Pro-Israel lobby spends big on US midterms as backlash grows

That has made it the single largest outside spender of the cycle, Open. Secrets said, while the wider pro-Israel donor network spent $71 million - placing it second only to the cryptocurrency industry.

The extraordinary financial firepower underscores AIPAC's continued influence in Washington - but also a growing backlash overUS policy toward Israeland the role of wealthy interest groups in American elections.

Read:Trump heads into midterms short on foreign policy winsAIPAC has concentrated much of its spending on Democratic primaries, supporting candidates strongly committed to Israel and trying to defeat critics of unconditional US military aid.

It didn't respond to a request for comment, but it has rejected suggestions that its influence is collapsing, saying hundreds of candidates it backed have won their primaries. Its money has indeed delivered victories this year, but also some expensive failures.

Money meets resistance. In Michigan, AIPAC and allied groups spent around $30 million in an unsuccessful effort to prevent progressive former health official. Abdul El-Sayedfrom winning the Democratic Senate nomination over establishment-backed Congresswoman Haley Stevens.

Progressives have also defeated candidates supported by AIPAC-linked money in congressional contests in California, Illinois and New York, often turning the group's spending itself into a campaign issue.

Eli Clifton, of US foreign policy think tank the Quincy Institute, said UDP was the biggest spender in Michigan, although 97% of its large contributions came from outside the state - and its biggest donors are Republican billionaires.

"This is a special interest that participates outside of the partisan framework, and it's really all about advancing the interests of a foreign country," he toldAFP.Unease over the group is no longer confined to Democrats.

Allies of Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate nominee in Michigan, recently asked AIPAC not to run s publicly on his behalf, US media reported, fearing its overt involvement would benefit El-Sayed in the Arab-American heartland. Shifting opinion.

The discomfort reflects a broader transformation in US attitudes toward Israel following years ofwar in Gazaand wideningconflict across the Middle East. A June Quinnipiac University poll found 48% of American voters believed Washington was too supportive of Israel, including 66% of Democrats - the highest overall figure in nine years of the survey.

The change has been clearest on the Democratic left, where candidates increasingly portray AIPAC as too closely aligned with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and emblematic of big-money interests overwhelming ordinary voters.

But criticism has spread to the populist right, where some "America First" conservatives have attacked Washington's support for Israel and blamed pro-Israel lobbying for drawing the US deeper into foreign conflicts. Read More:Israel's decades-old US support risks losing DemocratsAIPAC's financial strength, meanwhile, continues to grow.

Open. Secrets says the organisation itself has contributed $30 million to UDP. And its political power remains formidable, withUS military aid to Israelcontinuing to attract broad support in Congress.

But the primaries have demonstrated that record spending cannot guarantee victory - and a once-prized endorsement can now, in some races, be something candidates would rather their opponents talked less about. "That's precisely why they never mention US foreign policy and Israel in their ads," Casey Kennedy, co-founder of the Track AIPAC advocacy platform, toldAFP.

"AIPAC knows AIPAC is toxic, and the more they spend, the more toxic they become with voters across the political spectrum. "