InfluenceWatch Friday

InfluenceWatch, a project of Capital Research Center, is a comprehensive and ever-evolving compilation of our research into the numerous advocacy groups, foundations, and donors working to influence the public policy process. The website offers transparency into these influencers’ funding, motives, and connections while providing insight often neglected by other watchdog groups.

The information compiled in InfluenceWatch gives news outlets and other interested parties research to use in reporting on significant topics that are often overlooked by the American public.

CRC is pleased to present some of the most significant additions to InfluenceWatch in the past week:

• The Alkalam Institute is a San Diego-based group that advocates for using computer sciences to benefit Muslim communities. It endorsed the January 13, 2024 “March on Washington for Gaza” in Washington D.C that called for an end to U.S funding of Israeli military operations over what the March calls “Israel’s genocide against Gaza and the occupation of Palestine.” The Institute’s founder, Souhayl Maronesy, previously posted on Twitter/X claiming Gazans were fighting “Satan” while also claiming Christians would turn on the Jewish people to “unleash something…that will make the holocaust [sic] look insignificant.”
• The Alianza Agricola (or Agriculture Alliance) is a New York-based labor group that advocates for the rights of illegal immigrant farmworkers in Western and Central New York state. The group fundraises through the charitable arm of the Democrat Party-affiliated donor tool ActBlue, and it has previously received funding from socialist movement-associated food industry labor coalition Food Chain Workers Alliance. In February 2024, Alianza Agricola endorsed the New York For All Act, which aimed to prohibit state and local law enforcement from working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
• Max Blumenthal is the editor-in-chief of media company The Grayzone and is the son of Sidney Blumenthal, who previously worked as a communications strategist for the Clinton Administration. According to the Washington Free Beacon, on January 16, 2024 Blumenthal spoke during an event at the Republican-affiliated Capitol Hill Club alongside journalist Miko Peled, who supports the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) The Free Beacon alleged that Blumenthal called for the “dismantling” of the Jewish state and denied reports that Hamas terrorists raped women and killed babies during their attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.
• No Tech for Apartheid (NTA) is a group of Amazon and Google tech workers demanding that both companies end their involvement in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract providing technology services to the State of Israel. The group calls Israel an “apartheid” state engaged in “genocide.” It is a project of Jewish Voice for Peace and MPower Change, the latter being a project of NEO Philanthropy that was co-founded by controversial pro-Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour. NTA has been endorsed by anti-Israel BDS movement-associated groups as well as pro-Palestinian groups including the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Palestinian Youth Movement, and the Adalah Justice Project.
• TAWANI Enterprises is an umbrella entity for businesses and other organizations run by President and CEO Jennifer Pritzker, a member of the Pritzker family of billionaires and Democratic politicians. TAWANI Enterprises’ nonprofit arms include the left-of-center TAWANI Foundation and the Pritzker Military Foundation. According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, Pritzker supported Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign.