On August 8th, Axios congressional reporter Andrew Solender posted a picture on X of 14 House Democrats participating in a trip to Israel led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
The photo included Torrance native Gil Cisneros, who represents District 31, covering most of the San Gabriel Valley (SGV). Additionally, Pete Aguilar, born in Fontana and representing District 31 in San Bernardino, was featured, along with Luz Rivas from Los Angeles, now representing District 38—San Fernando Valley (SFV).
According to the online AIPAC Tracker, a grassroots effort to expose the influence AIPAC and the Israeli lobby have on U.S. politicians by documenting their financial contributions, states that Gil Cisneros has received $93,038 from AIPAC, Pete Aguilar has received $913,199, and Luz Rivas has accepted $55,450.
AIPAC organized this delegation to “witness firsthand the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7th attacks, assess the threat to Israel’s northern border, meet with Israeli families, see Israel’s ongoing efforts to provide aid into Gaza, and engage with top government leaders.”
The trip was preceded by a GOP delegation to Israel led by House Majority Whip Tom Emmer. In addition, their Israeli vacation began just one day after Israel announced the approval of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to militarily occupy Gaza City, which human rights experts say would cause thousands more to be displaced.
House Democrats' AIPAC trip coincided with that of social media influencers invited by Israel’s government to tour the Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF) “aid” site in Gaza to post on social media. This is at a time when the United Nations (UN) has declared stage five famine.
Influencers shared a standard message, blaming Hamas for Palestinians not receiving the aid, and telling people to stop blaming Israel. All their videos were recorded at the same location, a lot with pallets of food, but their videos do not show the aid being delivered into the enclave.
“If I were Israel, I wouldn’t provide matching socks to Gaza,” said Xaviaer Durousseau, a social media influencer.
Durousseau is also a PragerU host, activist, commentator, and podcaster, known for his transformation from a Black Progressive to a Gen Z Conservative Republican. Durousseau dedicated a section of his Instagram feed to posting pictures on top of an Israeli military tank and next to a statue of Theodore Herzl, who emerged as the leader of the Zionist movement.
On August 9th, AIPAC posted a video on social media showing Pete Aguilar in front of what appears to be “aid” trucks, stating that “These trucks and containers behind us right now are going to both the West Bank and to Gaza.”
The video does not pan to the left or right of Pete Aguilar, nor does it show the trucks entering the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. We are supposed to accept what the AIPAC lobby and their paid politicians tell us without any evidence that the aid is being delivered to those in need.
Aguilar fails to mention what Amnesty International reported on August 18th, that “new testimonies provide compelling evidence that Israel’s starvation of Palestinians in Gaza is deliberate policy.”
And what Human Rights Watch reported on August 20th: “Despite Efforts to Shift the Blame, Israeli Policies Are Starving Children.”
The United Nations stated on August 19th: “Gaza: Aid insufficient to avert ‘widespread starvation’ as Israeli military ramp-up forces more people to flee.”
Despite increasing evidence from internationally recognized human rights organizations reporting on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, House Democrats like Gil Cisneros, Pete Aguilar, and Luz Rivas ignore the facts and share Israeli-friendly social media videos to downplay the severity of the situation.
In addition, AIPAC posted a video of Gil Cisneros wearing a fedora, touring Kibbutz Be’eri, an area that was attacked on October 7th, 2023.
“I went with a group of Democratic members to get answers on questions regarding the status of the war and humanitarian aid, and the hostage situation. We met with members of both the majority and the opposition side, as well as the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority. We also met with the United States ambassador to Israel to ask him some tough questions as well. For me, the trip was about getting direct answers from those involved rather than just reading it in the newspaper,” said Cisneros to an email inquiry by L.A. TACO. This was his second visit to Israel.
While there, Cisneros met with the United Nations’ World Food Programme and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) to discuss the status of food distribution.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is led by a political operative who is pro-Trump and works closely with the military responsible for implementing genocide and starvation policies in Gaza. On June 12, Drop Site reported that approximately 250 Palestinians had been killed in less than three weeks. Many were “shot or shelled by Israeli troops” while attempting to secure food distributed by GHF.
The Israeli military shot at Palestinians in Gaza who were desperately trying to access food distributed and supplied by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. These areas have been called a “food death trap” because Palestinians reported that family members wouldn’t return after going out to get food.
Gil Cisneros, who won $266 million in a Mega Millions lottery ticket in 2010, is not only a politician who receives lobbying money from AIPAC, but the Zionist liberal PAC, J Street, also endorses him. Cisneros is on the record advocating for a two-state solution.
J-Street’s website states, “J Street continues to reject the allegation of genocide in this case, and we note that the ICJ’s interim rulings do not constitute a final judgement on South Africa’s claim.”
J-Street and AIPAC are two American lobby groups that encourage U.S. politicians to support Israel’s occupation of Palestine and provide political cover for their war crimes.
These two groups might have different opinions about Benjamin Netanyahu's government. Still, they fully support the Zionist project, and “winning the war,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami in an interview with Mehdi Hasan, and that “the Iron Dome is one of the most important pro-peace systems that exists.”
Elliot Brandt, the executive director of AIPAC, was promoted to the position in 2024, making him one of the most influential lobbyists in Washington, D.C. Brandt is not widely known among the U.S. public, but he has spent three decades cultivating connections on Capitol Hill and is a key figure in Israeli-American politics.
Republicans and Democrats both support core U.S. imperialist interests worldwide. They all aim to sustain policies that have resulted in countless scores of innocent Palestinian lives being lost in an inhumane and unjust manner.
These efforts to normalize Israel's treatment of Palestinians are just the beginning. Trump threatens to invade Venezuela, bomb Mexico, and start wars with China and Iran, while these local politicians go on social media to tell us that Palestinians are not starving.
It is not just in presidential elections that wealthy people use their wealth to influence politics and buy votes. It is also in local elections where lobbies like AIPAC and J Street use their money to fund candidates who best suit their interests to maintain their hold on society and normalize genocide against an indigenous population.
