BY EDITORIAL BOARD
In a brazen act of betrayal that reeks of constitutional treason, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA-33), the Mexican-American lawmaker once hailed as a champion for Latino families, has pocketed a staggering $722,698 from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its pro-Israel lobby allies. This isn’t just campaign cash—it’s a foreign lifeline propping up a politician whose allegiance to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s regime has left his own community seething with rage. As the death toll in Gaza climbs well into the hundreds of thousands amid Israel’s relentless bombardment, Latino voters in California’s 33rd District are rising up, branding Aguilar a “genocide enabler” and demanding his immediate resignation.
“He’s sold his soul for shekels,” one furious constituent tweeted, capturing the raw fury echoing from Redlands to San Bernardino.
Aguilar’s financial entanglement with AIPAC dates back to his first run in 2011, but it has exploded in recent years, ballooning to over $867,000 from the Israel lobby alone as of early 2025. In the 2023-2024 cycle, he raked in $673,468, making him one of the top recipients among Democrats—surpassed only by a handful of unwavering Zionists like Hakeem Jeffries ($866,000) and Josh Gottheimer ($798,000). By mid-2025, AIPAC’s grip tightened further, with total contributions exceeding $1.1 million, funneled through bundled donations from wealthy donors laser-focused on ensuring U.S. taxpayer dollars keep flowing to Israel’s military machine.
This isn’t philanthropy; it’s a quid pro quo. In exchange for his votes on billions in unconditional aid—$26.4 billion just in April 2024—Aguilar has become AIPAC’s Inland Empire enforcer, silencing any congressional dissent on Gaza’s horrors.
The treasonous undertones are unmistakable. Article III of the U.S. Constitution defines treason as “adhering to [America’s] Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” By championing Netanyahu’s policies—settlement expansions, West Bank annexations, and a deliberate, widespread, and well-orchestrated famine — Aguilar isn’t just complicit; he’s an active participant in subverting American sovereignty. His August 2025 AIPAC-sponsored jaunt to Israel, leading a delegation of 15 House Democrats including fellow Californians Gil Cisneros and Luz Rivas, was the final straw.
While Gaza starved under a UN-declared “stage five famine,” Aguilar posed for selfies with Israeli officials, touring sites that gloss over the rubble of 2.5 million dead or displaced Palestinians.
“Pete Aguilar is an Israel First genocide enabler,” blasted AIPAC Tracker on X, a sentiment amplified by thousands of likes and reposts. This trip, bankrolled by AIPAC’s educational arm, wasn’t diplomacy—it was a loyalty oath, cementing Aguilar’s role as a puppet in a foreign influence operation that rivals historical scandals like Watergate in its audacity. Nowhere is the backlash fiercer than among Latino voters, whom Aguilar claims to represent as House Democratic Caucus Chair.
In a district where Mexican-American families grapple with skyrocketing housing costs and underfunded schools, his prioritization of Israeli interests feels like a knife in the back. L.A. TACO, a leading Latino media outlet, eviscerated Aguilar and his delegation for “ignoring the facts” on Gaza’s famine while posting “Israeli-friendly social media videos to downplay the severity.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) launched a scathing petition condemning the trip, urging constituents to “demand that [Aguilar] end their support for U.S. complicity in genocide.”
“These leaders have allowed atrocities to unfold slowly, often being paid by the Israeli lobby to provide political cover,” wrote Abraham Márquez in a viral exposé.
Aguilar sells out to the colonizers and conquistadors
For Latino voters—descendants of indigenous peoples who endured centuries of Spanish conquest, land theft, and cultural erasure—Aguilar’s AIPAC allegiance strikes a particularly venomous chord. In aligning with Israel’s settler-colonial project, which mirrors the very conquistador playbook of displacement and domination that scarred the Americas, Aguilar isn’t just betraying his district; he’s auctioning off the soul of his own heritage to modern-day colonizers. Palestinians, as indigenous stewards of their ancestral lands, face a grim echo of that history: bulldozed homes, stolen olive groves, and a siege that the UN has likened to ethnic cleansing. Yet here stands Aguilar, a son of Fontana’s working-class barrios, pocketing AIPAC checks to fund the bombs raining on Gaza’s civilians—indigenous families much like his own forebears, clinging to survival amid empire’s boot.
This hypocrisy has ignited a firestorm among Latino activists and voters, who see Aguilar’s actions as a grotesque inversion of solidarity. “Pete Aguilar is paid to support the genocide of indigenous Palestinians by Israel,” thundered AIPAC Tracker on X, a post that resonated deeply in Latino online spaces, racking up nearly 2,000 likes and shares from users decrying the erasure of native voices on both sides of the Atlantic. One self-identified Latino poster didn’t mince words: “Im latino & this MF can go suck himself off, clown ass plant PoS…”—a raw outburst capturing the visceral disgust at a supposed community leader greenlighting what many call a “new Nakba” for Palestine’s indigenous population. Another X user highlighted the double standard: “In every world without that money, Pete is banging on the racism / oppression / genocide drum on behalf of the Palestinians. you will bang on that drum for brown immigrants being round up by ICE, but not for brown ppl being bombed into oblivion?” This betrayal feels personal, a sellout to the ghosts of Cortés and Pizarro, repackaged in Tel Aviv’s war rooms.
Petitions and protests amplify the indigenous lens on Aguilar’s treason. CAIR’s call-out explicitly ties U.S. complicity in Gaza to broader anti-colonial struggles, urging Latino constituents to reject leaders who “provide political cover” for such atrocities—language that lands like a gut punch in communities still healing from America’s own history of Manifest Destiny. Progressive Latino networks, from Inland Empire mutual aid groups to national outfits like the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), have quietly but firmly distanced themselves, with whispers of primary challenges in 2026 growing louder. “Our indigenous roots demand we stand against all conquests, not fund them,” one anonymous organizer told local reporters, echoing sentiments in viral threads where Aguilar is branded a “traitor to the brown diaspora.” As Gaza’s famine deepens—now claiming indigenous children at rates unseen since the Trail of Tears—Aguilar’s silence on Palestinian indigeneity isn’t oversight; it’s complicity, a conquistador’s coin bought with Latino bloodlines.
Social media is ablaze with Latino outrage. “Pete Aguilar, from California, you are a traitor to humanity… how dare you fucking go there when they’re committing genocide!” fumed one X user, tagging his post with Aguilar’s smiling Israel photos. Another called him an “evil Mexican bastard,” a visceral rebuke from a community that sees his actions as a betrayal of shared immigrant struggles against oppression. Reddit threads in Inland Empire forums decry his “reprehensible” AIPAC ties amid local crises like unaffordable housing, with users vowing to primary him in 2026. Even as Aguilar signed a letter with 178 Democrats opposing West Bank annexation—a rare nod to base concerns—critics dismissed it as performative, given his $679,372 AIPAC haul and refusal to back a ceasefire.
Calls for Aguilar’s resignation are mounting, fueled by this toxic mix of foreign cash and domestic neglect. Progressive activists, including CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin, have urged voters to “give them hell” via the Capitol switchboard, listing Aguilar prominently among AIPAC’s “summer vacation” crew. BoughtByZionism.org brands him a “good friend of Israel and their genocidal project,” tallying his votes against Palestinian rights. On X, he’s routinely lumped with top “AIPAC sellouts,” his name synonymous with Democratic capitulation. “Norma Torres and Pete Aguilar are another BIG Israel supporters… She hasn’t passed a single consequential bill, all she does is vacation on Taxpayer/AIPAC money,” one poster vented, extending the demand for ousters to Aguilar.
As October 7 marks two years since Hamas’s attack—and Israel’s disproportionate response—Aguilar’s October 7 statement mourning Israeli lives while vaguely calling for “humanitarian assistance” to Gaza rang hollow to his base. Latino voters, weary of funding endless wars abroad while their communities crumble at home, are done with excuses. Rep. Aguilar, your AIPAC ledger is public, your betrayal is etched in Gaza’s ruins, and your district’s fury is just beginning. Resign now, or face the ballot-box reckoning in 2026. America—and its Latino heart—demands nothing less.
AIPAC donations constitute illegal undue foreign influence
AIPAC, while ostensibly a domestic lobbying group, functions as the de facto arm of Israeli foreign policy in Washington, funneling millions into congressional campaigns to ensure unwavering U.S. support for Israel’s actions—even when those actions conflict with American values, international law, or national security. This financial stranglehold constitutes undue foreign influence, warping U.S. foreign policy to serve a foreign power at the expense of American sovereignty.
Worse, it elevates to the level of a high crime, akin to treason, by enabling members of Congress to “adhere to [foreign] enemies” through aid and comfort, as defined in Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution. By accepting these sums, politicians like Rep. Pete Aguilar— who has pocketed over $722,000 from AIPAC—betray their oath, subjugating U.S. interests to those of a foreign government.
