ELNET: Europe's New AIPAC or Same Old Influence Peddling?
Mainstream media is starting to notice ELNET, the European Leadership Network, a lobbying group mirroring AIPAC's influence tactics, now expanding its reach across Europe. The Intercept exposé focuses on the U.S. donors bankrolling this operation. What they often gloss over is the well-established playbook: secure political influence through financial leverage, then watch as policy aligns, whether
it benefits the actual population or not. This isn't groundbreaking strategy; it's a transplant of a highly effective model seen in D.C. for decades, now going global. One might wonder, with all the hand-wringing over 'foreign interference' when it suits, why this particular brand of cross-border political financing is consistently framed as 'advocacy' rather than what it appears to be: a
well-funded effort to shape sovereign nations' foreign policies. It seems some influence campaigns are more equal than others when it comes to media scrutiny. How many continents need a dedicated lobby to ensure unqualified support for a single foreign state before we call it what it is?