How should Form 990: Part IV Question 3 be answered?

Question

When I read Form 990, question 3's answer by the the AMERICAN ISRAEL PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE for FY 2021 it doesn't make sense to me,

Question 3 reads,

Did the organization engage in direct or indirect political campaign activities on behalf of or in opposition to candidates for public office? If "Yes", complete Schedule C Part I.

How can AIPAC answer "no" to that? They put out graphics like this,

And they're very open about taking credit for this campaign activity too. Republishing the claim that "Cori Bush [lost] her seat to AIPAC-backed candidate Wesley Bell"

And here is another one "AIPAC ... heleped defeat anti-Israel Squad member Rep. Cori Bush."

Under what circumstances, if any, can endorsing particular candidates NOT constitute political campaign activity?

Answer 1

I took a closer look at the AIPAC 2020 filing, which is the one you're referring to, and it doesn't actually specify any political activity. This is in contrast to the 2021 FY filing, where this item is changed to "yes", and there are political activities reported:

.

According to the filing, the AIPAC PAC was formed in 2021, as a Sec. 527 SSF organization (see the IRC Sec. 527(f)(3) for the definition of SSF):

The endorsements you're quoting are all very recent, and are relevant to the previous (2022) and current election cycles.