Our Friday News Analysis | What the World Reads Now!

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress at the US Capitol on 24 July 2024, in Washington, DC (Saul Loeb/AFP)

The following is the full text of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before a joint session of Congress on 25 July 2024, as issued by his office.

“Mr. Speaker, thank you for giving me the profound honor of addressing this great citadel of democracy …”

Go to ‘We’re Protecting You’: Full text of Netanyahu’s address to Congress.

ABC NEWS | FACT-CHECKING ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU'S ADDRESS TO CONGRESS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a fiery defense of his country's military operations in Gaza in a joint address to U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress in the chamber of the House of Representatives at the US Capitol, on July 24, 2024, in Washington, D.C. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

By Anne Flaherty, Luis Martinez, and Leah Sarnoff

ABC News Live
25 July 2024

In a defiant speech that appeared to go off script at times, Netanyahu made several statements that were either false or missing context.

Fact check: While Iran has backed some protests, most protestors aren't linked to Iran.

During Netanyahu's address, parts of the U.S. Capitol were occupied by protesters against the war in Gaza who had been there since Tuesday. The demonstrations followed large-scale protests at college campuses across the US that spring.

               • MORE: Netanyahu calls on Congress to give bipartisan support to Israel

"Iran is funding the anti-Israel protests that are going on right now outside this building -- not that many, but they're here and throughout this city," Netanyahu claimed to lawmakers.

US Capitol police, alongside members of the NYPD, pepper spray protesters who gathered outside the US Capitol before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers an address to a joint session of Congress in Washington, July 24, 2024. Jim Lo Scalzo//EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

"Well, I have a message for these protestors. When the tyrants of Tehran, who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair, are praising, promoting, and funding you, you have officially become Iran's useful idiots," Netanyahu said.

Dismissing U.S. protesters as mostly puppets of Iran is not accurate, although the US intelligence community does believe that Iran is trying to stoke division.

Continue Reading …

OPINION | MORE ARMS, LESS ADVICE: NETANYAHU'S MEDDLING SPEECH DAMAGED U.S.-ISRAEL RELATIONS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, walks past Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., right, as he arrives to speak at a joint meeting of Congress in Washington on Wednesday. Schumer, the first Jewish majority leader in the Senate and the highest-ranking Jewish official in the U.S. has said Netanyahu has "lost his way" and is an obstacle to peace in the region. Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

By Douglas M. Bloomfield

Haaretz Israel
25 July 2024

Douglas M. Bloomfield is a syndicated columnist, Washington lobbyist, and consultant. He spent nine years as the legislative director and chief lobbyist for AIPAC.

Instead of protecting the U.S.-Israel alliance,

Netanyahu's unnecessary speech to Congress,
and the vicious partisan briefings to journalists that accompanied it,
hurt bipartisan support for Israel among Democrats and U.S. Jews
at a time it can afford it least

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Republican congressman from Jerusalem, came to Washington to rally his congressional friends and press the Biden administration to send him more arms and less advice.

He wants Washington to speed up shipments of all the weapons Israel wants because, he told lawmakers, Israel is the front line in America's war against Iran's ambitions for world domination.

It is a "clash between barbarism and civilization," he educated them, and those who don't share his worldview "may have fallen" for the enemies' propaganda.

He assured lawmakers that "as we speak," Israel is engaged in "intensive efforts" to make peace and bring home the hostages, but he offered nothing to back that up. His defense minister accused him of delaying a hostage deal for his political purposes.

Continue Reading …

BYE BYE BIBI – BYE BYE

“We look forward to your trial soon at the International Criminal Court.

The irony is that this court was initially set up to conduct the Nuremberg Trials to convict and execute NAZIS.”

By Michael Moore

Substack.com
24 July 2024

Dear Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,

In a few minutes, you will enter our United States Congress to give a rare speech by a foreign leader to a joint session of Senators and Members of our House of Representatives.

As you approach the podium, you might notice that the President of the Senate will not be seated above you, presiding, as per tradition, over the chamber. That’s because the President of the Senate is Vice President Kamala Harris. She has decided not to attend. It is extremely rare for the President of the Senate to skip a big event like this. She will not be there to applaud you or stand with you. She’s decided instead to spend the day in, um, Indianapolis at a sorority meeting.

In one of the worst-kept secrets in Washington, Kamala Harris has for months been quietly urging President Biden to end your war on the people of Gaza. Biden has funded this war for you and has supplied you with your weapons of death. And with that, you have murdered over 40,000 innocent civilians who had nothing to do with the abhorrent massacre of October 7th.

Harris has been the voice of peace within the administration, calling for a ceasefire and an end to the assault on Gaza’s civilian population. She has also pushed to get the Palestinians the necessary humanitarian aid immediately.

But nothing has happened in over nine months. The rain of death continues each day. Mass starvation is underway. And Democratic Party insiders know all too deeply how this has contributed to Biden’s decreasing poll numbers and has virtually guaranteed the loss of Michigan to Trump.

A damning article in today’s New Republic warns that if Harris picks pro-war Governor of Pennsylvania Josh Shapiro as her running mate, this may sink her election chances, especially with young voters and the large progressive wing of the Party.

This is how toxic you are, Mr. Netanyahu — you hugging Mr. Biden did him no favors. And anytime Indianapolis looks more inviting than you, well, I guess you gotta be from the Midwest to get the joke.

Dearest Bibi, with blood on your hands, you, the indicted felon — bribery, fraud, and breach of trust — the Trump of Israel, blood caked all over your face, you the funder of Hamas — billions of dollars you’ve arranged to flow to them to sow the chaos that would allow you to conduct an ethnic cleansing you now so joyfully lead, knee deep in the blood of the children you’ve slaughtered.

How dare you enter our hallowed Hall of Democracy today, wiping your hands on the backs of the bipartisan political hacks who have funded your evil and armed you to the teeth. You relish at the thought of more dead Palestinians — “animals,” your Defense Minister called them — no wonder so many of your people despise you and want to see you behind bars — you, ironically, the jailer of 2.3 million Gazans whom you’ve kept tortured and suffering in an open-air prison for 17 years.

               YOU, whom history will judge as the destroyer of Israel, the true enemy of the Jewish people we love so dearly, a faith that sees no human being as an “animal” but instead as a gift from God.

               YOU who pulled reserve forces back from the Gazan border in the days before the massacre of October 7, knowing full well what would happen.

               YOU who’ve always hated your fellow Jews who live in those kibbutzim because they always vote against you and your party, because many of them are socialists, peaceniks, atheists, ex-hippies, putting on outdoor music fests, marching in the streets against your attempts to destroy the Israeli judicial system — yes, they despise you.

So, like any good autocrat or fascist, you took away their protection and left them to the slaughter. It forced them to cower in their homes “safe rooms” for 14 hours, hoping the Cavalry would come to save them, but few did, thanks to you.

They were the sacrifice on your altar of crime and racism —and their deaths would allow you to cancel your upcoming criminal trial, enable you to form your war council, allow you the justification to starve millions, cut off their water, carpet bomb their homes, the bodies decapitated, limbless children, elderly and the impoverished offered up as a necessary genocide in the name of hate, greed and the Big Lie that an ancient book contained a deed that said this land was given to you by God!

God made the Earth for ALL, and Jews throughout the centuries knew this. This is why they always fought on the side of Justice, on the side of the oppressed, the have-nots, the mistreated and the abused, the forgotten and the discarded. For this, they were continually rounded up throughout history, which led to their slaughter, the pogroms, and the Holocaust. Little did they ever think that one of their own would one day do the same to others — especially to their cousins — the Palestinians! The Muslims who revere Moses and Abraham and Jesus!

Bibi, you do not belong in our sacred space of Democracy today. However, it could be argued that you’ve come to just the right spot as we, a nation founded in genocide and built on the backs of enslaved humans, an apartheid nation that claimed to be a Democracy but would not let a single member of the majority of the population — women, people of color, the indigenous, those who didn’t own property because they were women, of color, here first and poor — and thus they were not allowed to vote or participate in the apartheid, de facto White Christian Nationalist patriarchy who ran the whole American show.

No wonder we are the perfect model for your segregated and brutal Theocracy posing as a real Democracy — just as we have never truly attained our full Democracy for 248 years. You are not You — you are US, the O.G. of slaughter! And you are soooo good at it! Of course, we’ve rolled out the red carpet for you today! Welcome home, Bibi of Brooklyn!

But don’t be too quick to think our leaders like you. Predecessors of this Congress set up your nation to be our puppet state in the Middle East so we could keep an eye on our favorite drug — oil!

And please remember you are standing in a chamber of power of a country that refused to let boatloads of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1930s to dock in any U.S. city, thus sending back thousands of desperate Jews to their deaths in Europe. The same country that refused to bomb the German rail lines that led to the concentration camps (which would’ve saved many thousands of lives). The same country that was filled with establishments that posted signs that read “No Jews. No N-----s. No Irish.”

