Intent on keeping the influence of the growing pro-Palestinian rights movement in the U.S. to a minimum in Congress, the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee is pulling out all the stops to defeat progressive candidates including state Rep. Summer Lee in Pennsylvania's 12th District, where voters are going to the polls Tuesday.

As The Intercept reported late Monday, a super PAC started last year by AIPAC called the United Democracy Project (UDP) has spent more than $2.3 million on the district's Democratic primary race.

About $100,000 from the group has gone to support attorney Steve Irwin while a majority of the ads UDP has paid for have attacked Lee as someone who only "calls herself a Democrat" due to her criticism of President Joe Biden during the 2020 primary race.

According to liberal pro-Israel group J Street, UDP has attempted to conceal its connection to AIPAC by attacking Lee's positions on issues unrelated to Palestinian rights, such as her support for Medicare for All.

As critics have noted, the formula industry had wide latitude to expand production and increase spending on safety standards. Abbott last year announced that it had spent $5 billion purchasing its own stock.


The shortage has other contributing factors. The U.S. maintains strict limits on imports of European brands of infant formula, despite studies showing that products under European Union regulations have high safety and nutrition standards. Competing brands in the U.S. have attempted to ramp up production to make up for the loss of Abbott Nutrition’s Sturgis factory but have encountered supply chain problems.