AIPAC-Backed Lawmakers Are Pushing AI Funding for Israel

Congressional Republicans have delivered on the pro-Israel organization AIPAC’s wish list in the latest military spending bill, including tens of millions of dollars a year for the Israeli military to develop AI technologies.

By Katya Schwenk and Luke Goldstein, Jacobin

A wish list of legislative items prioritized by the pro-Israel lobbying powerhouse American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) earlier this year has been nearly entirely fulfilled by the new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), including tens of millions of dollars a year for the Israeli military to develop artificial intelligence technologies.

Congressional Republicans have, as usual, turned the must-pass annual defense policy legislation into a defense industry bonanza. The latest version of the NDAA that advanced in the House last week authorizes $848 billion in spending for the US military, much of which will be funneled (with additional revenue from Donald Trump’s megabill) straight to private defense contractors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Thousands of Jews Shut Down AIPAC HQ Protesting Group’s Opposition to Ceasefire, 18 Arrested Staging Sit-In at Offices of AIPAC-Supported Senators Schumer and Gillibrand. Image: JVP

Israel, unsurprisingly, is another major winner, thanks in part to the lobbying forces of AIPAC in Washington, DC. The group spent more than $100 million on the 2024 federal elections, setting a campaign spending record. Nearly two-thirds of Congress have accepted AIPAC money, ensuring a united bipartisan front in support of Israel even as the country wages what many experts have definitively concluded is a genocide in Gaza.

Now AIPAC-funded lawmakers appear to be eagerly rubber-stamping the organization’s defense requests, which will funnel more money to the Israel Defense Forces — which has received more than $18 billion in US financial support since October 7.

Lawmakers, with AIPAC’s backing, introduced legislation, the “United States-Israel Defense Partnership Act of 2025,” in February to authorize hundreds of millions more in spending on various partnerships between the Israeli and US militaries. The organization spent the spring drumming up support for the bill among lawmakers.