But most Americans did not feel that way. The Jewish union organizers from New York helped us create the United Auto Workers in Flint. The same union officially condemned your appearance in our Congress this week. Most Americans are grateful to our Jewish brothers and sisters who have helped lead our civil rights, feminist, and gay rights movements. And we know America wouldn’t be America without Steven Spielberg, Gloria Steinem, Bob Dylan, Arthur Miller, Judy Blume, Lillian Hellman, Jonas Salk, the Coen Brothers, the Warner Bros., the Marx Brothers, Barbra Streisand, Albert Einstein, Emma Goldman, and on and on.

Bibi, you have attacked your critics here by smearing them as antisemites. Again, remember — you are the antisemite, killer of the Semitic peoples.

Yes, there is antisemitism in the US, as there is everywhere. But you slander us only as a cover for your vile crimes. Get a grip, Bibi. The people in a place like Georgia have voted to be represented in the U.S. Senate by a Jew and a Black man. For the better part of the past four decades, around 10% of the entire Senate has been Jewish — when only 2% of the American population is Jewish. How did that happen?

Each time Pew Research polled Americans’ attitudes toward the country’s various religions when asked, “Which religion do you have the most favorable feelings toward?” the Number One answer the majority of Americans give is “JUDAISM!” And these are mostly Christians answering the question! Hiding behind the charge of antisemitism is a lie, and everybody knows it. Stop. You’re making it harder for us to deal with actual antisemitism and bigots like you.

It is a strange day indeed to see an actual war criminal addressing a joint session of Congress. In the future, let’s keep that honor reserved for our own war criminals (George W. Bush, Richard Nixon). As for you, Bibi, enjoy your closed-door meeting tomorrow with our next president (I’m sure she’ll have some words for you to choose from). Say hi to The Donald for us on Friday at Mar-a-Lago.

We look forward to your trial soon at the International Criminal Court. The irony that this court was initially set up to conduct the Nuremberg Trials won’t be lost on anyone.

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

What is the Side of the Story that is Not Yet Decisive? Edited by Abraham A. van Kempen.

_________________________

EDITORIAL | WILL THE PHOENIX RISE OUT OF THE ASHES?

Is it for real? Vice President Kamala Harris’ ‘detour’ to the White House seems unfathomable.

She’ll be running on President Biden's excess baggage—failed foreign and domestic policies—plus she is unpopular among the Independents with a severely low popularity rating. The Democrats staged an American-styled coup d'etat—kicking out Mr. Biden—for the same reasons. His pinpointed age-related dementia, explicitly broadcasted on world television, validated his forced exit.

If Mr. Biden were popular, if he would be marketable and bankable in the polls, and if he could beat Mr. Trump, he would not be shoved to step down. President Ronald Reagan, who, at age 78, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, remained in the White House.

Perhaps Ms. Harris is a sideshow—for the sake of the party. Could she be poised to prepare a Phoenix to soar out of the ashes, possibly the next president of the United States, a woman of color, Ms. Michelle Obama—just a thought?

Of course, I could be wrong. I’ll eat my hat if and only if President Biden resigns and Vice President Harris becomes the incumbent President of the United States this month. As the incumbent president, Ms. Harris has a fleeting chance to defeat Mr. Trump. Nonetheless, will the Dems want Michelle over Kamala despite the present fanfare? What about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.?

_________________________

ROBERT W. MALONE, MD MS | “IT IS GOING TO BE A LANDSLIDE FOR TRUMP.”

By Robert W. Malone, MD MS
Substack.com
21 July 2024

Trump will easily hit and surpass the 270 electoral votes needed to become the next President of the United States of America.

Kamala’s negatives are even worse than Biden’s. That said, now that Biden has endorsed her - the party will have to accept her as its nominee.

• Only 58% of Democrats think Harris would make a good president.
• Only 30% of the general public thinks she would make a good president.
• 12% of Republicans think she would make a good president.
• The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted polling that determined that most Democrats believe the country would be in good hands if Harris took over.
• Approximately 58 percent of Democrats think Harris would make a good president, 22 percent believe she would not, and 20 percent 'do not know enough to say.'
• This is compared to the 30 percent of the general public who think Harris would make a good President and 87 percent of Republicans who said she would not.

She can’t recover from these numbers this late in the race!

Kamala's nomination could bolster Kennedy’s influence, a crucial development as his voice is essential on the national stage. His continued presence in the race and potential engagement by President Trump could significantly impact the future political landscape.

