The Anti-Semitic Backstory of Qanon by David Livingstone Smith
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YOUR SHABBAT EDITION • SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 Stories for you to savor over Shabbat and through the weekend, in printable format. Sign up at forward.com/shabbat. GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM 1 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM News U.S. pro-Israel groups failed to disclose grants from Israeli government By Aiden Pink More than half of all American states have passed laws groups in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Israel itself, designed to combat the Boycott, Divestment and were to further the country’s public diplomacy efforts, Sanctions movement against Israel. No advocacy group particularly against BDS. was more important to this push than the Israel Allies The Israeli government’s gifts to pro-Israel American Foundation, an American non-profit that supports a entities — including more than $1 million each to network of pro-Israel legislators across the globe. Christians United for Israel and Aish Hatorah’s Hasbara It was the IAF that in 2014 connected a South Carolina Fellowships — were publicly unknown until the last few politician with an Israeli legal scholar who drafted the weeks, after a politician not from Prime Minister first bill to ban state agencies from contracting with Benjamin Netanyahu’s party took over the ministry and entities that boycott Israel. dropped its longstanding stance against releasing its public records. After that law passed in South Carolina in 2015, the IAF successfully lobbied for nearly-identical anti-BDS bills According to the Israeli documents, most of the grants in 25 other states, including Florida, Pennsylvania and to the American organizations were intended to send Arizona. Now the group is backing another bill, which those groups’ members — and selected guests — on has already passed in South Carolina and Florida and chartered trips to Israel, which often included meetings been introduced in six more states, which would with Israeli officials. Spending these funds abroad, change civil-rights codes to define antisemitism to rather than inside the United States, may have allowed include anti-Zionism. them to avoid onerous federal disclosure requirements designed to thwart foreign influence campaigns. Public records obtained by The Forward show that the Israeli government approved a grant of more than But documents also suggest that some of those trips $100,000 to the Israel Allies Foundation in 2019. The included instructions for pro-Israel advocacy back IAF has not disclosed this or any previous Israeli grants home — in statehouses and on college campuses — to the United States government, in possible violation which legal experts say may expose not just the of laws requiring American political advocacy groups to recipient groups but also anyone who went on their disclose foreign-government contributions. trips to fines and even prosecution for violating disclosure rules. The IAF, which reported $1.4 million in revenue in 2018 and features a testimonial on its website from Vice The documents, which include financial spreadsheets, President Mike Pence, did not respond to four emails government memoranda and the minutes of official seeking comment. meetings, were released after a Freedom of Information Act request by the Israeli Freedom of It is one of 11 American groups that received Israeli Information Movement and the Israeli news website government funds, according to the documents, which The Seventh Eye , and shared with the Forward. show that the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs and a quasi-governmental organization it created have given Many foreign countries try to influence U.S. policy and at least $6.6 million to U.S. organizations since 2018. public opinion, and Israel is no exception. But lobbyists These grants, along with millions more that went to paid by foreign governments are required to register U.S. pro-Israel groups failed to disclose grants from Israeli government 2 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM with the Department of Justice and disclose whom they The other two FARA lawyers concurred with Jones’ work for, whom they meet with or write to, how much assessments. they’re being paid, even what’s printed on their The ministry’s workaround: a company called Concert pamphlets. Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs was once a The law that governs this activity is the Foreign Agents backwater agency with unclear purpose. That changed Registration Act, or FARA. It was passed in the 1930s to in 2015, when it was placed under the control of the thwart pro-Nazi propaganda conducted by Americans hard-charging, hawkish Gilad Erdan, who convinced who were secretly supported by the Third Reich. It Netanyahu, a fellow member of the Likud Party, to exists so that the public can know “whose benefit quintuple the ministry’s budget and add fighting BDS to people are acting on behalf of,” said Amos Jones, a its portfolio. Washington lawyer who specializes in FARA cases. Ever since, the ministry has been tasked with waging Many American political advocacy