At its core, AIPAC’s operations skirt the edges of legality, evading the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) that requires transparency for entities acting on behalf of foreign principals. Established in 1951, FARA mandates registration for those engaging in political activities under foreign direction, yet AIPAC has dodged this obligation for decades despite clear ties to Israeli officials and funding sources. Historical precedents abound: In 1962, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy ordered AIPAC’s predecessor, the American Zionist Council, to register as a foreign agent due to FARA violations, citing its role as an Israeli mouthpiece.
Leaked Israeli documents from 2024 reveal ongoing fears within the Israeli government of U.S. scrutiny over such advocacy, underscoring AIPAC’s role as an unregistered conduit for foreign influence. Critics, including advocacy groups and scholars, argue that AIPAC’s refusal to register obscures its coordination with Israeli diplomats, allowing it to shape U.S. policy without accountability—a deliberate evasion that amplifies foreign sway over domestic elections. In a system where money equates to access, AIPAC’s billions in bundled donations—primarily from a cadre of wealthy donors aligned with Israeli interests—create a quid pro quo dynamic, where votes for Israeli aid become the price of political survival.
The scale of these donations is staggering, transforming AIPAC into one of Washington’s most potent forces, rivaling even the NRA in its ability to dictate outcomes. In the 2024 cycle alone, AIPAC’s PACs and super PACs like the United Democracy Project poured over $100 million into races, targeting critics of Israel and rewarding loyalists. This isn’t mere advocacy; it’s engineered dominance.
AIPAC has endorsed and funded over 80% of congressional races, often spending unprecedented sums—such as $14 million to unseat Rep. Jamaal Bowman in 2024—to silence progressive voices questioning U.S. complicity in Gaza’s devastation. Recipients like Aguilar, who received $673,000 in the 2023–2024 cycle, are not outliers; they are the norm among those who reliably vote for billions in unconditional aid to Israel, even as domestic needs like infrastructure and healthcare go underfunded. This financial pipeline ensures that U.S. policy remains tethered to Israeli priorities, from vetoing UN resolutions to arming operations in Gaza, regardless of the human cost or strategic blowback, such as inflamed anti-American sentiment in the Arab world.
Concrete examples illustrate how this influence manifests in policy distortions that prioritize a foreign ally over U.S. interests. AIPAC has orchestrated near-unanimous congressional votes on pro-Israel measures, such as the 2009 resolution condemning the UN Goldstone Report on Israeli human rights violations in Gaza, which passed 344–36 after intense lobbying.
More recently, in 2024, AIPAC mobilized support for $26.4 billion in emergency aid to Israel amid its Gaza operations, despite widespread Democratic unease and reports of U.S.-supplied weapons in civilian casualties. These votes aren’t organic; they’re bought. AIPAC’s strategy—combining direct contributions, attack ads via super PACs, and orchestrated trips to Israel—creates a chilling effect, where lawmakers fear career-ending reprisals for deviation. The result? A Congress that rubber-stamps policies advancing Israeli expansionism, even as they entangle the U.S. in endless Middle East conflicts, drain taxpayer dollars ($150 billion since 1948), and erode America’s global standing.
This isn’t representation; it’s subjugation, where foreign interests hijack the legislative process to the detriment of American security and moral authority.
Such conduct crosses into the realm of high crimes and misdemeanors, the impeachable offenses outlined in Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution, which encompass “gross or malignant abuses of power” beyond mere legal violations.
Accepting AIPAC funds mirrors bribery, another explicit ground for impeachment, by exchanging policy fealty for financial gain.
But the analogy to treason is even more damning. The Constitution defines treason narrowly as “levying War against [the United States], or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” While not literal warfare, AIPAC-enabled policies provide “aid and comfort” to a foreign power—Israel—whose actions, including settlement expansion and military campaigns, often position it at odds with U.S. allies and long-term interests.
By funneling U.S. resources to sustain these policies, recipient lawmakers effectively “adhere” to foreign directives, betraying the nation they swore to serve.
High treason, in broader legal traditions, includes crimes subjecting the nation to “foreign rule or influence,” a threshold AIPAC’s unchecked sway clearly breaches. Congress wields broad discretion in defining such offenses, yet its silence—fueled by the very influence in question—perpetuates the rot.
AIPAC’s donations are not philanthropy but a corrosive foreign incursion that undermines the republic. They compel Congress to advance Israeli agendas over American ones, fostering a dependency that echoes colonial subjugation. To accept such funds is to commit a high crime tantamount to treason: a deliberate erosion of sovereignty for personal or political gain.
True patriots in Congress must reject this poison, enforce FARA registration, and reclaim policy from foreign puppeteers.
