By Morton A. Klein

(Aug. 18, 2026 / JNS) It was painful to see that in response to Thomas L. Friedman’s article in The New York Times criticizing AIPAC, the Jewish lobby group showed support for left-wing positions when, instead, strength and pride were needed.

In a response to a post on X, AIPAC supported creating a Palestinian state, even though, especially after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, it is widely understood that such a state would inevitably become a Hamas-Fatah-Hezbollah terror garrison that endangers Israel’s existence, and launches nonstop terror and rocket attacks on all of Israel.

AIPAC disregarded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strong opposition to a Palestinian state. And it disregarded that the Israeli Jewish public opposes a Palestinian state, 10-1 (79% to 8%).

It also disregarded the fact that Israel’s Knesset overwhelmingly voted to oppose a Palestinian state. The Knesset declared that such an entity “would pose an existential danger to the State of Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and destabilize the region,” and be quickly taken over by Hamas and reward terror. (Only the nine Arab members of the Knesset voted against the declaration.)

AIPAC also disregarded, at a meeting last year of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, that Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar urged U.S. organizations to publicly oppose the creation of a Palestinian state as an existential danger.

Notably, in the same post, AIPAC stated that it “respect[s] Israel’s democracy and the rights of its citizens to choose their leaders.”

How can it state this when it disregards and opposes the most basic determination by Israel’s people and government that a Palestinian state endangers Israel’s very existence?

As a member of AIPAC’s executive committee, when I have asked AIPAC to oppose dangerous moves, such as Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005, its leaders repeatedly replied that it “supports the position of the democratically elected government of Israel.”

AIPAC often stated that (prior) Israeli government support for the Oslo Accords and Gaza withdrawal, both of which ended up as disasters, is why it lent its support to those policies. In response to my opposition and that of the Zionist Organization of America to these harmful moves, AIPAC urged support for the Israeli government’s policies. “Don’t make your own Shabbos!” one AIPAC chairman screamed at me.

Unfortunately, when the position of Israel’s democratically elected government is not on the left, AIPAC hasn’t lent its help. For instance, it has regularly pushed to insert support for a Palestinian state into otherwise pro-Israel legislation.

Further, in its post on X, AIPAC again failed, as it has for decades, to support the right of over 600,000 Jews to live in the Jewish people’s lawful historic homelands of Judea and Samaria. Instead, AIPAC stated: “We’ve long said [that Israeli settlements] must be addressed in direct talks for a two-state agreement.”

AIPAC has also told members of U.S. Congress that it takes “no position” about Jewish rights in Judea and Samaria. Of course, “no position” makes it clear to legislators and others that the group is uncomfortable with asserting the rights of the Jewish people to live and build there.

AIPAC also asserted in its post on X that “one can love Israel and oppose its leader.” This statement legitimized attacks on Netanyahu, which are used as a coded method of attacking all of Israel. In an era when Israel’s prime minister is regularly vilified, AIPAC sent a wrong and dangerous message.

Too often, it has taken additional problematic positions.

For instance, it needlessly watered down the Taylor Force Act to obtain a few unneeded Democratic votes, thereby enabling continuing some U.S. funding to the Palestinian Authority while the P.A. continues its policy of paying terrorists to murder Jews and Christians.

AIPAC also supported the disastrous decision in 2015 to allow the Iran nuclear deal to be approved by a minority of Congress members (instead of following the constitutional requirement of requiring two-thirds of the Senate to ratify the agreement) and continued to support those in Congress who supported the ensuing disastrous agreement, which, in effect, has led to the current conflict with Iran.

AIPAC has now made its left-leaning opposition to the Israeli people and government’s positions clear: In its post on X (and on its website), AIPAC declared that it “take[s] no direction … from the Israeli government.”

That’s a marked change from its tagline of “the pro-Israel lobby.” This should not be the response to the far-left antisemitic mob or to The New York Times. AIPAC needs to be an unashamed, courageous, strong pro-Israel voice in the halls of Congress and elsewhere.

On a more positive note, AIPAC has strongly contributed to defeating many congressional candidates hostile to Israel and continues to bring legislators to Israel. Also, its post included a paragraph calling for Palestinians and Arab partners to disarm Hamas in Gaza, and Palestinian terrorist groups in Judea and Samaria (which AIPAC alas misnamed the “West Bank”); reform the corrupt P.A.; end the glorification of violence and terrorism; and build a functioning society that isn’t dependent on U.N.-associated agencies.

If AIPAC’s policy statements were limited to these important demands, then its X post would have been fine.

Supporting left-wing policies and proclaiming that it doesn’t take into account what Israel wants will not deter Israel-bashers from attacking AIPAC. And so, the group will continue to be attacked because of the left’s hatred of the Jewish people and the Jewish state. It will be attacked simply because it is a Jewish group that supports the Jewish people’s right to defend itself and to live in the one Jewish state on the planet.

As British statesman Winston Churchill said: “Those who appease the crocodile will simply be eaten last.”

Morton A. Klein is the national president of the Zionist Organization of America.

This op-ed was originally published by JNS and can be viewed here.