On Wednesday, the committee will hear from two expert witnesses regarding support for Israel who previously worked at a pro-Israel think tank with ties to AIPAC.
by Peter Castagno, Sludge
In 1991, former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Lee Hamilton claimed “there’s no lobby group that matches” the pro-Israel lobby. More than 30 years later, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other pro-Israel groups remain an important influence on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The committee’s current members have collectively received over $3 million in campaign contributions from pro-Israel donors, according to a tally of OpenSecrets information, and it routinely invites expert witnesses with ties to pro-Israel think tanks to testify before it.
On Wednesday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing titled “Friend and Ally: U.S. Support for Israel after Hamas’ Barbaric Attack.” The two witnesses who will testify—Assistant Secretary of Near East Affairs Barbara Leaf and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East Dana Stroul—are both former fellows at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a pro-Israel think tank co-founded in 1985 by former AIPAC president Larry Weinberg, his wife Barbi Weinberg, and former AIPAC deputy director Martin Indyk.

Former AIPAC employee MJ Rosenberg has described WINEP as a cut-out of the lobbying organization that was funded by AIPAC donors and staffed by AIPAC employees. He said it was originally AIPAC official Steven Rosen, who the U.S. government accused of espionage for the Israeli government, “who cleverly came up with the idea for an AIPAC controlled think-tank that would disseminate the AIPAC line but in a way that would disguise its connections.”
Leaf and Stroul both began working as fellows with WINEP in 2018 and left the think tank in 2021 when they joined the Biden administration.
Recent Posts
We Can’t Assume That Trump Will Author His Own Undoing
March 14, 2025
Take Action Now There will surely be turf wars and palace intrigue within the administration, but there is little reason to think that its core…
The Arrest Of Mahmoud Khalil, A Zero Hour Conversation With Sonali Kolhatkar
March 13, 2025
Take Action Now Eskow and Kolhatkar argue that if this repression is not challenged, it will escalate, targeting more individuals and further eroding…
Five Years After COVID, The GOP Is The Anti-Vaccine Party
March 12, 2025
Take Action Now Despite the ongoing spread of COVID, measles and bird flu, Trump has handed power to anti-vaxxers and vaccine skeptics.By Sasha…
Mahmoud Khalil’s Wife Speaks Out On His Unconstitutional Arrest
March 12, 2025
Take Action Now The following is a press statement from Mahmoud Khalil’s wife. Khalil was unconstitutionally arrested by ICE agents over the…