Pro-Israel donors raise hundreds of thousands in last-minute funds to unseat Ilhan Omar

A group of wealthy pro-Israel political donors in the US have spent the last few days raising hundreds of thousands of dollars, in an eleventh-hour campaign trying to unseat Congresswoman Ilhan Omar in her primary election this week.

The campaign follows a string of losses for "Squad" members Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman earlier this year, after the pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), spent tens of millions of dollars in campaign spending against the progressive lawmakers.

Until now, Omar had not faced an Aipac offensive in her primary election this year and has been able to raise triple the amount of funds that her opponent Don Samuels has. Omar has raised $1.6m, compared to Samuels' $535,000.

But after Bush lost her primary election last week, largely in part to a massive spending campaign by Aipac and its Super PAC, The Intercept obtained access to a WhatsApp group, titled, "Zionists for Don Samuels Against Ilhan Omar", where a screenshot was posted saying that nearly $100,000 was raised in 24 hours for the campaign against Omar.

One participant in the chat, entrepreneur Michael Sinensky, said he had worked with a Super PAC, called, Make a Difference MN, to raise over $120,000 for Samuels since 31 July, the Intercept reported, based on messages Sinensky sent to the group.

“I’ve heard dozens of questions of where is AIPAC,” Sinensky said in the WhatsApp group. “We are fucking AIPAC now.”

READ MORE: Pro-Israel donors raise hundreds of thousands in last-minute funds to unseat Ilhan Omar