Israel is sponsoring ads on Ted Cruz's podcast. Is that legal?
The Israeli government-funded ad revenue appears to operate in a similar gray area. The advertisements, which are part of the $7 million “I am Israel” campaign launched in June, are geared toward encouraging Christians to visit the country and see biblical sites for themselves.
“Israel isn’t a destination; it’s a revelation, where every site you’ve studied, every scripture you’ve memorized, every sermon that ever moved you suddenly has an address, a landscape, a heartbeat,” Ben Ferguson, Cruz’s co-host, says in one ad. “This is the trip that changes not just how you see the Holy Land, but how you see everything.”
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The campaign appears to exploit a loophole in election financing laws. Candidates and PACs are banned from receiving any funding “directly or indirectly” from foreign nationals, according to the FEC. But Cruz would only run afoul of campaign finance laws if Israel explicitly earmarked its contribution to go to the PAC, said Craig Holman, a leading expert on campaign finance laws and an ethics lobbyist at Public Citizen.
“Assuming there is no formal agreement, then the money is considered iHeartRadio funds, with which it can do as it pleases,” Holman said.
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/ted-cruz-israel/Open linkView original on lemmy.ca
5 replies
Yes! Everything Ted Cruz and Israel do is legal, as they define the law on an as-needed basis.
Also, Israel buys a lot of commercial time on The Christian Broadcasting Network and the like. Christians are their biggest supporters. He's catering to his base.
One, no. Two, it doesn't matter.
There is no justice from within the system.
"Come to Israel, so we can spit on you Christians"
Spitting on Christians in Jerusalem ‘not criminal’, says Ben Gvir
The scariest part about all of this to me is how much evangelical conservative christians in the US are being set up to turn around and blame the jews instead of pointing the finger at Trump and the US Government for what is happening in Israel.
These brainwashed idiots aren't going to listen to a nuanced story about how the Palestinian Genocide is a product of a process of European Colonialism that has been occurring for decades and how the US is directly complicit in many ways in the perpetration of the Palestinian Genocide, not when the next spineless coward to get a microphone has a much simpler "The Jews Betrayed Us AGAIN!!!" story to screech into it (I am looking at you Tucker Carlson).
It is mindblowing watching the machinery for the "The Jews Stabbed Us In The Back!" narrative being constructed in broad daylight in the center of town like a circus arriving, a clear spectacle for the entire world by the rich and powerful to escape the coming consequences and backlash for the Palestinian Genocide and all of the things it is interwoven into.
All the while people call me antisemitic for the sinking feeling in my heart about where this is going....
US politics as whole is sponsored by Israel. Nothing to see here.