MICHAEL MOORE | WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES

One day, Trump's victory felt inevitable. The next day, a woman from Oakland, CA, rode into town...

By Michael Moore
Substack.com
24 July 2024

Yesterday, I began my letter to you with, “OK, Everyone! It’s time to rise out of our despair!”My subject heading was simple: “Now, We Beat Trump.” President Biden had just announced he was no longer running for reelection and endorsed Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States.

All of a sudden, you could weirdly feel the earth move. Tremors permeated our very being. Millions breathed a sigh of relief. Millions more began texting friends and family like crazy. All of a sudden, the somber, sullen mood Americans had been in since Debate Night was dissipating into thin air. People were elated, ecstatic, bursting at the seams with joy. The neighbors above me started blasting the soundtrack from Singin’ In The Rain. A flock of seagulls flew by my window, and I swear one of them gave me a thumbs-up. Confetti was falling everywhere, and yet there was no parade. Just hordes of Americans who simultaneously knew that we were now going to be all right, that our Democracy would hold, flowers would bloom in the fall, and fear would no longer rule the day, all of us instantly feeling a warm sense of togetherness, love, and hope.

Within 36 hours, this happened. 

• $250 million was donated to the Harris for President campaign — an American all-time one-day record.
• On Sunday and Monday, 28,000 people signed up to be campaign volunteers — knocking on doors, making calls, and registering people to vote. The total number of volunteers nationwide who had signed up on Saturday was 230.
• A conference call to support Kamala Harris organized by Win With Black Women ballooned to over 44,000 Black women joining the call, causing Zoom to expand the capacity limit before the circuits overloaded immediately. They raised $1.5 million in just three hours.
• Nearly every Democratic governor, senator, dog-catcher, fry cook, urologist, Uber driver, botanist, civics teacher, wordle player, and Swifties everywhere from sea to shining sea were all aboard the Harris Express. Did you feel it? Could you hear it? Did something in your bones tell you, “Holy Hulk Hogan! We might pull this off!”

Continue Reading …

HARRIS AHEAD OF TRUMP IN NEW PRESIDENTIAL RACE POLL

Analysts say, however, that the post-Biden bump might be short-lived.

FILE PHOTO: US Vice President Kamala Harris. © Andrew Harnik / Getty Images

HomeWorld News

24 July 2024

US Vice President Kamala Harris has placed narrowly ahead of Republican rival and former president, Donald Trump, in a national presidential poll released on Tuesday. The Reuters/Ipsos survey was one of the first conducted since US President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and endorsed Harris as the Democratic party nominee for the White House.

The poll gave the US vice president a two-point, 44% to 42% lead over Trump, within the margin of error.

In the previous week's survey, Harris, 59, and Trump, now the oldest candidate, 78, were tied at 44%.

The new poll was conducted two days after Biden announced on Sunday that he was dropping out of the race and endorsing Harris. It also followed last week’s Republican National Convention, at which Trump officially accepted the nomination.

Biden announced that he was leaving the race after weeks of growing concerns among Democrats and their supporters over his declining health and perceived ability to defeat Trump in November.

Harris, whose campaign claims she has already secured the Democratic nomination, has been raking in donations and endorsements. She has reportedly set a fundraising record after receiving $81 million in contributions in the first 24 hours after Biden’s withdrawal.

However, a pollster with Trump’s campaign has downplayed the survey results, arguing that Harris’ performance was bolstered by widespread media coverage of her candidacy and the excitement among Democratic voters about the shakeup in the race.

“That bump is likely to start showing itself over the next few days and will last for a while,” Reuters cited pollster Tony Fabrizio as saying.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 56% of registered voters agreed with the statement that Harris was “mentally sharp and able to deal with challenges,” compared to 49% who said the same of Trump.

Other surveys conducted after the US president abandoned his candidacy revealed that Harris was polling better than Biden but still trailed Trump.

A major national survey, the Morning Consult poll, showed that the vice president trailed Trump by two percentage points, 47% to 45%, within the margin of error.

In a Monday PBS News/NPR/Marist poll, Trump held a lead over Harris, with 46% to 45% of US registered voters.

