"Monsters Fear To End Genocide": Mamdani Goes After AIPAC

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) "monsters", stating that the lobby of floods elections with dark money to crush dissent and prolong the genocide.

The event, "Get Out the Vote" rally held at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, drew a fired-up crowd ahead of New York's Democratic primaries, with Mamdani rallying support for progressive candidates including former NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, State Assembly member Claire Valdez and former Columbia University encampment organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier.

"The monsters that we are up against, they take many different forms," Mamdani told the crowd, "for whom the only thing more frightening than democracy being allowed to run its course is an end to genocide and Netanyahu's wars."

He accused the lobby of moving "millions in dark money to accomplish a single goal: to preserve their power so that they can turn us against one another instead of our leaders turning towards the moral change we all know to be necessary."

Sanders reinforced the statements from the same stage.

"The American people understand that a large part of our horrific foreign policy is impacted by AIPAC funding," he said.

He went further in separate remarks on X, stating that Netanyahu's AIPAC-funded barbaric war against the Palestinian people is “grossly immoral and in violation of international law”.

AIPAC Is Very “Persuasive”

Mamdani's remarks land amid the most sustained bipartisan pressure AIPAC has faced in decades.

AIPAC has been aggressively funding campaigns to unseat politicians who are critical of its influence.

Earlier this year, AIPAC and allied pro-Israel groups poured more than $9 million into defeating Republican Representative Thomas Massie in Kentucky's primary, making it the most expensive House primary in US history at $32 million total.

Massie responded by introducing a bill that would require AIPAC to register as a foreign agent.

He further stated that AIPAC was very persuasive in making politicians remarks alike:

Bipartisan Criticism of AIPAC

The criticism of AIPAC’s political influence is not limited to the left.

Former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said her defeat was directly linked to her refusal to align with the lobby.

"I'm no longer in Congress because I did not bow in obedience to AIPAC and to the Zionists that control - literally fully control - Washington DC," she said.

"I wouldn't take any of their money. I voted to defund American tax dollars going to Israel."

AIPAC also shaped the course of Iran War.
According to Zoteo’s report, the White House used list of alleged Iranian attacks almost verbatim according to a pro-Israel think tank list, to justify going to war with Iran.

That list was written by a former AIPAC staffer at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a group funded by pro-Israel billionaires who also bankroll campaigns against pro-peace candidates. The document reportedly became near-official US government policy within 8 months.

The pro-Israel lobby maintains significant financial ties across the political establishment, including to the president and vice president.