The New Israel-Backed Nonprofit Feeding Lawmakers Model LegislationThe State Legislator Israel Caucus says it’s an independent nonprofit. The Israeli government discreetly paid for its first D.C. junket.
On June 2, politicians from around America, including Trump administration official Leo Terrell, met at the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. for a glitzy reception. The next day, they met Sen. John Fetterman (D–Pa.) in his office. The event celebrated the launch of a little-known nonprofit—the State Legislator Israel Caucus. Little public information exists about SLIC, which grew out of an earlier Israeli government-funded junket for American politicians. The group’s website has only a basic contact form, and its nonprofit registration has not yet appeared in the official database, which usually takes a few months. The June 2 event was not reported anywhere except for a Facebook post (and identical Instagram post) by SLIC cofounder Michael Gottlieb, a Democratic state legislator in Florida. Documents obtained by Drop Site News under the Florida Sunshine Law outline SLIC’s aims: to set up a system to distribute pro-Israel “model legislation” to state lawmakers around the country. When reached by phone, Gottlieb insisted that the organization was entirely his own initiative, though he acknowledged that the Israeli government funded the launch event. SLIC is maintaining a Dropbox account to share language for bills, according to the launch event invitation obtained under the Florida Sunshine Law. The linked account is not available for members of the public to view. “I believe I’m the only person who has contributed so far,” Gottlieb said, referring to the draft legislation his organization is pitching lawmakers. Gottlieb mentioned two specific examples of future proposals he had in mind: “Some states have had Shari’a law bans, so somebody could put that there if they wanted, and there are Judea and Samaria bills.” Earlier this year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill against applying Islamic law in Florida, stating that “we shouldn’t have people in this country that hate this country.” The state legislature is currently considering a bill to ban calling the West Bank by anything other than the Israeli nationalist term “Judea and Samaria,” which Gottlieb insists is the correct name. “Anybody could contribute anything to it,” Gottlieb added, referring to the Dropbox account. “It wouldn’t necessarily have to be Israel-focused or Jewish-focused or antisemitism-focused. You could put it in there for anybody to see.” Gottlieb’s Facebook post claims that 75 lawmakers from 35 states have joined SLIC so far, and the launch event invitation promises to release a directory, with the option for members to remain anonymous due to “antisemitism and doxxing issues.” Emily Gise, a Republican state legislator from Oklahoma, is listed as vice chair on the invitation. Jeremy England, a Republican state legislator from Mississippi, is listed as treasurer. Neither responded to requests for comment. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the invitation explains, “SLIC will not as an organization take a role in lobbying for candidates or legislation, instead we will serve as a vault so that members can access this information and utilize it for their states, as they deem appropriate.” The U.S. tax code limits the political lobbying that 501(c)(3) organizations can engage in. While nonprofits are absolutely forbidden from campaigning in elections, they are allowed to attempt “to influence legislation” by contacting lawmakers, as long as it is not a “substantial” part of their activities, according to the Internal Revenue Service. However, the IRS gives nonprofits wide latitude to “educate” the public about specific issues without it counting as lobbying. Asked about his relationship with the Israeli government, Gottlieb responded, “My relationship with the government? That makes it seem kind of sordid.” SLIC grew out of 50 States One Israel, he said—a 2015 initiative in which the Israeli foreign ministry paid for 250 state-level politicians from the U.S. to tour the country and meet with Israeli officials. (An off-key performance of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from the conference went viral.) As a participant in the tour, Gottlieb stated that he was inspired to bring together friends of Israel from both sides of the aisle. “At the incredible rate we have been building and the level of acceptance of our organization by the Israeli, government, [sic] we are hopeful that this organization will become a formidable partner for legislators in establishing model legislation,” Gottlieb wrote in an invitation for the SLIC launch, released under the Florida Sunshine Law. Israeli Ambassador Michael Leiter attended the launch alongside “many other Israeli diplomates [sic],” Gottlieb wrote on Facebook. Fetterman and Terrell, an attorney in the Justice Department’s civil rights division, also met with SLIC members. The Israeli embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. At a time when a majority of Democrats have turned against the U.S.-Israeli relationship, Fetterman has become a loud and proud voice for Israel. And in private, Fetterman has strategized with Leiter on pushing a pro-Israel agenda in Congress; taken long phone calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; and taken on David Safier, a self-described friend of one of Netanyahu’s advisors, as his own personal confidante, according to a recent report in New York Magazine. Terrell, meanwhile, has led the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestine student activism, promising to “bankrupt” universities. He recently told the Jerusalem Post that his goals include expanding the crackdown to elementary and high schools, and deploying “rapid response teams” in “blue cities.” In January 2026, the Israeli government granted Terrell its “Award of Honor for the Fight Against Antisemitism” during his first-ever trip to Israel. “They certainly weren’t paid to be