KENNEDY ACCUSES US DEMOCRATS OF ‘RIGGING’ NOMINATION

Endorsing the “monumentally unpopular” Kamala Harris is the easiest way to secure the war chest, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has claimed

RFK Jr. speaks during a campaign rally at Brazos Hall on 13 May 2024, in Austin, Texas © Brandon Bell/Getty Images

HomeWorld News

22 July 2024

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has accused the Democratic Party of “anointing a candidate hand-picked by elites” and urged them to return to an “open process” of selecting a nominee for the upcoming November elections—while also claiming that only he can beat former President Trump.

Following US President Biden’s announcement on Sunday that he would not seek re-election, RFK Jr. commended him “for stepping down,” saying that Biden’s “infirmities were evident to any unbiased observer from the beginning.”

“It was this progressive deterioration—and his abandonment of Democratic Party principles—that prompted me to enter the race and ensure American voters had a viable, vigorous alternative to Donald Trump,” RFK Jr., who initially entered the presidential race as a Democrat but dropped out after being blocked by the party from challenging Biden in the primaries, said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday.

He then slammed the Democratic National Committee (DNC) for “rigging” the nomination process by getting “a monumentally unpopular vice president to step into President Biden’s shoes,” arguing that “it’s the easiest way to hold onto the money,” referring to campaign finance rules that make transferring funds from the incumbent president to his running mate possible during the election cycle.

“I call on the Democratic Party to return to its traditional commitment to democracy and exemplify it with an open process. Instead of anointing a candidate hand-picked by DNC elites, the party should use neutral polling to identify the candidate who can best beat Donald Trump. The delegates should then select a nominee based on this information,” RFK Jr. concluded.

Later in the day, he called a press conference at his family home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, where he criticized the DNC for trying to hide Biden’s health issues. He claimed it had been done to prevent any other candidate from competing with the incumbent “in a way that would expose his deficiencies.”

Kennedy also took a jab at both Republican nominee Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, who was endorsed by President Biden for the Democratic Party nomination, saying that they conceal “the real purpose of their objective” and represent “corporate interests rather than the interests of the American public.”

RFK Jr. then stated that he would accept the Democratic nomination if offered, arguing that he is “the only presidential candidate who can beat Donald Trump.”

“I believe at this point it’s a two-person race. Let me put it that way. And, you know, I’m in the best position to win,” he stated.

According to various polls, Kennedy currently stands to win around 10% of the national vote. His campaign claims to be pro-choice and pro-environment and has condemned “corporate capture,” the affordability crisis, and “forever wars.”

THE GUARDIAN EXCLUSIVE: ISRAELI DOCUMENTS SHOW EXPANSIVE GOVERNMENT EFFORT TO SHAPE U.S. DISCOURSE AROUND GAZA WAR

As the Gaza war rages, Israeli funds target US college campuses and push to redefine antisemitism in US law.

Amichai Chikli speaks in Krakow, Poland, on 22 January 2024. Photograph: Omar Marques/Getty Images

By Lee Fang and Jack Poulson

The Guardian – London
24 June 2024

Last November, just weeks into the war in Gaza, Amichai Chikli, a brash, 42-year-old Likud minister in the Israeli government, was called into the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to brief lawmakers on what could be done about rising anti-war protests from young people across the United States, especially at elite universities.

               “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again now, that I think we should, especially in the United States, be on the offensive,” argued Chikli.

Chikli has since led a targeted push to counter critics of Israel. The Guardian has uncovered evidence showing how Israel has relaunched a controversial entity as part of a broader public relations campaign to target US college campuses and redefine antisemitism in US law.

Seconds after a smoke alarm subsided during the hearing, Chikli assured the lawmakers that there was new money in the budget for a pushback campaign, separate from more traditional public relations and paid advertising content produced by the government. It included 80 programs already underway for advocacy efforts “to be done in the ‘Concert’ way,” he said.

The “Concert” remark referred to a sprawling relaunch of a controversial Israeli government program initially known as Kela Shlomo, designed to carry out what Israel called “mass consciousness activities” targeted mainly at the US and Europe. Concert, now known as Voices of Israel, previously worked with groups spearheading a campaign to pass so-called “anti-BDS” state laws that penalize Americans for engaging in boycotts or other non-violent protests of Israel.

Its latest incarnation is part of a hardline and sometimes covert operation by the Israeli government to strike back at student protests, human rights organizations, and other voices of dissent.

Voices’ latest activities were conducted through non-profits and other entities that often do not disclose donor information. From October through May, Chikli has overseen at least 32m shekels, or about $8.6m, spent on government advocacy to reframe the public debate.

It didn’t take long for the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, or ISGAP, one of the American advocacy groups closely coordinating with Chikli's ministry, to score a decisive victory.

