i don't have a problem with this so long as they are not taking editoral direction from their funders. it seems that this is not what happened in this case, although if it had not been discovered then maybe that is what the russians would have aimed for down the line. the reason this bothers me a lot less with russia or china than with israel is because russia and china are global adversaries to the us, whereas israel is ostensibly an ally. attempting to progandise to the populace of your rival is part and parcel of geopolitics. propagndising the populace of an ally is treasonous. it is attempting to have your cake and eat it too. if the us was opposed to, or even neutral towards israel then it wouldn't bother me if they were funding us political media. but engaging is what is essentially an act of soft war against an ally is super scummy. it also raises serious ethical concerns. the us government is not allowed to run covert propganda campaigns against their own citizens. political machines do this, but they do this as private political entities. using the resources of the federal government to do this is a very different prospect. if you were to allow a nation that you give billions of dollars in aid to do this then this amounts to a work around where the us government is essentially funding propaganda against its own citizens, with zero transparency or accountability. the ethical dilemma is obvious, even if there is no direct evidence of any us complicity in israeli propaganda operations targeted at americans.
Australia