<\/p>\n
Marc Rowan has<\/span> a vision for Gaza. \u201cThe potential here is tremendous,\u201d he said at a February gathering of President Donald Trump\u2019s so-called Board of Peace, where Rowan described land devastated by Israeli bombing with a developer\u2019s zeal. \u201cThis is not a problem of money or collateral. This is a problem with peace.\u201d<\/p>\n In the U.S., Rowan is simultaneously helping ensure a pro-Israel political project has no problem with money. Since the start of this year, according to Federal Election Commission filings, the billionaire CEO of Apollo Global Management has donated $1.5 million to the United Democracy Project, a super PAC for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, spending a fraction of his vast wealth to preserve a foreign policy defined by support for Israel\u2019s genocide and the flow of U.S. weapons to Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPalestinians did not choose him, and neither did American voters.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Rowan \u2014 who is worth more than $8 billion and reportedly consulted<\/a> on his business with convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> \u2014 is an executive member of Trump\u2019s \u201cBoard of Peace,\u201d<\/a> a United Nations-approved body tasked with carrying out Trump\u2019s stalled plan for Gaza. <\/strong>He <\/strong>made his first donation to UDP of the year in early March, giving $1 million, filings show, just as the group began spending aggressively against the now-ousted<\/a> Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., a loud critic of U.S. support for Israel<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n A second donation for $500,000 arrived on July 23. The same day, the AIPAC super PAC shelled out nearly $50,000 in campaign mailers in Michigan to attack the progressive pro-Palestine candidate<\/a> for U.S. Senate, Abdul El-Sayed. In Missouri, it dropped another $100,000 for phone banking services against former Democratic Rep. Cori Bush in her race against pro-Israel incumbent<\/a> Rep. Wesley Bell.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear which specific UDP efforts have been backed by Rowan\u2019s largesse, and neither Rowan nor UDP responded to requests for comment. But Raed Jarrar, advocacy director with Democracy for the Arab World Now<\/a>, connected Rowan\u2019s position on Trump\u2019s Gaza board and his major part as a donor to AIPAC\u2019s super PAC as a matter of transparency.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNow he sits on a board that will decide Gaza\u2019s future,\u201d Jarrar told The Intercept. \u201cPalestinians did not choose him, and neither did American voters. Americans and Palestinians alike deserve to know whose interests are actually being served.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rowan, a major donor to Trump\u2019s failed 2020 presidential campaign, has long made his animus toward critics of Israel known. In recent years, he has been a fierce advocate against student protesters<\/a> calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza, broadly mischaracterizing their anti-genocide calls as \u201cantisemitic,\u201d and played a key role in ousting leaders<\/a> at his alma mater<\/a>, the University of Pennsylvania, over their handling of the protests. In 2025, he served as a consultant<\/a> to the White House in its recent attacks<\/a> on higher education<\/a>. He donated an initial $250,000 to UDP in 2022, the year the AIPAC super PAC was founded, and more than quadrupled his giving by 2024. Trump appointed him to the Board of Peace this past January.<\/p>\n \u201cMarc Rowan has used his position to try to silence Palestinians and smear students protesting Israel\u2019s genocide,\u201d said Margaret DeReus, executive director of Peace, Accountability, and Leadership PAC, which launched this cycle as a pro-Palestine counterweight<\/a> to the pro-Israel lobby. PAL PAC backed both El-Sayed and Bush, who have committed to cutting military aid to Israel. (El-Sayed prevailed<\/a> in his Democratic Senate primary against Michigan Rep. Haley Stevens, while both Bush<\/a> and Massie<\/a> lost their races.)<\/p>\n Rowan \u201cgives millions to fund the now-fringe idea that billions of our tax dollars should fund the Israeli military and targets candidates who are calling to stop sending U.S. tax dollars to Israel\u2019s genocide,\u201d DeReus said. She added that his presence on \u201cTrump\u2019s corrupt board\u201d lays bare the actual goal of the governing body: \u201cthe continued genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians living in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n As support for Israel among the American people has plummeted, and more<\/a> leftist candidates<\/a> run on promises<\/a> to enact<\/a> an arms embargo<\/a> on Israel, AIPAC has broken its own spending records and set new ones, helping make El-Sayed<\/a> and Massie\u2019s<\/a> primaries among the most expensive ever. In Congress, the lobbying giant has also worked to consolidate power among its pro-Israel base. In July, AIPAC lobbied members<\/a> for the passage of a Pentagon program that further enmeshes military technological sharing between the U.S. and Israeli militaries<\/a>. Last week, Democratic leadership appointed<\/a> three hawkish, pro-Israel, and AIPAC-backed Democrats to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n\n