In a widely viewed December congressional hearing on alleged antisemitism among student anti-war protesters, several House GOP lawmakers explicitly cited ISGAP research in their interrogations of university presidents. The hearing concluded with Representative Elise Stefanik’s viral confrontation with the then-president of Harvard University, Claudine Gay, who later retired from her role after a wave of negative news coverage.

The ISGAP, which reportedly received most of its funding in 2018 from the Israeli agency running Concert, touted its congressional public relations coup at a 7 April Palm Beach Country Club event.

Elise Stefanik grills university leaders during a House hearing on antisemitism in Washington DC on 5 December 2023. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/Reuters

“All these hearings were the result of our report that all these universities, beginning from Harvard, are taking a lot of money from Qatar,” bragged Natan Sharansky, a former Israeli Knesset member (MK) who previously held Chikli’s role and now chairs the ISGAP. Sharansky told the assembled supporters that 1 billion people had viewed Stefanik’s remarks.

The ISGAP has continued to shape congressional investigations of universities over claims that protests over Israel’s human rights record are motivated by antisemitism, and the organization has been deeply involved in the campaign to glorify new laws that redefine antisemitism to include certain forms of speech critical of the nation of Israel.

Other American groups tied to Voices have pursued a range of initiatives to bolster support for the state of Israel. One such group listed publicly as a partner, the National Black Empowerment Council (NBEC), published an open letter from Black Democratic politicians pledging solidarity with Israel. Another group, CyberWell, a pro-Israel anti-disinformation group led by former Israeli military intelligence and Voices officials, has established itself as an official “trusted partner” to TikTok and Meta, helping both social platforms screen and edit content. A recent CyberWell report called for Meta to suppress the famous slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

The dawn of the Gaza war after the 7 October 2023 terror attacks by Hamas sparked the third reboot for the government-backed company, which was initially chartered through the now-downgraded Ministry of Strategic Affairs. The revamp was first disclosed through a little-noticed budget document posted by the Israeli government on 1 November, which noted that Voices would be freezing all prior campaigns to support activities related to “winning the war over Israel’s story.”

The organization is now under Chikli, the Israeli Minister for Diaspora Affairs.

“One struggles to find a parallel in terms

of a foreign country’s influence over American political debate.”

Eli Clifton

The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

Haaretz and the New York Times recently revealed that Chikli’s ministry had secretly tapped a public relations firm to pressure American lawmakers. The firm used hundreds of fake accounts posting pro-Israel or anti-Muslim content on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram. (The diaspora affairs ministry denied involvement in the campaign, which reportedly provided about $2m to an Israeli firm for the social media posts.)

But that effort is only one of many such campaigns coordinated by the ministry, which has received limited news coverage. The ministry of diaspora affairs and its partners compile weekly reports based on tips from pro-Israel US student groups, some of which receive funding from Israeli government sources.

For example, Hillel International, a co-founder of the Israel on Campus Coalition network and one of the largest Jewish campus groups in the world, has reported financial and strategic support from Mosaic United, a public benefit corporation backed by Chikli’s ministry. The longstanding partnership is now being utilized to shape the political debate over Israel’s war. In February, Hillel’s chief executive, Adam Lehman, appeared before the Knesset to discuss the strategic partnership with Mosaic and the ministry of diaspora affairs, which he said had already produced results.

               “We are changing administrations. Just last week, MIT, the same president who was reprimanded in front of Congress, took the step of fully suspending her Students for Justice in Palestine chapter for crossing lines and for creating an unwelcoming environment for Jewish students,” said Lehman, referencing the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sally Kornbluth.

Hillel International, CyberWell, the NBEC, the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, and Voices of Israel/Concert did not respond to a request for comment.

This investigative report reviewed recent government hearings, Israeli corporate filings, procurement documents, and other public records. While private individuals and foundations primarily fund many of the organizations devoted to pro-Israel advocacy, most likely without foreign direction, the records point to substantial Israeli government involvement in American politics about the Gaza war, free speech on college campuses, and Israel-Palestine policy.

               “There’s a fixation on policing American discourse on the US-Israel relationship, even college campus discourse, from Israel, going all the way up to Prime Minister Netanyahu,” said Eli Clifton, a senior adviser at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

               “One struggles to find a parallel regarding a foreign country’s influence over American political debate.”

          • US House Votes to pass antisemitism bill in Response to Campus Protests… Read more

None of the groups in this story’s reporting have registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara). This law requires groups receiving funds or direction from foreign countries to provide public disclosures to the US Department of Justice.

