The largest pro-Israel lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), spent a record $1.67 million in the first half of the year lobbying Congress to increase taxpayer aid to Israel and enact legislation giving lawmakers the ability to approve or disapprove of the Iran nuclear deal, which AIPAC vehemently opposes, reports The Washington Post. Now the group is funnelling resources to a newly created tax-exempt organization which is expected to spend $20 million to convince the public and lawmakers to reject the final Iran nuclear deal.
The AIPAC-backed bill allowing for congressional review cleared the House and Senate in May and was signed into law by President Obama, establishing a 60-day period for Congress to consider the newly reached nuclear accord.
Earlier this month, the U.S. and five other world powers reached what is being called an historic nuclear deal with Iran, in which Tehran agreed to not pursue the development of nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief.
The congressional review period began on Monday after the State Department sent the nuclear agreement to Congress. After the review period, lawmakers can pass a resolution of approval or disapproval, or do nothing.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have expressed skepticism over the deal, with most Republicans vowing to do everything in their power to kill it, which may included introducing a resolution of disapproval.
President Obama said he would veto a resolution of disapproval, and opponents would then need a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate to override the veto. To prevent this from happening, the White House has started lobbying lawmakers in an attempt to muster up enough votes to sustain a veto and to win over 41 senators to block passage of a resolution of disapproval, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told The New York Times.
Israel has long said that any Iran nuclear deal would practically pave Iran's way to an atomic bomb and start an all-out arms race in the Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's suspicions were apparently confirmed after reading the final agreement, with him calling it a "mistake of historic proportions" which "makes the world a much more dangerous place," reported USA Today.
Luckily for Netanyahu, Congress still has to approve the deal before it can go into full effect, at least partially thanks to AIPAC's record $1.67 million spent lobbying lawmakers.
AIPAC's lobbying figures are more than the group has ever spent on direct lobbying during a six-month period since 1998, according to lobbying records in the Senate Office of Public Records database obtained by Open Secrets.
Aside from lobbying for the Iran nuclear agreement, AIPAC also focused its efforts on lobbying for provisions found within the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, Department of Defense Appropriations Act and the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations, in which billions of dollars in taxpayer funds are appropriated to Israel, according to the lobbying disclosure forms. In all, Israel receives at least $3 billion in U.S. aid per year, the most of any country in the world, but Israel has been asking for the U.S. to increase that amount by half, to $4.5 billion a year, according to The Times of Israel.
For the past few years, AIPAC has spent about $2 million annually on lobbying efforts, however, the group's spending for 2015 is on track to exceed that figure, the Post said.
The group is now funneling resources to support the newly established tax-exempt Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran group, which is expected to spend some $20 million on advertising and campaigns in 40 states in an attempt to educate the public "about the dangers of the proposed Iran deal," spokesman Patrick Dorton told The New York Times. "This will be a sizable and significant national campaign on the flaws in the Iran deal," he said.
