Brookline Rep.'s Top 2019-2024 Campaign Contributor Is AIPAC

Most antiwar residents of Brookline and Newton in the 21st-century have long opposed the U.S. government's policy of waging overt or covert wars for regime change in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya; and of continuing to provide U.S. military aid and support for a militaristic Israeli government that violates the democratic and human rights of the Palestinian people and illegally occupies Palestinian territory, in violation of international law and numerous UN Security Council resolutions.

And most antiwar residents of Brookline and Newton are opposed to the U.S. government continuing to provide U.S. military aid to an Israeli regime that wages a post-Oct. 7, 2023 war in Gaza which has already claimed the lives of over 32,000 Palestinian civilians and wounded over 73,000 Palestinian civilians--most of whom have been women and children.

Yet the 36-year-old former U.S. Marine who, since 2021, has been occupying the U.S. House of Representatives seat reserved for Massachusetts's 4th Congressional District, which includes Brookline and Newton--Democratic Representative Jake Auchincloss--expressed support for both the post-Oct. 7, 2023 Israeli Defense Forces [IDF] military action in Gaza and for the Democratic Biden-Blinken administration continuing to provide military aid to the Israeli war machine since Oct. 7, 2023.

On Oct. 7, 2023, for example, Rep. Auchincloss released a statement saying that "I fully support Israel's right to respond...through military force." And in an Oct. 11, 2023 interview with Arun Rath on GBH's All Things Considered show, Rep. Auchincloss said the following:

"I think it is underappreciated how important Joe Biden's leadership is to Israel right now and, in particular, how he has...offered support...both militarily and diplomatically, and how he also positioned this carrier strike group in the eastern Mediterranean.

"I don't want to divulge timelines...The...Israeli Defense Forces have what they need right now at the moment, in terms of...munitions. But Congress is going to have to...appropriate more support..."

Then, according to an Oc. 16, 2023 Politico article by Lisa Kashinsky, Rep. Auchincloss told Playbook that Israel's expected ground invasion of Gaza was "appropriate" and that "Israel can't de-escalate now;" and he also then claimed that the IDF "can execute an aggressive military operation while having due concern for civilians." In addition, Rep. Auchincloss revealed to Playbook that he "spoke with the [afterwards replaced] Harvard president" and "asked her to state clearly that Harvard has an `antisemitism' problem," allegedly.

And, according to an Oct. 22, 2023 Boston Globe article by Daniel Kool, Brookline and Newton's representative in the U.S. House of Representatives later visited the Temple Beth Shalom synagogue in Needham and said "calls for immediate" IDF "de-escalation" were "premature and counterproductive."

One reason Auchincloss may have opposed the calls of most Brookline and Newton antiwar residents in late October 2023 for an immediate IDF de-escalation, a permanent IDF ceasefire and an end to all U.S. military aid to the Israeli war machine is that, according to data that is posted on the Center for Responsive Politics's Open Secrets website, between 2019 and March 2024, the "top contributor" of money to fund Jake Auchincloss's campaign committee was the American Israel Public Affairs Committee [AIPAC] pro-Israeli government lobbying group.

Between 2019 and March 2024, individuals or political action committees [PACs] affiliated with AIPAC contributed $171,750 to Rep. Auchincloss's campaign committee; and, besides the individuals or PACs affiliated with AIPAC, individuals or PACs affiliated with other pro-Israeli government groups--like City PAC, Democratic Majority for IsPAC and Louisans for American Security PAC, etc.--contributed an additional $234,415 to Rep. Auchincloss's campaign committee between 2019 and March 2024.

So over $406,000 of the around $7.1 million in campaign contributions that Auchincloss's campaign committee raised between 2019 and March 2024 came from pro-Israeli government donors.

In addition, over $1.3 million of the over $7.1 million in campaign contributions that Brookline and Newton, Massachusetts's purported representative in the U.S. House of Representatives collected between 2019 and March 2024 came from donors who lived in states other than Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

And nearly $2 million in campaign contributions was collected by Rep. Auchincloss's campaign committee between 2019 and March 2024 from individuals or PACs affiliated with the securities or investment firms and real estate firms responsible for the gentrification of cities in Massachusetts and other states; which has helped create the affordable housing crisis that many working-class, middle-class and elderly tenants in U.S. towns like Brookline and Newton are experiencing in the current decade.