Smiles, Checks, and War Crimes: The Cost of AIPAC's Grip on the Senate
July 13, 2025
U.S. Senators pose for a photo with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington D.C. on 7/9/25.
A Smiling Photo, A Deafening Silence
On Wednesday, fourteen U.S. Senators stood shoulder to shoulder with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They grinned for the cameras, shared pleasantries, and made clear where their allegiance lies. This wasn’t a neutral diplomatic gathering. This was a photo-op with a man wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.
These are the names of the senators who showed up for the photo:
Ted Cruz. Adam Schiff. Jacky Rosen. Steve Daines. Amy Klobuchar. Bill Cassidy. John Thune. Jim Risch. Chuck Schumer. Maria Cantwell. Chris Coons. Cory Booker. Dave McCormick. Jon Husted.
Each one has accepted money from AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobby that has spent millions to ensure that the U.S. remains complicit in Israel’s war on Palestinians.
The American Dead They Choose to Ignore
As these senators posed for photos, at least seven Americans have been killed by Israeli forces since October. These include teenagers, humanitarian workers, and U.S. citizens who traveled to Palestine to visit family or deliver aid. Their deaths have gone largely unmentioned by the very politicians who lined up to support Netanyahu.
One of those Americans was Sayfollah “Saif” Musallet, a 20-year-old from Florida. He was beaten to death by Israeli settlers while visiting relatives in the West Bank. His murder barely registered in the headlines, and didn’t register at all with the senators who smiled alongside the man overseeing these crimes.
When Zeteo reporters asked Republican senators how many Americans had been killed by Israeli forces, Senator Chuck Grassley said he hadn't read about it. Senator Markwayne Mullin said he hadn’t given it much thought. Senator Susan Collins offered only, “I am pro-Israel.”
Missiles on Children, Funded by U.S. Taxpayers
Just hours after those senators posed with Netanyahu, an Israeli missile struck a group of Palestinian children waiting in line for drinking water in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. At least six children were killed, and seventeen more were wounded, many critically.
Days earlier, airstrikes killed more than a dozen children as they waited for nutrition supplements outside a clinic. In another raid, ten children were slaughtered near Deir al-Balah. These were not combatants. They were starving, displaced, and desperate children simply trying to survive.
One grieving father, holding the body of his child, cried out, “Why did you go to get water… why? I wish you hadn’t gone, we could’ve stayed thirsty together.”
Hospitals Full, Morgues Overflowing
The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is hard to fathom. Hospitals are overwhelmed. Medical supplies are nonexistent. Morgues are overflowing with the bodies of children.
The attacks are not random. They are systematic. They are targeted. And they are being carried out with American bombs, American weapons, and American political cover.
While Gaza’s children are being incinerated, U.S. politicians are cashing AIPAC’s checks and grinning for photos with a war criminal. This is not diplomacy. This is complicity in genocide.
This Is Beyond Corruption. It’s Criminal.
The political establishment’s silence is not ignorance. It is a deliberate refusal to acknowledge the horror that U.S. tax dollars have enabled. From Republicans to Democrats, these senators have chosen their side — and it is not with the victims of apartheid, occupation, or genocide.
AIPAC’s money keeps flowing. And so does the blood.
This is beyond corruption. It is criminal complicity. And it must end.
Why Track AIPAC Exists
Track AIPAC was created to do what no other national organization is willing to do: hold AIPAC and its bought politicians accountable.
We are building a movement to:
Expose every lawmaker who takes AIPAC money
Defeat candidates who support Israel’s genocide and apartheid
Elect leaders who reject lobbyist blood money
End the United States' role in funding and enabling war crimes
With your help, we will make accepting AIPAC money a political death sentence. We will name names. We will launch ads. We will organize. And we will win.
We Can Stop This — Together
The genocide in Gaza will not end because politicians suddenly grow a conscience. It will end when we the people force their hands. When we show them that no amount of lobbyist cash can protect them from moral accountability.
Palestine will be free. But only if we act now.
Join us. Organize. Donate. Share. Hold the powerful accountable.
We are the people. And we have the watch.