               “There’s a built-in assumption that there’s nothing at all weird about viewing the US as sort of an open field for Israel to operate in, that there are no limitations,” said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.

________________________________________

Much of what was previously known about Concert was initially reported by the Forward, a Jewish American outlet, and the Seventh Eye, an independent investigative news site based in Israel. The history of Concert traces back to 2017 when the Ministry of Strategic Affairs began developing a program to conduct secretive campaigns designed to shift public opinion. The officials envisioned an “outside the government” vehicle to “provide a rapid and coordinated response against the attempts to tarnish the image of Israel around the world.”

Then minister Gilad Erdan envisioned in Concert a “PR commando unit” capable of covertly launching widespread social media condemnations of celebrities who criticized Israel’s government. Internal documents obtained by the Seventh Eye showed that many of the recipients of Concert funds were American Christian Zionist organizations, such as Christians United for Israel, Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, and the Israel Allies Foundation.

Gilad Erdan speaks at the UN in New York City on 18 April 2024. Photograph: Eduardo Muñoz/Reuters

One of the most prominent American recipients was the ISGAP, which reportedly received at least $445,000, equivalent to 80% of its total revenue in 2018, as part of a $1.3m pledge to the organization. Dr Charles Small, the executive director of the ISGAP, disputed the figures when asked by the Forward, though he gave conflicting comments to a Canadian news outlet.

Small previously contended that the ISGAP did not require Fara’s registration because his organization qualified for the academic exemption in the law, which allows organizations to take foreign funding as long as they do not engage in political advocacy. Yet Yale, which once housed the group, shut down the ISGAP’s predecessor in 2011 due to concerns over its scholarly rigor.

Last year, Brig Gen Sima Vaknin-Gill, a former intelligence officer and liaison to Concert in the Israeli government, became managing director of the ISGAP.

In January, Vaknin-Gill and Small testified before a Knesset committee debating the proper response to critics of Israel. During the testimony, several witnesses discussed the need to encourage countries to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which equates harsh criticism of Israel and anti-Zionism – including claims that the state of Israel is a “racist endeavor” – with antisemitism.

Many critics on both the left and right have taken issue with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition, which they say stifles the First Amendment by curtailing the ability to criticize a government entity and wields concerns around antisemitism as a cudgel to penalize critics of Israeli policy.

However, the hearing participants clarified that the IHRA definition should be a strategic priority for Israel.

               “Combat Antisemitism Movement has championed the IHRA definition,” Vaknin-Gill noted, referencing a dark money partner of the ISGAP, Concert, and the Ministry of diaspora affairs. (Sharansky chairs the Combat Antisemitism Movement; Vaknin-Gill is a board member.)

               “We shifted the focus to work at the local level,” said Vaknin-Gill.

               “We’ve found that mayors and states – it’s much easier to work with them and make the definition into something real.”

Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, signed legislation that revised Georgia’s hate crime statute to include the IHRA definition of antisemitism in January, making it possible for specific criticisms of Israel to lead to increased prison sentences. South Carolina and South Dakota have followed similar laws in recent months. Another related bill in Florida, HB 187, has passed both houses of the state legislature and awaits signature by the governor, Ron DeSantis. Emails obtained by a record request show that Kennedy Starnes, an official in the Israeli foreign ministry, corresponded with state senator Lori Berman about the legislation.

Sima Vaknin-Gill in Tel Aviv in 2015. Photograph: Nir Elias/Reuters

Congress has moved forward with similar IHRA legislation. Last month, the House passed legislation that encodes the IHRA definition of antisemitism into Department of Education standards. If passed by the Senate and signed into law, the bill will allow the federal government to cut funding to institutions of higher learning or initiate civil rights violations for universities that will enable specific criticisms of Israel.

Small has similarly testified at multiple Knesset hearings, updating Israeli lawmakers on the ISGAP’s strategy and its fight to shape the discourse on college campuses.

               “This is a historic moment in which we must increase our power in historical proportions in terms of the history of the Jewish people,” said Small at the January hearing.

               “And the state of Israel, we need all the tools that the state has.”

The previous month, he testified at another Knesset hearing, at which he claimed that the student organization Students for Justice in Palestine was the “armed forces” of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Last month, Small met with House oversight committee members in a closed-door briefing on the matter, shortly before House Republicans stepped up an investigation into the funding sources of pro-Palestinian campus groups. The ISGAP has also made claims that Qatari funding of Cornell University’s medical program has shaped student concerns about the number of civilians killed by Israel’s military in Gaza.

