Israel Lobbying

Many posts have analyzed how foreign governments try to influence American politics and policy.  And many posts have discussed relations between the US and Israel

Jacob Wendler at POLITICO:

Israel is shifting away from its traditional strategy of relying on American-led groups like AIPAC to advance its interests in the U.S., and is instead increasingly hiring foreign agents to ramp up its influence efforts, per a new paper from foreign policy think tank the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

— Israel has spent over $1 billion on public diplomacy efforts since 2023 — including more than $100 million on efforts to influence the U.S. disclosed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, per the new report from Nick Cleveland-Stout, a research associate in the Quincy Institute’s Democratizing Foreign Policy program. The country is now on track to be the biggest FARA spender this year.

— Seventeen new firms registered under FARA to work for Israeli interests in 2024 and 2025, including former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale’s firm Clock Tower X, which holds the largest contract at $46.5 million, per the report. Clock Tower X has disclosed attempts to seed pro-Israel framing into LLM training data via a network of websites designed to influence AI chatbots like ChatGPT.

— Israel has also spent millions to court social media influencers and fund mass texting campaigns aimed at swaying public opinion, per FARA filings reviewed by the Quincy Institute. The country paid $161,000 to influencer Yoav Davis, who oversees the Instagram account @jews_of_ny with nearly 200,000 followers. It also paid firm Bridges Partners $900,000 to pay more than a dozen influencers — none of whom have registered as foreign agents.

— Israel’s U.S. influence efforts are largely funneled through French company Havas Media, which has subcontracted seven different firms under FARA since 2024, including Democratic PR shop SKDK and Bridges Partners. Many of the subcontractors specialize in reaching critical groups whose support for the country is waning, including young Americans, Evangelicals and conservatives. In September 2025, Havas inked a $3.2 million contract with Christian marketing firm Show Faith by Works to undertake a controversial “geofencing” campaign aimed at targeting American churchgoers with pro-Israel ads.

— Israel and its backers in the U.S. have escalated their efforts to repair the country’s reputation in the U.S. amid intensifying criticism from members of Congress and Vice President JD Vance. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also expected to visit Washington next week to meet with President Donald Trump, Netanyahu’s office announced today.

— “Israel’s new tactics are transforming America’s influence landscape, but they have so far proved insufficient to counter the erosion in public support that is being driven by Israel’s deeply unpopular policies,” Cleveland-Stout writes in the paper.

No Tribute, No Pardon

 Many posts have addressed the president's pardon power.

A pardon industry has arisen during the Trump years.

But not all can afford to pay.

 Kenneth P. Vogel and Alan Feuer at NYT:

President Trump quietly denied nearly 6,000 clemency applications this month from people who mostly lacked political connections and had waited patiently in a queue while he awarded pardons and commutations to allies who had skipped the line.

The denials came after his administration had raised hopes that he might mark the country’s semiquincentennial by granting clemency to as many as 250 people.

That raft of clemency grants did not materialize. Instead, Mr. Trump doled out fewer than 20 pardons on July 3 to Clean Air Act scofflaws along with a political donor.

Thousands of other petitioners were left waiting.

The denials were announced inside the Justice Department in a July 14 letter from Ed Martin, the U.S. pardon attorney, to United States attorneys across the country.

Politics as a Safety Risk

Many posts have discussed  partisan polarization and political violence.

Benedict Vigers at Pew:

Although Americans are most likely to name road accidents and crime as the two biggest threats to their personal safety, no other population in the world is more likely to identify politics as a safety concern.

According to a 2026 Lloyd's Register Foundation World Risk Poll report, one in 10 U.S. adults identify politics as the greatest source of risk to their personal safety when asked an open-ended question. This is up from 6% in both 2021 and 2023 and 10 times the global average of 1% across 140 countries.

The U.S. statistically ties with Hungary (at 9%, measured several months before the recent election) for the highest percentage of adults identifying politics as their top safety concern. Other countries with relatively high percentages of mentions include Serbia, Latvia and Lithuania (at 6% each) and Slovakia, Russia, Myanmar, Spain and Israel (all at 5%).

...

Polarization unites these responses, whether people express it directly or indirectly. Many Democrats cite the current administration, while many Republicans point to the Democratic Party — both indirect demonstrations of polarization. However, others from across the political spectrum name polarization and the wider political climate directly when thinking about risks to their safety:

“I would have to say the state of polarization of the American people.” (Republican, 54, Male)

“I would say political extremism. I don't have a lot of personal risk, but I do feel the biggest risk is people that are fanatical about their position and that they could be violent.” (Independent, 42, Male)

“The political situation has a lot to do with the fact whether if I am safe or not. I am concerned where we're going or might go.” (Democrat, 69, Female)

 

 

"Victim" Group Is a Front for Utility Companies

A number of posts have discussed Astroturf, i.e., artificial grassroots lobbying.  Interest groups create front groups to disguise their true aims.

Melody Petersen at LAT:

A group claiming to represent California fire survivors began sending mailers and paying for social media ads this spring, calling on lawmakers to take action to reduce the rising cost of wildfires.

“Contact your legislator and tell them we need to fix our wildfire problem to make California more affordable,” said a mailer sent this month by the group called Wildfire Victims First.

“Stand with wildfire victims,” the group’s website states, urging people to join its cause.

The group was created with money from California’s three biggest for-profit electric utilities — Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric — which government investigators found ignited at least six of the state’s 20 most destructive wildfires.

The corporate campaign has angered wildfire survivors, including some of the thousands of families in Altadena who lost their homes in last year’s Eaton fire. The blaze, which killed 19 people, remains under investigation. Edison has said its century-old transmission line is the likely cause.

The utility-funded group is lobbying in Sacramento for proposals in a study that Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered to guide lawmakers in writing wildfire-related bills. The study largely ignored utilities’ responsibility for igniting fires.

Among its dozens of proposals is limiting amounts victims can get for pain and suffering, capping fees for attorneys representing survivors and requiring property insurers to bear more of the cost of utility-sparked fires.

”Each proposal would shift more of the cost of catastrophic fires away from the corporations responsible and onto survivors, policyholders, taxpayers, and the public,” wrote Joy Chen of Every Fire Survivor’s Network in a letter to Newsom this week.

Chen wrote that the industry-funded Wildfire Victims First campaign “created the appearance that wildfire survivors supported” the findings of the study. “We do not.”

Opinion on Immigration Proposals

Many posts have discussed immigration. 

Megan Brenan at Gallup:

Beyond general views on immigration, the telephone poll measured Americans’ support for five specific policy proposals. The highest levels of support are seen for two proposals related to citizenship, with slightly more in favor of allowing immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children the chance to become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements (81%) than doing the same for immigrants living in the U.S. illegally (75%). In each case, more Americans “strongly favor” the proposal than just “favor” it.

 

Trust Over Time

 Many posts have discussed confidence in institutions.

Bruce Mehlman:

Aging Congress

Many posts have discussed the state of Congress.

Elena Shao at NYT:

The sudden death of Senator Lindsey Graham, the 71-year-old Republican of South Carolina, has renewed criticism of an increasingly aging Congress and the systems and norms that continue to reward seniority and tenure.

More than a third of U.S. senators are 70 or older. In the Senate and the House, that age cohort has grown markedly over the past few decades, and now makes up a quarter of membership across both chambers.