer stupidity": "it's up to the United States to make a decision whether or not to embark on a war — it doesn't happen because AIPAC or other diabolical Jews who somehow control the heavens and the earth" (video posted by @Whiplash437, July 7, 2026). His answer changes the subject from a lobby to a people; the subject here is one named organization, its super PAC, its named donors, and the named officials it says are its "lifelines." And his own government's record answers him: when the State Department's lawyer wrote the legal basis for the 2026 war, the first reason was that America entered "at the request of" Israel (see at the request of Israel).

Go deeper​

How strong is the evidence?​

ClaimRatingPage
AIPAC pressed House Democrats to declare they "stand with Israel" while a war powers resolution was pending (June 2025)CONFIRMEDJune 2025 campaign
AIPAC's CEO described the Secretary of State, National Security Adviser, and CIA Director as the lobby's "lifelines"MODERATE (audio as quoted)Lifelines
AIPAC and its super PAC spent about $95 million in 2024CONFIRMEDElection spending
Pro-Israel money helped defeat the House leader against the warSTRONGElection spending
AIPAC lobbied the Iran sanctions bills and, at the Pentagon, the military-integration billCONFIRMEDFilings
AIPAC worked to harden or block the 2026 peace memorandumSTRONGOwn words
A Pentagon analyst passed classified Iran-policy information to AIPAC officials, who passed it to IsraelCONFIRMED (guilty plea)Franklin case
The lobby's pressure was a cause of the U.S. going to warSTRONGThis page and Netanyahu's campaign

Status: Joe Kent, Donald Trump, Elliot Brandt, Marco Rubio, Mike Waltz, John Ratcliffe, Thomas Massie, Ted Cruz, Miriam Adelson, Yechiel Leiter, JD Vance, Lawrence Franklin, Steven Rosen, and Keith Weissman are alive. This page follows one named organization's money, lobbying, and statements; it does not claim that Jewish Americans as a group steer U.S. policy, and it does not state that any living person committed a crime beyond Franklin's guilty plea on the public record.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

Last updated on