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Israel tried to get around U.S. foreign agent law so it could spread propaganda to Americans unchecked

By isabelle // 2024-08-20

A new report by The Guardian reveals that the Israeli government obtained legal advice on how it can get around laws in the U.S. that prevent foreign states from spreading propaganda to the American population. Although federal law requires foreign-backed lobbying campaigns to disclose their activities, an investigation by the publication found that the Israeli government spoke to lawyers because they were worried that Zionist lobbying groups who were working with them would have to register as foreign agents and, by extension, admit their ties to Israel. To conceal their activities and avoid legal scrutiny, Israeli government officials proposed setting up an American nonprofit. An advisor wrote to them that the nonprofit could not be managed formally from Israel, but the Jewish State would have "means of supervision and management” over it, such as “oral meetings” and other "informal coordination mechanisms.” One law in particular that they were concerned about circumventing is the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which they worried would harm the reputation of the groups that Israel was funding. They felt that donors would be unwilling to provide funding to groups that were registered under FARA. One Israeli legal memo they viewed, which was dated July 2018, stated that FARA has been “applied to countries hostile to the U.S.” in the past, including Pakistan and Russia. At the time, there had been some enforcement actions against officials with the Trump administration for unregistered lobbying for foreign interests, and given the ties between then-president Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there were some concerns that a formal investigation could be launched by the U.S. Department of Justice. One memo indicated the Israeli government was concerned about FARA forcing registrants to “flag any piece of ‘propaganda’ that is distributed to two or more parties in the U.S., with a disclaimer stating that it was delivered by a foreign agent and then submit a copy of the ‘propaganda’ to the US Department of Justice within 48 hours.” Their attempts to get around FARA were largely focused on an Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs “PR commando unit” that sought to boost Israel’s image abroad. It was first known as Kela Shlomo before being changed to Concert in 2018 and Voices of Israel in 2022, and it sought to undermine the popular BDS movement that was carrying out boycott, divestment and sanction campaigns against Israel to protest its treatment of Palestinians. Voices of Israel was reactivated not long after the Gaza war broke out, with Likud Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli telling the Knesset it would go “on the offensive” against students in the U.S. who were protesting the war.

Lawyers aligned with DNC accused of secretly advising Israel

Some of the lawyers Israel consulted included the former in-house general counsel for the Democratic National Committee, Joseph E. Sandler, and FARA expert Joshua I. Rosenstein for the campaign and election law firm Sandler Reiff. The firm analyzed FARA-related questions for them for at least four years, according to the emails and memos reviewed by the journalists. Liat Glazer, who was serving as the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs’ legal advisor, emphasized the need for secrecy surrounding the hiring of the firm, cautioning: “Exposing the name of the law firm could thwart the entire relationship, as I understand it was agreed with them that the engagement with [Israel] would not be revealed.” She also warned that if the public found out that Israel was getting legal advice about FARA, it may “raise claims that the state of Israel wants to unacceptably interfere in US matters and spark a public debate on a sensitive issue in Israel-US relations.” The report was based on emails and documents obtained by a “hacktivist collective” known as Anonymous for Justice, who infiltrated the Israeli Ministry of Justice. Sources for this article include: TheCradle.co LeeFang.com

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