Amichai Chikli, a member of the Likud Party and a minister in the Israeli government, has been leading a campaign to spread pro-Israeli propaganda in the United State corporate media. 

According to a report by The Guardian, Chikli was brought before the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to inform elected officials on what could be done about the growing set of anti-war protests from young people all over universities across the US.  

Chikli and his team relaunched the “Concert”, a controversial program initially branded as Kela Shlomo in Hebrew. The program has the ostensive aim of carrying out what the Israeli regime has deemed as ““mass consciousness activities” primarily targeted largely at the US and Europe.” This specific iteration is part of a broader public relations drive to target US institutions of higher learning and change the definition of antisemitism according to US law. 

Concert is currently known as Voices of Israel. Previously, it teamed up with groups leading a campaign to enact so-called “anti-BDS” state laws that sanction Americans for participating in boycotts or other non-violent demonstrations against Israel.

The latest iteration of the program is a concerted effort, often run covertly, by the Jewish state to push back against university protests, human rights organizations and other dissenting voices. 

Voices’ most recent activities were carried out through non-profit organizations and other bodies that often do not reveal their donor information. From October up until May, Chikli has presided over at least $8.6m for a budget that’s allocated towards government advocacy to change the public debate.

One American pro-Zionist group that has been working with Chikli’s ministry, the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, or ISGAP, was able to achieve a major victory in recent times. The ISCAP allegedly received the bulk of its funding in 2018 from the Israeli agency that was in charge of operating Concert. At an April 7 event at the Palm Beach Country Club, ISGAP boasted about a congressional public relations victory that it achieved. 

In this instance, they were referring to hearings led by Republicans such as New York Congressman Elise Stefanik designed to grill prominent university presidents such as then-Harvard President Claudine Gay and her counterparts in other elite universities. 

Gay ended up resigning earlier this year for engaging in alleged acts of plagiarism. 

“All these hearings were the result of our report that all these universities, beginning from Harvard, are taking a lot of money from Qatar,” boasted Natan Sharansky, a former member of the Israeli, who previously occupied Chikli’s role and is currently the chair of the ISGAP. Sharansky informed the organization’s supporters that Stefanik’s questioning of university officials had captured the eyeballs of over 1 billion people. 

The ISGAP has continued to influence congressional probes of universities over assertions that protests concerning Israel’s human rights track record are undergirded by antisemitism. The organization has been energetically involved in the campaign to pass new laws that change the definition of antisemitism to feature certain forms of speech critical of the nation of Israel.

Other American organizations connected to Voices have carried out several initiatives to strengthen support for the Jewish state. One of those groups that’s listed as a partner is the National Black Empowerment Council (NBEC), which published an open letter from black Democratic politicians manifesting solidarity with Israel. Another organization, CyberWell, a pro-Israel anti-disinformation group spearheaded by former Israeli military intelligence and Voices officials, has positioned itself as an official “trusted partner” to TikTok and Meta, assisting both social media platforms to review and edit content. A recent CyberWell report urged Meta to censor the popular slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.

According to reports by Haaretz and the New York Times, Chikli’s ministry tasked a public relations firm to secretly place pressure on American elected officials. The firm used hundreds of fake accounts posting pro-Israel or anti-Muslim content on X (the social media formerly known asTwitter), Facebook, and Instagram. The diaspora affairs ministry has repeatedly denied being involved in the campaign, which allegedly doled out roughly $2 million to an Israeli business entity for the social media posts

Hillel International, a co-founding organization of the Israel on Campus Coalition network and one of the largest Jewish campus groups on the planet, has reported receiving financial and strategic support from Mosaic United, a public benefit corporation supported by Chikli’s ministry. The well-established partnership is currently being usued to craft the political debate over Israel’s war in Gaza. 

Such foreign influence operations have begun to yield political results. In January, George Governor Brian Kemp signed legislation that modified Georgia’s hate crime statute to feature the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. In effect, several criticisms of Israel could lead to tougher prison sentences in the Peach State. In a similar vein, South Carolina and South Dakota passed similar measures in recent months. 

As for Florida, a similar piece of legislation, HB 187, was passed in both chambers of the state legislature and is now waiting to be signed by Governor Ron DeSantis. 

BLP previously reported that the US Congress advanced similar IHRA-style legislation that features the IHRA definition of antisemitism for all Department of Education standards. If this bill is passed in the Senate and becomes law of the land through the president’s signature, the bill will grant the federal government the power to slash funding to colleges and universities. Additionally,  civil rights violations would be in order for universities that allow certain criticisms of Israel.

Israel clearly has a tight grip on American foreign policy. Its multiple decades of high pressure lobbying has pretty much guaranteed it having a seat at the table in DC policymaking circles. The Israel lobby is a pernicious force that not only subverts democracy, but it also puts the US on a dangerous path of embarking on a war that advances Israeli interest at the US’s expense.

It’s high time that the US Congress grow a backbone and pass legislation that limits and eventually eliminates Israeli influence in American politics.