Exclusive: Israeli documents show expansive government effort to shape US discourse around Gaza war
- Details
- Written by Lee Fang and Jack Poulson | The Guardian Lee Fang and Jack Poulson | The Guardian
- Published: 24 June 2024 24 June 2024
As the Gaza war rages, Israeli funds target US college campuses and push to redefine antisemitism in US law
“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 in terms of a foreign country’s influence over American political debate.”
None of the groups identified 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.
Unitarian Universalists call for an end to the war in Gaza and an end to US Complicity
- Details
- Written by Curt Bell Curt Bell
- Published: 24 June 2024 24 June 2024
A major pro-Israel group spent big to influence one Oregon congressional race
- Details
- Written by Dirk VanderHart (OPB) Dirk VanderHart (OPB)
- Published: 22 June 2024 22 June 2024
Filings show a political action committee tied to AIPAC spent $1.3 million on attacks against former Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal in May while giving $1 million to a group supporting her opponent.
The nation’s most prominent pro-Israel group spent big last month to influence the race to replace outgoing Oregon U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer.
New filings show a political action committee affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, donated $1.3 million in May to a group that spent more than $3.2 million waging attacks on one of three central candidates in that race: former Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal.
The group also poured $1 million into a separate group that lavished more than $2 million in support on Maxine Dexter, the physician and state lawmaker who ultimately won the race.
Those efforts, combined with a surge in fundraising from donors with ties to AIPAC, provided a major boost to Dexter. She is now all but assured a seat in Congress next year as the Democratic nominee in the deep blue Portland district.
The $1.3 million contribution was reported on Thursday by an AIPAC-affiliated political action committee called the United Democracy Project. The money went to Voters for Responsive Government, an out-of-state PAC that surfaced in April, that has offered no reasons for its interest in the Oregon primary.
Read more at:
Israeli Official Describes Secret Government Bid to Cement Control of West Bank
- Details
- Written by Natan Odenheimer, Ronen Bergman and Patrick Kingsley | The New York Times Natan Odenheimer, Ronen Bergman and Patrick Kingsley | The New York Times
- Published: 21 June 2024 21 June 2024
An influential member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition told settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that the government is engaged in a stealthy effort to irreversibly change the way the territory is governed, to cement Israel’s control over it without being accused of formally annexing it.
In a taped recording of the speech, the official, Bezalel Smotrich, can be heard suggesting at a private event earlier this month that the goal was to prevent the West Bank from becoming part of a Palestinian state.
“I’m telling you, it’s mega-dramatic,” Mr. Smotrich told the settlers. “Such changes change a system’s DNA.”
Read more at: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/world/middleeast/israel-west-bank-netanyahu-bezalel-smotrich.html
Israeli tanks advance in Rafah as fleeing Palestinians ‘face death and starvation’
- Details
- Written by Julian Borger in Washington | The Guardian Julian Borger in Washington | The Guardian
- Published: 14 June 2024 14 June 2024
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/13/israel-gaza-war-rafah
Israeli tanks rolled into the western part of Rafah on Thursday as the city came under intense helicopter, drone and artillery fire in what residents described as one of the worst bombardments of the area so far.
The assault on Rafah has driven out more than a million Palestinians who had been sheltering there, forcing them into areas with little or no access to food, water or shelter. The UN has warned that more than a million people are expected to “face death and starvation by the middle of July”.
Joe Biden had warned he would cut off the supply of US weapons if Israel went ahead with an attack on Rafah, in part because of the lack of an adequate humanitarian plan for all the civilians who would be displaced, but the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his war cabinet launched the attack anyway over a month ago.
The Biden administration has yet to slow the flow of arms in response, arguing that Israel had yet to carry out “major operations”.
People living in Rafah described the level of fighting as devastating, however.