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Sympathy for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation nearly tripled among the U.S. public over the decade leading up to the Israel–Hamas war.

But you won’t see that shift reflected in Washington, D.C., where fear of powerful lobby groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, has deterred tough questions about the billions in U.S. military aid now fueling Israel’s bombing campaign.

Barack Obama wrote after his presidency that “members of both parties worried about crossing AIPAC” because “those who criticized Israel too loudly risked being tagged as ‘anti-Israel’ (and possibly anti-Semitic) and confronted with a well-funded opponent in the next election.”

A real public debate on the U.S.’s Israel policy is needed now more than ever — and voters deserve to learn the truth about the powerful political operation preventing it. That’s why The Intercept is investigating AIPAC’s closed-door influence, like its recent efforts to recruit Democratic primary challengers to progressive members of the Congressional Black Caucus, along with its yearslong strategy to make criticism of Israel political suicide in Democratic primaries.

If The Intercept wasn’t here to challenge the establishment consensus, this critical reporting on the Israel lobby simply wouldn’t be done. With so few outlets willing to touch this subject, our nonprofit newsroom needs your donation today.

In October, President Joe Biden cast doubt on casualty figures put forward by the Gaza Ministry of Health, arguing that the agency’s link to Hamas discredited its public reports. Denying the reality on the ground, however, only emboldens the Israeli army to do even less to avoid civilian deaths.

Through our reporting on dozens of civilians killed in Gaza over the past several weeks, we were able to corroborate the ministry’s publicly released data. That kind of reporting can save lives, but few outlets in this climate are willing to do it.

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