At the Palm Beach event in April, Small argued that “intersectionality is a concept that we can use” to “fight a billion Muslims and all liberal people in the Western world,” a concept he called “tai chi.” Small suggested one line of argumentation, that political Islam “wants to kill Jews, it wants to subjugate women, it wants to kill all gay people.”

Neither the ISGAP’s foreign funding research nor its website discloses the organization’s former financial ties to Israel. Observers note that claims of an academic exemption to Fara may not be appropriate for an organization such as the ISGAP that coordinates with the Israeli government and engages in direct congressional advocacy.

                “While there are several exemptions to Fara registration, nearly all the exemptions are overridden if a person or group seeks to influence American public policy and public opinion at the suggestion or behest of the foreign government,” said Craig Holman, an expert on lobbying rules at Public Citizen.

________________________________________

While the full extent of Israeli government influence on US institutions has yet to be discovered, the Knesset debate provides a window into Israeli strategy and interactions with US advocacy groups.

The Knesset has held several hearings with American Jewish organizations to discuss coordination. Margarita Spichko, an official from Chikli’s Ministry of diaspora affairs, testified in December that her office issues a weekly report based on information gathered from partners in the US, including Hillel.

Hadas Lorber, then working as an aide to Israel’s national security council, noted during the same hearing that the prime minister’s office had met regularly with DC-based groups as part of “an honest attempt to see how we can combat antisemitism, how we can increase legislation in front of all the different members of Congress, to promote legislation in the US that will combat antisemitism, that will work on campuses.”

In March, the Knesset brought together leaders of major pro-Israel groups from around the world to report on activities around the war. Lawmakers at the hearing pressed advocacy groups to explain how they were pushing back on campus protests. Meir Holtz, the president of Mosaic United, noted in the hearing that the Israeli government this year will invest 48 million shekels, or about $12.8m, into his organization for campus outreach.

Last month, Alon Lavi, an Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative, implored Knesset members to continue financial support for US policy and campus discourse campaigns. He warned that the state of Israel could not lead the effort and should instead rely on non-governmental organizations and broader civil society.

“We need to form coalitions with elements inside that want to help us, and part of that is mobilizing the leadership, the university leadership, student leadership, the mayors, the local congressmen in states and towns,” Lavi said.

One of the lawmakers at the hearing, MK Meir Cohen, needed to be addressed. “I don’t feel there is a sense of emergency,” Cohen noted, noting that the ministry’s budget plans amounted to little.

               “If I may, MK Cohen, I agree with you completely,” replied Ron Brummer, a Ministry of Diaspora Affairs representative who works closely with Chikli.

               “We need to put down 300m shekels, not 30m shekels.”

BUILDING THE BRIDGE! | A WAY TO GET TO KNOW THE OTHER AND ONE ANOTHER

Making a Difference – The Means, Methods, and Mechanism for Many to Move Mountains

Photo Credit: Abraham A. van Kempen, our home away from home on the Dead Sea

By Abraham A. van Kempen

Senior Editor
Updated 19 January 2024

Those who commit to 'healing our broken humanity' build intercultural bridges to learn to know and understand one another and others. Readers who thumb through the Building the Bridge (BTB) pages are not mindless sheep following other mindless sheep. They THINK. They want to be at the forefront of making a difference. They're in search of the bigger picture to expand their horizons. They don't need BTB or anyone else to confirm their biases.

Making a Difference – The Means, Methods, and Mechanism for Many to Move Mountains

Accurate knowledge promotes understanding, dispels prejudice, and awakens the desire to learn more. Words have an extraordinary power to bring people together, divide them, forge bonds of friendship, or provoke hostility. Modern technology offers unprecedented possibilities for good, fostering harmony and reconciliation. Yet its misuse can do untold harm, leading to misunderstanding, prejudice, and conflict.

Continue reading

A Free Trial for Life – SUBSCRIBE NOW!

• It's quick and straightforward.

• We won’t ask for your credit card number.

• Just enter your e-mail address to receive your complimentary free-for-life subscription to our newsletter.

• Please include your First and Last Name.

• We won’t share or sell your e-mail address.

_________________________

Related Articles Recently Posted on www.buildingthebridgefoundation.com:

OUR FRIDAY NEWS ANALYSIS

OUR WEDNESDAY NEWS ANALYSIS

OUR MONDAY EDITION

________________________

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of the Building the Bridge Foundation