Pro-Israel Lobbyists Buying Support For Gaza Genocide Throughout Hudson Valley
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by Arvind Dilawar
Arvind Dilawar is an independent journalist. His articles, interviews and essays on everything from the spacesuits of the future to love in the time of visas have appeared in The New York Times, Time Magazine, The Daily Beast and elsewhere. He was also formerly a columnist at Pacific Standard.
Of the six congressional districts that include Hudson Valley counties, only one is on track for an election in which neither candidate has received funding from pro-Israel lobbyists. In Beacon’s District 18, two potential candidates have each received money from pro-Israel lobbyists: current Congressman Pat Ryan, and Republican hopeful Alison Esposito.
“Ryan expresses his opposition to even non-violent protest against the Israeli occupation of Palestine, as advocated by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Unsurprisingly, Ryan has yet to endorse a ceasefire in Gaza, which is supported by at least 69 other members of Congress, according to the Working Families Party at the time of this writing.”
In all of the other districts, candidates from one party or the other have received the endorsement — and financing — of the bipartisan American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Republican Jewish Coalition or Democratic Majority For Israel (DMFI). This avalanche of lobbying comes amid the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of at least 29,954 Palestinians, including 12,300 children and 8,400 women, according to Al Jazeera at the time of this writing.
Although AIPAC, RJC and DMFI target different segments of the political spectrum, their functions are essentially the same: to funnel funds to politicians who commit the United States to continue sending billions of dollars in military assistance to Israel and deploying both its military (e.g. warships in the Red Sea) and diplomacy (veto at the United Nations Security Council) to fend off challenges to Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territory in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
In New York's 18th congressional district, which includes Beacon, Democratic incumbent Pat Ryan and Republican forerunner Alison Esposito have both received endorsements from pro-Israel lobbyists. As the two are likely to advance to the general election, district voters will be left with no choice independent of pro-Israel lobbyists from either major political party come November.
Ryan is endorsed by both AIPAC and DMFI, and his campaign received at least $69,800 from the former for the current election cycle, per the Federal Election Commission. (According to FEC reports, DMFI has yet to financially contribute to Ryan’s campaign.) In his position paper on US-Israeli relations — which AIPAC requires of every candidate seeking endorsement — Ryan expresses his opposition to even non-violent protest against the Israeli occupation of Palestine, as advocated by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Unsurprisingly, Ryan has yet to endorse a ceasefire in Gaza, which is supported by at least 69 other members of Congress, according to the Working Families Party at the time of this writing.
Esposito is endorsed by RJC, which has contributed at least $42,601 to her campaign thus far, per the FEC. She is currently the forerunner in the district’s Republican primary and therefore most likely to face Ryan in the general election.
These are the other candidates in Hudson Valley districts who have received endorsements from AIPAC, RJC and/or DMFI this election cycle — and how much money they’ve received, per the FEC:
NY-16 (Westchester): Democratic challenger George Latimer is endorsed by AIPAC, which contributed at least $1,195,456.45 to his campaign.
NY-17 (Rockland, Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess): Republican incumbent Mike Lawler is endorsed by both AIPAC and RJC, which together contributed at least $7,375 to his re-election campaign.
NY-19 (Ulster, Green, Columbia): Republican incumbent Marc Molinaro is endorsed by both AIPAC and RJC, which together contributed at least $8,000 to his re-election campaign.
NY-21 (Rensselaer): Republican incumbent Elise Stefanik is endorsed by both AIPAC and RJC, which together contributed at least $269,649.48 to her re-election campaign.
Altogether, AIPAC, RJC and DMFI have given more than $1.5 million to candidates in the Hudson Valley for this election cycle — and that’s only counting contributions up to the end of 2023, as FEC reports for 2024 have yet to start rolling in.
With AIPAC demanding that the United States “give Israel the time, resources and support to win this war,” this widespread lobbying is being explicitly tied to the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza by the lobbyists themselves, who want to ensure that US funding, military support and diplomatic cover allow the violence to continue. But these efforts should force voters in the Hudson Valley to question whether, alongside the thousands of civilians being starved and slaughtered, if it isn’t the United States’ democracy that’s dying in Gaza too.