there,” Gottlieb said, referring to the SLIC launch. “Fetterman, we just visited him in his office to tell him thank you for standing up and being a voice of reason.” The Department of Justice did not respond to a question about whether Terrell was at the event in an official capacity. Fetterman’s office also did not respond to a request for comment. The SLIC launch invitation was sent in a mass email to legislators and CC’d to two Israeli foreign ministry officials: Lior Haiat, who hosted 50 States One Israel as the deputy director for North American affairs, and Sawsan Hasson, a spokesperson for the embassy in Washington. Prospective attendees were invited “to be linked to the ministry of foreign affairs so we can reserve your spot,” and were offered free airfare and accommodation in Washington for the inaugural event. “That money came from—I don’t know the exact source, from the Israeli government,” Gottlieb told Drop Site. “Nobody was paid directly. The airfare and hotel was covered.” It’s not unheard of for an American nonprofit to work on political advocacy with foreign officials—but it is controversial. The Foreign Agent Registration Act, a law notorious for its vagueness and selective enforcement, requires Americans to disclose political activities “directly or indirectly supervised, directed, controlled, financed, or subsidized in whole or in major part” by a foreign patron. Last year, a Sikh temple filed a FARA complaint against the Hindu American Foundation for coordinating political events with the Indian embassy and lobbying for pro-India policies. (The foundation, which has not been charged with FARA violations, “categorically rejects” that it acts on behalf of the government of India.) Israeli officials discussed using the nonprofit system to avoid FARA disclosure, a leaked 2018 memo reported by The Guardian shows. The idea was to fund American partners indirectly through a nonprofit organization that would not trigger FARA requirements. A legal advisor for Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs suggested that “informal coordination mechanisms” such as “oral meetings” could give the ministry “means of supervision and management” over those American partners without a paper trail, according to The Guardian. Creating SLIC “was at nobody’s advice or suggestion other than my own,” Gottlieb, who has represented parts of Broward County since 2018, told Drop Site. While state legislators would seem to be distant from foreign policy issues, the Israeli government and its supporters have increasingly identified them as a battleground against the Palestinian boycott movement. At the 50 States One Israel conference, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told the crowd that they should be promoting antiboycott laws. A leaked Israeli justice ministry strategy memo from 2019, previously reported by Reason Magazine, suggested that state-level antiboycott activism would also “promote a trend of messaging and momentum to Israel’s benefit.” Florida has been a major hotspot for state-level pro-Israel activism. It was one of the first states to ban boycotting Israel in 2016. DeSantis came to office three years later promising to be “the most pro-Israel Governor in the nation.” That year, he traveled to Israel to sign a bill against antisemitism. Since then, he has also mandated boycotts of Iran, attempted to ban Students for Justice in Palestine, and created a state terrorist watchlist. Because it is also one of the most transparent states in the country—the Sunshine Law is one of the few state-level public records laws that includes legislators’ email inboxes—Florida provides a unique look into the Israeli government’s direct involvement in U.S. politics. For example, during May 2023 clashes in the Palestinian territories, Israeli foreign ministry official Kennedy Starnes wrote to Zoraida Druckman, an aide to then-Florida State Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book, a Democrat. Starnes asked Druckman to “publish support statements on Social Media” for the Israeli war effort, and attached an “unclassified report” full of Israeli talking points. Book tweeted a pro-Israel statement an hour later, and Druckman sent a link to Starnes. Druckman, who now works for a Republican state qsenator, did not respond to a request for comment. Gottlieb himself was in contact with the Israeli foreign ministry for several years. In an email thread from October 23, 2023, he wrote to Starnes that “the general consul and I discussed our working together towards an Israel day at the Capitol.” That event came to fruition—and ended up being much more than a cultural celebration. On February 29, 2024, Israeli Consul General Maor Elbaz-Starinsky presented state legislators with an Israeli flag as they listened to survivors of the October 2023 attacks on Israel and signed into law the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism. (The IHRA definition has been used to suppress Palestinian activism around the world, and its own author has stated that he “never intended” it to be a “hate speech code.”) Gottlieb and Elbaz-Starinsky stood on stage looking serious next to then-state legislator Randy Fine, who was grinning ear-to-ear. Fine, now a Republican congressman, has gained national notoriety for a string of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian comments over the past year, stating that “mainstream Muslims have declared war on us” and Palestinians should “starve away.” But even as a state legislator, Fine’s views were clear. In 2021, he called Palestinians “animals” and replied to a photo of a dead Palestinian baby on social media with “Thanks for the pic!” Like his earlier Israel Day event, Gottlieb presents SLIC as a scrupulously bipartisan organization. “There’s nothing nefarious about it,” Gottlieb told Drop Site. “It’s really just meant to help improve relationships with each of the 50 states and Israel, because I do think that there is a symbiotic relationship that all can benefit from.”
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