On November 10th, 2023 United States Representative Thomas Massie (Kentucky 4th Congressional District) Tweeted that "
lobbyists from Israel are running TV and radio ads against me. They can pound sand. We are broke. Also, should this be legal?
While Representative Massie didn’t mention the specific lobbyists by name – the accompanying image references “United Democracy Project” (UDP). UDP’s website contains no information beyond the goal statement
- “..works to help elect candidates that share our vision and will be strong supporters of the US-Israel relationship in Congress.”*
The Federal Elections CommissionCitizens can go the Federal Election Commission (FEC) website - https://www.fec.gov/ - and read the reports that Federal Candidates, Campaigns and Political Actions Committees are required to file with the FEC. The page with reports for United Democracy Project is located at – https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00799031/. Reading through the disbursements reports it became immediately clear that UDP is a subsidiary organization of AIPAC. Recurring monthly payments are made from UDP to AIPAC for payroll services and office space. Put simply UDP is AIPAC. (obviously legal and accounting distinctions are made where relevant) 
Who Contributes to UDP?
The UDP is funded by a remarkably small group of donors. In the most recent contributors report there were only approximately 157 unique individual donors. FEC tabular reports can be exported to spreadsheet for further analysis. The list donors immediately reveals a group of wealthy and politically connected individuals. The top donor for the time period was Home Depot founder Bernard Marcus who gave UDP $1,000,000.
We should note here that not a single donation is recorded as coming from the residents of Kentucky, and more specifically inside Representative Massie's Congressional District. The ads attacking Rep Massie by the AIPAC subsidiary are financed with out of state money.
Is AIPAC Concerned with the Priorities of the People of Kentucky?
Let's take a look at AIPAC, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee. . The direct quote from AIPAC PAC's website is easy to understand - "We base our support only on a candidates support for the U.S.-Israel Relationship."
It does not matter what ideology a candidate espouses, what political party they belong to, whether they are good for America, or in this case for Kentucky - **AIPAC's sole concern is whether a Candidate for U.S. Congress demonstrates adequate support for the foreign nation of Israel, and will speak and vote accordingly in Congress. **
**Should the Republican Party **be concerned that AIPAC is attempting to unseat a consistent Republican Representative in Kentucky? Well AIPAC sends contributions to the Republican National Committee itself - so it may be inadvisable holding your breath while waiting for GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to raise an objection. In fact AIPAC's largest disbursement in the report period was to the RNC for $41,300.
Representative Massie Asked Should this Be Illegal?
In the original post Representative Massie asked should this be illegal? Let's consider AIPAC and it's affiliate UDP are acting functionally as lobbyists for the priorities of a foreign nation - not for American Priorities. While American's may have sentimental attachments to Israel, Israel's priorities may and do diverge from the priorities of America, and Americans who can't afford to write - $50,000 or even $1,000,0000 checks to political lobbyists. While the maxim is often repeated that Israel is America's greatest ally, Israel has and does conduct espionage against the United States. Jonathan Pollard was convicted of selling top secret information to Israeli Intelligence. In 1998 Israel Prime Minister Netenyahu disclosed that Pollard was an Israeli Agent. Netenyahu worked for Pollard's release, and personally greeted him on the runway when Pollard was released from prison and went to Israel to as a citizen.
Can Congress act in America's best interest with the influence of AIPAC? Or do Americans' interest become secondary to Israel's interests? AIPAC sponsored members of Congress from both parties travel regularly to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Netenyahu and other leaders. In 2010 while out of office Netenyahu was secretly recorded saying “I know what America is,” Netanyahu said. “America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction. They won’t get in the way.”
Given AIPAC acts directly as a lobbying group for the benefit a foreign nation - no matter how warm or supportive Americans may be for Israel - should Americans tolerate this blatant interference in the American political process? If the "I" in AIPAC was replaced with an 'I" for Iran, or an "R" for Russia - would we accept this demonstrable influence over our political process? Should American political and electoral processes be completely firewall and protected from ANY foreign influence.
As a presumably "average American" how do you perceive AIPAC's influence?