ISRAELI-LINKED GROUP SHAPED US MEDIA COVERAGE IN BREACH OF FOREIGN LOBBYING LAW

Thu 04 December 2025:

A shadow lobbying effort to influence American media and politics on behalf of Israel has been uncovered through a trove of leaked emails, raising serious legal questions under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

The documents details of which is reported by Responsible Stagecraft, expose how the group Act For Israel, co-founded by Israeli-American actress Noa Tishby, worked in close coordination with the Israeli government to shape US public opinion, without ever registering as a foreign agent.

The revelations, based on internal communications leaked by hacking group Handala, show how Act For Israel arranged media appearances, sponsored press junkets to Israel, and coordinated messaging with Israeli officials, all while operating under the guise of a domestic grassroots organisation.

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In one document, the group boasts of securing media interviews for a visiting Israeli military delegation by activating its US media contacts at short notice. Act For Israel is said to have arranged seven interviews with the top ranks of US blogs and radio shows.

Experts say these activities appear to constitute direct lobbying and media influence on behalf of a foreign government, a category of activity that is explicitly regulated under FARA. “That sounds like a slam-dunk case of activities that should have required FARA registration,” said Ben Freeman, a FARA expert at the Quincy Institute.

Though the Foreign Agents Registration Act has been on the books since 1938, enforcement has historically been lax—particularly in cases involving Israel. “There was an underlying assumption that Israel didn’t have to play by the rules,” Freeman added. “With this, we’re getting a sense that our suspicions were right.”

The documents also implicate a conservative commentator, Joshua Treviño, who acted as media director for Act For Israel while simultaneously running a covert Malaysian PR campaign. Though Treviño later retroactively registered as a foreign agent for Malaysia, he never did so for his pro-Israel work.

Internal records show Treviño facilitated paid trips for US media figures to Israel, including journalists who later published favourable coverage. According to FARA rules, even unpaid or indirect activities on behalf of a foreign power require registration.

One leaked itinerary reveals that journalists participating in the Act For Israel junket met with senior Israeli officials including Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and communications advisor Mark Regev, and were required to produce at least six pro-Israel media articles as a condition of their travel.

Tishby herself only registered as a foreign agent years later—in 2022—when she was officially appointed Israel’s Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism. But the leaked documents show she was working closely with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs long before that appointment, raising questions about prior undeclared lobbying.

In a 2011 letter included in the leak, then Israeli President Shimon Peres praised Act For Israel as “a solution to a new form of de-legitimization” and commended the group’s role in advancing Israel’s public diplomacy.

The group has since disbanded, but many of its affiliates, including Tishby and her collaborator Yoav Davis, a former IDF spokesperson—remain active in pro-Israel messaging. Davis recently registered with FARA after being paid over $160,000 by the Israeli government to produce PR materials related to hostages and humanitarian issues. Several of those videos have since been shared by Tishby on her large social media platforms.

“This is not just about failing to file paperwork,” Freeman warned. “It’s about the systematic concealment of a foreign state’s efforts to manipulate political discourse in the US. That’s what FARA was created to prevent.”

-MEMO

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