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Lies About AIPAC Could Have Killed Countless TX Lawmakers in a Terror Attack, So Let's Set the Record Straight

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“These people have to be exterminated.”

Leftists and those on the so-called Woke Right would swear words like that must have come from the IDF, Mike Huckabee, or Bibi Netanyahu, and that they prove a Zionist plot to genocide Palestinians.

But nope. That comment was relayed by a friend of a now-arrested terror suspect in Texas named Benny Caldera Jr.

Caldera allegedly planned to target the Texas state capitol last week for a mass casualty event.

SWAT officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety arrested him early Wednesday morning after Caldera’s friend reported to police that Caldera had made verbal threats to assault the Texas State Capitol building.

According to the arrest documents, Caldera told his pal, “I love you, if you don’t see me again … I am going to the Capitol, and I am going to shoot it up.”

How concerned are you about the rise of anti-Semitism linked to political rhetoric?

And why did Caldera plan to slaughter Texas lawmakers, the majority of whom happen to be Republicans?

Well, he was furious at AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, saying “These people have to be exterminated.”

In case you don’t know, AIPAC is an American lobbying organization that works to promote the close military, economic, and cultural alliance between the United States and Israel.

But to the anti-Israel crowd, AIPAC is the equivalent of what the Rothschild conspiracies are to anti-Semites. (And by the way, it’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between the anti-Israel crowd and the anti-Semitic crowd.)

In reality, however, AIPAC is a boogeyman that pulls double duty.

On the one hand, anti-Israel activists hate and fear it. On the other, they use it as a scapegoat, blaming it for many of America’s problems. For these people, it’s simultaneously a real boogeyman that frightens them, and a made-up (and very convenient) boogeyman designed to frighten others.

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Everyone from Ilhan Omar and the Squad to Tucker Carlson and the so-called Woke Right points to AIPAC or its ilk as manipulating American politicians and public opinion by pouring Israeli (read: Jewish) money into America and buying off every power broker they can find. But is that true?

Not remotely, and the problems with the claim are legion. First off, AIPAC doesn’t take Israeli government money, and it’s not a registered foreign agent. What it spends is money raised in America, and even if that weren’t the case, take a look at scale.

In 2024, federal lobbying hit a whopping record of $4.4 billion. What do you think AIPAC’s contribution and percentage of that was? It was a paltry $3.3 million. That’s not 5 percent, not 1 percent; it doesn’t even reach 0.5 percent. It’s 0.08 percent.

How does that compare to other lobbying orgs? The National Association of Realtors in 2024 spent $86 million lobbying. Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturing of America: $32 million. The American Hospital Association: $29 million. Meta/Facebook: $24 million.

What about other governments, you might ask? In the same year, Japan spent $64 million. That’s 19x what AIPAC spends. Liberia spent $54 million, and Saudi Arabia shelled out $ 61 million. Israel shelled out a whopping $6.9 million.

Critics will say, “Sure, but look at what AIPAC contributes to American political candidates. They buy them off.”

OK, let’s talk about that. In 2024, AIPAC spent $17 million in support of GOP candidates. That sounds like a lot, but it’s not nearly as much as the $25 million AIPAC spent on DEMOCRATIC candidates. That’s 1.5x more spent on Democrats, the party of AIPAC-haters, than on Republicans.

When people like our terror suspect in Texas let AIPAC motivate deranged actions, they confirm that the lies about Israel, Jews, and AIPAC have formed a boogeyman that exists only in their minds … until Jewish Americans’ blood spills into the streets, at which point it becomes all too real.

When the media and politicians push lies to advance agendas, there are more consequences than just changes at the ballot box. There are changes in people’s psychology, in their behavior. Some of those people will seriously consider picking up rifles, loading up U-Hauls with explosives, or flooring accelerators and plowing SUVs into helpless crowds … all the while believing they are fighting for good and against evil.

Truth matters, and lies kill.

The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.

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Josh Manning is Editor at Large at The Western Journal. He holds a masters in public policy from Harvard University and has a background in higher education. He recently co-authored Out of the Shadows: My Life Inside the Wild World of Hunter Biden, the tell-all memoir of Lunden Roberts's tumultuous relationship with Hunter Biden and Stolen Valor: The Military Fraud and Government Failures of Tim Walz.
Josh Manning grew up in the South and developed a love of history, politics, and government studies thanks to a life-changing history and civics teacher named Mr. McBride.

He holds an MPP from Harvard University and a BA from Lyon College, a small but distinguished liberal arts college where later in his career he served as an interim vice president.

While in school he did everything possible to confront, discomfit, and drive ivy league liberals to their knees.

After a number of years working in academe, he moved to digital journalism and opinion. Since that point, he has held various leadership positions at The Western Journal.

He's married to a gorgeous blonde who played in the 1998 NCAA women's basketball championship game, and he has two teens who hate doing dishes more than poison. He makes life possible for two boxers -- "Hank" Rearden Manning and "Tucker" Carlson Manning -- and a pitbull named Nikki Haley "Gracie" Manning.

He recently co-authored Out of the Shadows: My Life Inside the Wild World of Hunter Biden, the tell-all memoir of Lunden Roberts's tumultuous relationship with Hunter Biden and Stolen Valor: The Military Fraud and Government Failures of Tim Walz.
Education
MPP from Harvard University, BA from Lyon College
Languages Spoken
English, tiny fragments of college French
Topics of Expertise
Writing, politics, Christianity, social media curation, higher education, firearms




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