{"id":1570039,"date":"2024-03-23T11:34:59","date_gmt":"2024-03-23T11:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2024\/03\/israel-meddling-us-iran-netanyahu-aipac\/"},"modified":"2024-03-23T16:20:47","modified_gmt":"2024-03-23T16:20:47","slug":"israels-meddling-in-us-politics-is-aggressive-and-unceasing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/03\/23\/israels-meddling-in-us-politics-is-aggressive-and-unceasing\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s Meddling in US Politics Is Aggressive and Unceasing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n\n\n\n

For all the periodic meltdowns about foreign interference in US elections and politics by countries like Russia, it\u2019s actually Israel, a nominal ally, that has done far more meddling in American politics \u2014 with far more influence.<\/h3>\n\n\n
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\n Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is greeted by members of Congress as he arrives to speak at the US Capitol on March 3, 2015. (Chip Somodevilla \/ Getty Images)\n <\/figcaption> \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n \n

For the past week, the United States and Israel have been embroiled in a nasty public spat, with one country accusing the other of meddling in its internal politics. The joke is that Israel is the one doing the accusing.<\/p>\n

The brawl kicked off after a headline-grabbing speech from Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer last Thursday, charging<\/a> that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had \u201clost his way\u201d and calling for \u201ca new election\u201d in the country. Schumer\u2019s intervention followed a drip feed of reports suggesting<\/a> that the Joe Biden administration hoped to nudge Netanyahu out of power in Israel. Naturally, the Netanyahu government wasn\u2019t pleased, with the prime minister complaining<\/a> to CNN that it was \u201cinappropriate to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there. . . . We\u2019re not a banana republic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael is a sovereign country,\u201d Tal Heinrich, Netanyahu\u2019s spokesperson, told<\/a> Newsmax<\/em>. \u201cWe don\u2019t intervene in American politics, and we expect to be treated with the same respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Israel is<\/em> being treated with the same respect it treats the United States. For decades, intervening in the domestic politics of the United States and working to replace its elected leadership has been the Israeli government\u2019s bread and butter.<\/p>\n

The fact is that Israeli political meddling in the United States has gone from an open secret in Washington to more-or-less public knowledge nationwide under Netanyahu\u2019s leadership \u2014 something complained about by media commentators, US officials, intelligence officers, and prominent Jewish public figures. More and more, this political interference is not so much linked back to the Israeli government as a whole but to its most right-wing factions. And its scale, frequency, and power far outdo the meddling of any other foreign power, making Israel, in practice, closer to an adversarial state than a friendly one.<\/p>\n\n \n\n \n \n \n

Bots, Trolls, and Anti-BDS<\/h2>\n \n

It\u2019s not like Israel\u2019s meddling in US politics is ancient history. Mere days after the Netanyahu government was done huffing and puffing about external interference in its sovereign decision-making, an Israeli watchdog group revealed<\/a> the existence of a social media information campaign pushing Israeli government propaganda onto US lawmakers, including its dubious allegations<\/a> about Hamas links to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). According to the report, 85 percent of the politicians targeted were Democrats, 90 percent of whom were black.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear what the exact source behind this campaign is. But given the fact that the Israeli state has admitted to<\/a> or been<\/a> caught<\/a> carrying out vast online disinformation campaigns<\/a> before \u2014 and given that the influence campaign closely tracked official propaganda, with its attacks on UNRWA peaking at the exact time the Israeli government formally launched the accusations against the agency \u2014 it\u2019s not a stretch to suspect this might be a government operation.<\/p>\n