Pro-Israel lobbying network ELNET deepens ties in Berlin, Germany, through paid trips and closed-door briefings

ELNET, a pro-Israel lobbying network, presents itself as fostering dialogue, according to the source, which also says the group has shifted significantly to the right since its creation in 2007. The source says its influence is clearest in Germany.

The source describes a meeting on 8 May 2014 in an office near the Bundestag in Berlin. Seven men attended: three Americans, three Germans and one Israeli, Raanan Eliaz. At that time Eliaz was co-founder and director of the European Leadership Network (ELNET), which the source says was set up to build relations between key European countries and Israel. The source notes that Eliaz had grown up in one of the first settlements in the West Bank and had worked with AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), a US pro-Israel lobbying organisation, and with the Israeli prime minister’s office.

According to the meeting’s minutes, as cited by the source, Eliaz emphasised “the positive aspects of an internationally cross-linked system of associations with one aim.” He reportedly said there was not yet an entity in German-Israeli friendship that worked “specifically to involve decision-makers.” The purpose of the meeting was to officially launch ELNET’s German chapter.

The source states that ELNET was created in 2007 to replicate American methods of pro-Israel lobbying in Europe. It says AIPAC had made support for Israel politically rewarding and costly to oppose through substantial donations to political candidates and aggressive media campaigns. According to the source, Europe, with a much smaller Jewish community and less donation-dependent politicians, was not yet ready for such tactics. ELNET therefore cultivated wealthy Europeans sympathetic to Israel, encouraged them to take part in political spending campaigns modelled on AIPAC, and developed other forms of influence, including all-expenses-paid trips to Israel for politicians.

The source reports that ELNET now employs dozens of staff and has six European offices in Paris, Berlin, Brussels, London, Warsaw and Rome. Its head office is in Tel Aviv, and it has a New York branch registered as Friends of ELNET. The source gives its annual budget as up to $20m, and the text breaks off at that point.

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