Our Worst Ally A documented record of a close ally's conduct against American interests.

Category 03 of 05

Political & Financial Influence

Influence over U.S. policy through campaign spending, lobbying, and donor money, and the disclosure rules that go unenforced against it.

  1. The Foreign Agents Registration Act Double Standard 1938–2026 In 1962 the Kennedy Justice Department formally ordered AIPAC's predecessor to register as a foreign agent. The organization reorganized instead, and no administration has enforced it since, while comparable groups like NORAID were compelled to register. →
  2. Total U.S. Aid to Israel 1946–2024 Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of American foreign assistance since the Second World War, more than $300 billion adjusted for inflation, delivered on terms extended to no other country and documented entirely in the U.S. government's own records. →
  3. AIPAC and Congressional Influence 1963–2026 After sixty years as an issues lobby that never spent on campaigns, AIPAC started in 2022. Its effort to unseat Rep. Thomas Massie in 2026 produced the most expensive House primary in American history. →
  4. The Security Council Veto Record 1972–2026 The United States has cast around ninety vetoes at the U.N. Security Council since 1945. Slightly over half of them were cast on draft resolutions concerning one country. In 2011 an American ambassador vetoed a resolution while telling the chamber she agreed with what it said. →
  5. The Arms Export Control Act 1981–2026 American law restricts U.S.-supplied weapons to legitimate self-defense and requires the president to tell Congress when a recipient violates that. Administrations have made or come close to that finding against Israel in 1981, 1982 and 2007. Each time, the consequence was suspended and then reversed. →
  6. The Loan Guarantee Confrontation 1991–1992 The Bush administration tried to condition $10 billion in loan guarantees on a settlement freeze, the most serious modern American attempt to use financial leverage on Israel. A GAO report documented exactly why the conditions failed to hold. →
  7. The Leahy Law 1997–2026 American law bars military aid to foreign units credibly implicated in torture or extrajudicial killing, and it is enforced against allies routinely. In 2020 the State Department built a separate vetting process for Israel alone. In more than four years it has never found a single unit ineligible. →
  8. Sheldon and Miriam Adelson 2010–2025 The largest U.S. political donors of their era organized their giving around a single stated priority: Israel. A sitting president later credited them, from the floor of the Knesset, with shaping American policy. →
  9. Tax-Exempt U.S. Funding of West Bank Settlements 2010–2026 American charities have channeled hundreds of millions of tax-deductible dollars into West Bank settlements, including money for guard dogs, rifle scopes and bulletproof vests, while every administration for decades has formally opposed settlement expansion. The New York Times documented it in 2010 and nothing changed. →