Rights Groups Demand Biden Give Answers on Israel's Secret Influence Campaign on Congress

AHEAD OF ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial address to congress, a coalition of more than 30 human rights and faith-based advocacy groups sent a letter on Wednesday urging the U.S. government to investigate several media reports that the Israeli government has been operating a social media influence scheme to sway American lawmakers toward pro-Israeli policies.

The letter, addressed to President Joe Biden, references reporting from the New York Times, The Guardian, and Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, which, in separate investigations, uncovered an Israeli influence campaign that used fake accounts to pose as Americans in order to disparage pro-Palestinian groups with “deeply Islamophobic and anti-immigrant content,” target student groups and human rights organizations who were critical of Israel, and post pro-Israel content online. The campaign was designed to persuade lawmakers to continue providing military aid to Israel for its war on Gaza, and focused on Black Democratic members of Congress.

“What this letter asks for is very simple: that President Biden and his administration treat reports of inappropriate Israeli influence operations with the same seriousness that it has allegations of Russian and Iranian influence campaigns.” said Jamal Abdi, head of the National Iranian American Council, referring to separate efforts to interrupt American democracy by Iran and Russia ahead of the 2016 and 2020 elections and earlier this year. “Unfortunately, what has been reported thus far could just be the tip of the iceberg.”