AIPAC Isn’t the Problem. It’s Part of the Solution.

America’s 2026 midterm elections should be a wake-up call for Israel and American Jewry. Democrats have won control of both houses of Congress. Voices in both parties are questioning the U.S.-Israel relationship. President Donald Trump has announced plans to end American military aid to Israel, while Vice President JD Vance has suggested that the relationship contributed to the Republican electoral defeat.

For decades, AIPAC’s greatest strength was not simply its financial resources. It was the broad American conviction that Israel was an ally worth supporting. That conviction is now eroding.

Some commentators have responded by declaring AIPAC’s demise. They are drawing exactly the wrong conclusion. AIPAC isn’t the problem. It’s part of the solution.

AIPAC Helped Build the Consensus

AIPAC has spent decades bringing Democrats and Republicans together around a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. It mobilizes American citizens, builds relationships with elected officials, and makes the case for a partnership that serves both countries. That is legitimate democratic participation, not sinister manipulation of American politics.

AIPAC didn’t simply benefit from the bipartisan consensus. It helped build and sustain it.

As that consensus erodes, campaign spending loses some of its force. AIPAC’s unsuccessful effort to defeat Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary underscores the challenge. AIPAC should continue adapting its political tactics to changing conditions, without retreating from its mission. One difficult election does not invalidate decades of successful advocacy.

Abandoning organized advocacy would only reward those determined to make support for Israel politically dangerous.

A Conveniently Selective History

In a recent essay declaring “It’s so over for AIPAC,” political commentator Matthew Yglesias argues that the bipartisan consensus was undermined by Benjamin Netanyahu and pro-Israel organizations opposing Barack Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran.

That is a remarkably selective history. There were legitimate objections to the agreement: its expiration provisions, sanctions relief, and the risk of strengthening a regime that sponsors terrorism and threatens American allies. Chuck Schumer and other prominent Democrats opposed it. Disagreeing with a Democratic president on a consequential national-security issue did not make those Americans enemies of bipartisanship. Obama subsequently negotiated a ten-year, $38 billion military-assistance agreement with Israel.

Bipartisanship cannot mean that Israel’s supporters must remain silent whenever they disagree with an American president.

More importantly, Yglesias blames the deterioration of support largely on organizations defending Israel while giving almost no attention to the movement seeking to delegitimize it. For years, anti-Zionist activists have worked to recast Jewish national self-determination as racism and Israel’s very existence as an injustice. Their arguments have spread through universities, activist organizations, social media, and American politics.

None of this places Israeli policy beyond criticism. Israeli decisions inevitably influence American opinion, and not every policy will be popular. But disagreement with Israeli policy is fundamentally different from denying the Jewish people the right to national self-determination or vilifying Israel and the Jewish people.

Blaming the defenders of the alliance while largely ignoring those working to dismantle the consensus behind it is not a credible diagnosis.

Israel Cannot Become America’s Political Scapegoat

The danger is no longer confined to the Democratic Party. Following the Republican defeat, Vance cited four demands from disaffected Trump voters: end the Iran war, address inflation and the cost of living, put America first, and change America’s relationship with Israel.

While Yglesias acknowledges that Vance is “massively over-blaming Israel,” he then suggests that between 2.5 and 3.5 of Vance’s four explanations for the Republican defeat are essentially about Israel.

Really? Inflation is now an Israel problem? An American president’s decision to go to war is primarily Israel’s responsibility?

Americans can reasonably disagree about the wisdom of the Iran war. Iran’s nuclear ambitions and support for armed proxies present genuine security threats. But Trump made the decision to fight, and he bears responsibility for that decision, how he explained it to the American people, and its consequences. Israel’s security concerns should not become a convenient explanation for every failure of American political leadership.

When hostility to Israel’s legitimacy grows on the left and influential voices on the right begin blaming Israel for American problems, the bipartisan consensus is threatened from both directions. That should alarm Israelis and American Jews alike.

We Have Been Defending a Consensus Without Sustaining It

For decades, American Jews invested heavily—and successfully—in maintaining bipartisan support for Israel through political advocacy, relationships with elected officials, and campaign contributions. But we did not invest nearly enough in ensuring that future generations understood why the relationship mattered.

We have been defending a political consensus without doing enough to sustain the understanding on which it depended.

Too many Americans, including too many young American Jews, lack the historical grounding to understand Zionism, Jewish peoplehood, Israel’s security challenges, or the strategic importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Political advocacy can sustain a consensus. It cannot create the public understanding on which that consensus depends.

That responsibility extends beyond AIPAC to the broader American Jewish community, working in partnership with Israel.

The Path Forward

First, we must educate our own community. American Jews need to know our history, understand Zionism and Jewish peoplehood, and develop the confidence to explain why Israel matters. That requires greater investment in Jewish education, camps, Israel experiences, campus engagement, and adult learning. We cannot expect the next generation to defend a history it does not know.

Second, we must persuade the broader American public. Not with slogans or demands for unquestioning support of Israeli governments, but with a confident case for Jewish self-determination and for an alliance that advances American interests. Israel contributes to

 American security through intelligence, defense technology, cybersecurity, military innovation, and regional cooperation. A carefully negotiated transition from military grants toward deeper defense cooperation, joint technology development, and military purchases could further strengthen that partnership. Ending grants need not mean ending American commitment.

We must make this case to Americans who are neither Jewish nor already committed supporters of Israel.

Third, we must sustain and strengthen political engagement. AIPAC remains indispensable. We need to support officials who understand the alliance, rebuild relationships with Democrats committed to a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, and maintain relationships with Republicans who share that commitment. Support for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship must remain an American principle, rooted in shared values, common strategic interests, and mutual benefit—not a partisan loyalty test. And we must confront antisemitism consistently, whether it comes from the right or the left.

Defeating hostile candidates is not enough. We also need to change the political environment in which those candidates compete.

Fourth, Israel must continue to invest in its relationship with the American people. Israel must engage American Jews across religious and political differences, particularly younger generations, while remaining steadfast in protecting its security and national interests.

These efforts reinforce one another. AIPAC should continue doing what it does best. The broader American Jewish community must do more of what we have neglected, with Israel as an essential partner in rebuilding American understanding and support.

The Responsibility Belongs to All of Us

 The future of the U.S.-Israel relationship will not be secured by winning one more primary. It will depend on whether Americans understand why Israel matters, why Jewish self-determination is legitimate, and why the alliance benefits both nations.

AIPAC did not create the erosion of America’s pro-Israel consensus, and it cannot rebuild that consensus alone.

The answer to declining public support is not retreat. It is to rebuild that support—with resources, determination, and courage.

AIPAC isn’t the problem. It’s part of the solution. But the responsibility belongs to all of us.

David Zalik is a self-made entrepreneur, proud American Jew and unapologetic Zionist whose life has been shaped by the opportunities and freedoms of the United States. This piece was published in his Substack.