By Nick Cleveland-Stout – Drop Site News
This evening in Manhattan, “The Great Israeli Real Estate Event” will be advertising land available for sale in Gush Etzion, a cluster of illegal West Bank settlements, while also making legal, tax, and banking services available for those who want to become settlers, according to the event’s publicly listed information. Despite the commercial and internationally illegal nature of the event, it is being hosted at a religious institution, Park East Synagogue on the Upper East Side.
Previous events have drawn protesters and counter-protesters, leading to charges of antisemitism leveled at the protesters for demonstrating near a synagogue. The protesters have countered that it is inappropriate to use a religious institution to shield such a contentious practice. A spokesperson for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani declined to comment on the Israeli real estate expo. In the wake of previous protests, the New York City Council, with a veto-proof majority, in March passed legislation restricting such demonstrations.
This week in Washington, meanwhile, saw the launch of Israel Advocacy Day, a high-profile lobbying campaign led by Eagles’ Wings, a New York-based Christian Zionist organization.
What we can reveal today is that the campaign is secretly financed by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, implicating foreign agent registration laws in a serious way. That story, by journalist Nick Cleveland-Stout, is below.
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WASHINGTON, D.C.—On Monday night, over 500 people packed into the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown D.C. to kickoff Israel Advocacy Day—a major pro-Israel lobbying push on Capitol Hill spearheaded by Eagles’ Wings, a New York-based Christian Zionist organization. During a break in the evening’s programming, a list of sponsors of the event appeared on screen. The list included the National Religious Broadcasters, the Jewish Federations of North America, and Israel365, a group that organized a trip of MAGA influencers to Israel last year.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs was not advertised as a supporter—despite funding upwards of half of the lobbying push. Eagles’ Wings was secretly paid a total of $700,000 by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, $245,000 of which was allocated for its lobbying efforts this year, according to a previously unreported Israeli procurement document.
Robert Stearns, a pastor and the founder of Eagles’ Wings, did pause to thank Tammy Ben-Haim, a Ministry official, for attending—but left it at that.
The lobbying campaign plans to hold more than 100 meetings across Capitol Hill this week. “We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss the U.S.-Israel relationship,” reads a meeting invite sent to a Democratic Congressional staffer obtained by Drop Site.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs notes in the contract that it is funding Eagles’ Wings in order to prevent churchgoers and priests “from adopting pro-BDS and anti-Israeli positions.” In the contract, an Israeli official conveyed that the campaign has support from high-ranking officials within the Israeli government. “The Eagles’ Wings project is very important to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the Director General in particular.”
Eagles’ Wings, the official added, is trying to invite the “most important among the attendees to more intimate meetings in order to improve their views on the State of Israel and to fight against the lies [people] are spreading about the country.”