{"id":656677,"date":"2026-08-23T23:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T23:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=656677"},"modified":"2026-08-23T23:15:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T23:15:00","slug":"wary-of-backlash-pro-israel-gop-senate-hopeful-asks-aipac-not-to-spend-on-his-behalf-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=656677","title":{"rendered":"Wary Of Backlash, Pro-Israel GOP Senate Hopeful Asks AIPAC Not To Spend On His Behalf"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden\">Wary Of Backlash, Pro-Israel GOP Senate Hopeful Asks AIPAC Not To Spend On His Behalf<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p>With Israel&#8217;s standing in the United States\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/sea-change-very-unfavorable-views-israel-triple-among-us-adults\">crumbling<\/a>, America&#8217;s leading pro-Israel organization has become a focal point of anger among those who think the US government is putting Israel&#8217;s interests ahead of America&#8217;s. Political candidates have started seizing on this, attacking opponents who are backed by that group &#8212; AIPAC. So for, that&#8217;s largely been a phenomenon in the Democratic primaries, but now &#8212; <strong>in a jarring indication of AIPAC&#8217;s ballot-box toxicity &#8212; staunchly pro-Israel GOP Senate hopeful Mike Rogers has asked AIPAC not to spend money on his general election campaign.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rogers, a former US representative who chaired the House intelligence committee from 2011 to 2015, has been a stalwart backer of US aid to Israel, and was <strong>one of 12 federal legislators <a href=\"https:\/\/mikerogers.house.gov\/news\/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=472\">honored<\/a> in 2015 by the US-Israel Security Alliance<\/strong> for his work to arm the Israel Defense Forces.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Having won the Republican primary, Rogers faces Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed in the general election. El-Sayed is an outspoken critic of Israel and US support for Israel, which is why <strong>AIPAC blew through $30 million in a failed attempt to secure the Democratic nomination for the Israel-catering Haley Stevens<\/strong>. In that campaign, El-Sayed deftly portrayed Stevens as beholden to Israel. Stevens had given him all the ammo he needed; indeed, the El-Sayed campaign created a website that did nothing but show this cringy Stevens performance on a continuous loop:\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\" xml:lang=\"en\">Rep. Haley Stevens: &#8220;In the United States Congress, I will continue to fight for the people of Israel!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Israel comes to me in my dreams!&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/flVVYp3EWP\">pic.twitter.com\/flVVYp3EWP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 AIPAC Tracker (@TrackAIPAC) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TrackAIPAC\/status\/2064399479202267214?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 9, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When his primary victory was nearly in hand, El-Sayed taunted AIPAC, saying, <strong>&#8220;AIPAC, if you&#8217;re listening, come back and burn it again&#8221;<\/strong>\u00a0in the general election. AIPAC was poised to start running an already-produced commercial for the November race when Rogers talked to AIPAC chair Michael Tuchin in Los Angeles last week, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/08\/22\/mike-rogers-aipac-michigan-senate?utm_campaign=mrf-utm_campaign=editorial&amp;utm_source=x&amp;utm_medium=owned_social&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;mrfcid=202608226a7e92c12ba6b334aa4b7197\"><em>Axios<\/em><\/a> reports. The next day, the commercial was put on ice.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>The extraordinary move by the Rogers campaign is a humiliation for AIPAC,<\/strong> which has long been nearly omnipotent in securing lopsided congressional votes on pro-Israel bills, and in installing pro-Israel legislators while ousting those who dare to offer even mild criticism of Israel. While AIPAC has hit &#8220;pause&#8221; on its effort in the Michigan Senate campaign, angry AIPAC officials want back in.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a data-image-external-href=\"\" data-image-href=\"\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/mike-rogers-abdul-el-sayed-split.jpeg?itok=Hjx-iTTj\" data-link-option=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/mike-rogers-abdul-el-sayed-split.jpeg?itok=Hjx-iTTj\"><\/a><\/p>\n<figure role=\"group\" class=\"caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"86b57405-f75b-47b5-a79f-36ee3f9840fb\" data-responsive-image-style=\"inline_images\" height=\"323\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/mike-rogers-abdul-el-sayed-split.jpeg?itok=Hjx-iTTj\" width=\"500\" \/><figcaption><strong>The Rogers camp is wary of El-Sayed using AIPAC support of Rogers as a powerful cudgel in the Michigan Senate race<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rogers&#8217; allies are urging AIPAC to use indirect ways to influence the race, so that AIPAC&#8217;s backing isn&#8217;t used against Rogers. <\/strong>One technique under discussion is telling AIPAC donors to give their money to a pro-Rogers super PAC rather than AIPAC, <em>Axios<\/em> reported. The Rogers team has also floated the idea of directly hiring AIPAC&#8217;s political strategists. However, <strong>not wanting to own up to the fact that it has become political poison, AIPAC wants a visible role in the race,<\/strong> with hopes of notching a big win that reinforces the group&#8217;s power as other politicians stake out their positions on Israel.\u00a0Things have gotten so icy between the Rogers camp and AIPAC that <strong>other GOP players are attempting to intermediate<\/strong>, including Jewish Republican donors.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to a recent Fox News poll, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/fox-news-poll-senate-battle-looms-michigan\">55%<\/a> of the Michigan electorate want US aid to Israel to stop altogether. The state has one of the larger Arab American populations, and from election to election, it&#8217;s demonstrated mobility across the Red-Blue divide. Outraged over the Biden administration&#8217;s blank-check support for Israel&#8217;s devastation of Gaza, <strong>the most heavily-Arab precincts in east Dearborn went for the self-described &#8220;peace candidate&#8221; Donald Trump in 2024, <\/strong>with<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/8\/3\/from-donald-trump-to-abdul-el-sayed-us-arabs-centre-palestine-in-politics\">45% voting for Trump<\/a>, 29% for the Green Party&#8217;s Jill Stein, and only 16% for Biden&#8217;s VP Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>      <span class=\"field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden\"><a title=\"View user profile.\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/users\/tyler-durden\" lang=\"\" class=\"username\" xml:lang=\"\">Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden\">Sun, 08\/23\/2026 &#8211; 19:15<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/mike-rogers-abdul-el-sayed-split.jpeg?itok=Hjx-iTTj\" title=\"Wary Of Backlash, Pro-Israel GOP Senate Hopeful Asks AIPAC Not To Spend On His Behalf\" \/><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wary Of Backlash, Pro-Israel GOP Senate Hopeful Asks AIPAC Not To Spend On His Behalf With Israel&#8217;s standing in the United States\u00a0crumbling, America&#8217;s leading pro-Israel organization has become a focal point of anger among those who think the US government is putting Israel&#8217;s interests ahead of America&#8217;s. Political candidates have started seizing on this, attacking&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=656677\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Wary Of Backlash, Pro-Israel GOP Senate Hopeful Asks AIPAC Not To Spend On His Behalf<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":656670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-656677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-empowerment","category-national-security","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=656677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/656670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=656677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=656677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=656677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}