Lobbying for Israel can be lucrative.
David Siegel heads the organization called Friends of the European Leadership Network. He commands an annual salary exceeding $350,000.
Over the past few days, Siegel has been thanking those Western politicians who are willing to criticize the International Criminal Court after its chief prosecutor sought warrants for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, Israel’s prime minister and defense minister, as well as leading players in Hamas. Outrage at the ICC’s move is proof of “moral clarity,” Siegel has contended.
Siegel has spent most of his career working for the Israeli government and the lobby which backs it up. Before taking up his current position, he was Israel’s top representative in the southwestern United States (a region that includes California, Arizona, Colorado and Hawaii).
Friends of the European Leadership Network – based in Skokie, a Chicago suburb – helps marshal elite support for Israel.
According to a “transparency register” run by the Brussels bureaucracy, Siegel’s outfit finances almost the entire budget of the European Leadership Network (Elnet), a key pro-Israel group.
It is no accident that Elnet is funded primarily from the US. For years, Elnet has copied the modus operandi of the Israeli lobby across the Atlantic.
A core activity has been buying influence from lawmakers and other establishment figures by bringing them on expenses-paid propaganda trips.
More than 20 such visits to the Middle East have been organized by Elnet since Israel began its genocidal war against Gaza in October.
Hellbound and Down 