groups reject war in the battle of public opinion against Israel’s foreign-government donations, both to avoid critics, especially on social media. It has fought in court accusations of foreign influence and to avoid the to keep some of its activities classified, but it has also cumbersome FARA disclosure process. published dossiers on pro-BDS activists and hired an FARA — which experts said was designed to be Israeli influencer popular on the U.S. college-lecture intentionally broad — governs “any person who acts as circuit as a consultant. an agent, representative, employee, or servant, or But as the Forward previously reported, Erdan found otherwise acts at the order, request, or under the that when the ministry offered money to Jewish- direction or control of a foreign principal.” The law calls American groups in 2017, it was often rebuffed — out of for up to five years in prison and fines up to $250,000 concern about the FARA disclosure requirements, that for failure to disclose. they’d be accused of “dual loyalty,” or that the grants While the law was once rarely enforced, there have would complicate their claims that they represent been several prominent FARA cases in the past few American Jewish interests, which are often similar but years. As part of their plea deals, former Trump not identical to Israeli ones. Such refusals included campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former National several prominent American Jewish groups like the Security Advisor Michael Flynn both admitted to Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish improper compliance with FARA. Council of Public Affairs. A spokesperson for the Anti- Defamation League said this month that it, too, had Many of the payments that Israel made to the IAF and turned down a grant. One official whose organization the other American groups were delivered through an was solicited, speaking on the condition of anonymity, organization that was set up, an Israeli official said that the Israelis were “anxious and frustrated” by acknowledged in a Knesset hearing this summer, to the rejections. mask the money’s source. But several experts said that the existence of such an intermediary does not remove A ministry spokesperson declined to answer questions the disclosure requirements. for this article. Instead, the official sent a three- sentence statement saying that its activities “are done “They can have all the shell companies they want or in a legal and professional manner, including informing whatever you want to call it,” said Jones, one of three the relevant authorities on issues such as FARA, and is FARA lawyers who were interviewed for this article. “If conducted according to the letter of the law.” that is a foreign organization or group of people, then they can be a foreign principal, thereby requiring By December 2017, the ministry largely stopped trying persons acting under their direction inside the United to directly give money to major Jewish advocacy States to have to register.” organizations. Instead, it helped create a “public- U.S. pro-Israel groups failed to disclose grants from Israeli government 3 GET THE LATEST AT FORWARD.COM benefit company” to fight BDS — and put a buffer organizations it funded, but others are redacted. The between itself and the American groups. The company language describing those beneficiaries’ activities is was originally called Kela Shlomo, or Solomon’s Sling, vague: “defensive and offensive” campaigns, research but less than a year later, its name was changed to on “corporate responsibility,” “amplification units” that Concert. In keeping with their penchant for secrecy, would provide “support for organizations in a pro- officials in the ministry and the company refused to Israeli network.” explain the name change to journalists. But Concert’s internal communications also show The ministry pledged to match private donations to frustration that many American pro-Israel groups still Concert, up to $37.5 million over four years. The refused to take its money, seeing it as essentially a company’s sole purpose was to provide grants to Israeli pass-through for government funds. and Diaspora advocacy groups. It had an independent That refusal made sense to several lawyers interviewed board, but its steering committee was chaired by the who help clients comply with FARA. “That entity would ministry’s director-general. count as a foreign principal,” said Jones, using the This approach meant potentially doubling the amount language of the disclosure law. of money available for the cause, by consolidating None of the American organizations known to have private and public funds, and creating an entity much taken money from Concert, or from the ministry nimbler than the Israeli government to quickly respond directly, have filed FARA paperwork with the to BDS victories or social media spats. Department of Justice. At first glance, most are able to Ronen Manelis, the ministry’s new director, also said avoid this disclosure because the payments were this summer that the strategy was designed in part to designated for activities outside the United States — make it easier for American groups to accept the but in some cases, the details raise questions.