Donations by Pro-Israel PACs Topped Only by Organized Labor

By Andrea W. Lorenz

As of March 31, donations totaling $2,020,983 by 59 pro-Israel political action committees made the Israel lobby second only to organized labor as the largest special interest group in the United States in terms of contributions to candidates for Congress in the 1992 election cycle. According to reports filed by the PACs with the Federal Election Commission during the first 15 months of the 1991-1992 cycle, 211 congressional recipients of pro-Israel PAC donations included 187 incumbents and 24 challengers.

Combined donations by the PACs of 12 national labor unions totaled $7,304,230, according to The Washington Post. Combined donations by the American Federation of Teachers ($556,150) and the National Education Association ($481,725) totaled $1,037,875, making the teachers the third largest special interest group.

In a Washington Post compilation of contributions by the 50 largest PACs of all categories, the only pro-Israel PAC listed was National PAC, headed by former American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Executive Director Morris Amitay. National PAC, which contributed $331,000, was also the only PAC whose purpose had to be explained by the Post. All other PACs in all other categories had self-defining names.

Evading the $10,000 Restriction

Deceptive names are a distinguishing characteristic of the majority of the 59 pro-Israel PACs currently active, concealing the role of the Israel lobby as the second-largest special interest group in the United States. Their targeted giving, all to virtually the same list of candidates, evades the $10,000 restriction on contributions by the PAC of any single special interest to any one candidate. It also makes the pro-Israel "stealth PACs" even more influential than PACs of more highly publicized special interests in Washington. For example, the American Bankers Association PAC has given only $685,971 in the 1992 cycle; the American Medical Association $677,969; the National Association of Realtors $660,373; and the National Rifle Association $527,442.

In stark contrast to the more than $2 million contributed to date by pro-Israel PACs is the total of $9,900 contributed to 17 candidates by the National Association of Arab Americans PAC. Since no other Arab American or American Muslim PACs are active in the 1991-92 cycle, pro-Israel PACs have outspent their Arab-American opposition 204 to 1.

PAC Profiles

In his 1992 Almanac of Federal PACs, Edward Zuckerman profiles several well established pro-Israel PACs. The Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs (JACPAC), for example, has 15,000 members, "organized through a nationwide series of coffee klatches," Zuckerman writes. The members include the wives of important Jewish political figures, such as AIPAC Executive Director Tom Dine and pro-Israel activist Stuart Eizenstat, a former domestic political policy adviser to President Carter.

National PAC was the only PAC whose purpose had to be explained.

A pro-Israel PAC in Chicago, CityPAC, which expects to give more than $100,000 to congressional candidates in the 1992 elections, is profiled in an article by Jeffrey Weintraub in the Jewish weekly, Forward. Most of CityPAC's 700 members are in their 20s and 30s, and the typical donation is $50. Attendance at CityPAC-sponsored events skyrocketed during the Gulf war and has solidified in reaction to the Bush administration's rejection of unconditional loan guarantees to Israel. If members have any criticisms about CityPAC, Weintraub writes, it is that its agenda is too narrow. Like most pro-Israel PACs, CityPAC supports candidates who have good records on Israel but may have "dreadful" records, as far as liberal American Jews are concerned, on other issues.

A good example is Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who received $86,600 from pro-Israel PACs (making him the second largest recipient after Rep. Mel Levine) during the first 15 months of the 1992 election cycle. However, he angered many liberal Jewish voters because he led the Republican onslaught against Anita Hill during Justice Clarence Thomas' confirmation hearings. He faces a tough fight against his Democratic opponent, Lynn Yeakel, who has received $5,000 from pro-Israel PACs.

In California, Representative Levine received $93,300 from pro-Israel PACs for his senatorial campaign. All the money poured into his campaign did not save him from defeat in the Democratic primary election by Rep. Barbara Boxer. Although she, too, is Jewish, but with a more liberal voting record, pro-Israel PACs gave her only $7,253.

The great majority of pro-Israel PACs, of which more than 116 have been incorporated since 1976, take their cues from AIPAC and favor incumbents whose votes follow the AIPAC line, regardless of the religion of the candidates. A few "multi-issue" pro-Israel PACs, however, donate only to Democratic candidates who also are "good on other Jewish issues." This means, for example, that the candidate must be pro-choice and against school prayer. It is the contributions of "multi-issue" PACs that result in occasional splits in the pro-Israel PAC donations, as in the cases of Specter and Yeakel or Levine and Boxer.

Despite the enormous amount of money that Jewish voters pour into pro-Israel PACs, Zuckerman says, "there is not universal agreement among Jewish Americans that the maintenance of PACs to dispense several million dollars to federal candidates who demonstrate support for Israel through their votes or campaign positions is either efficient or useful."

A New PAC, and Top Recipients

In its 1992 election cycle totals on the following pages, the Washington Report has added $6,043 in donations by the newly established Actionpac.

Andrea W. Lorenz is the features editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.