Screenshot of AI-generated video President Trump posted to Truth Social
Ari Ben-Menashe, who has accused the late Jeffrey Epstein of being an Israeli agent and who was the arms dealer who was implicated in the 1980s Iran–Contra scandal, has registered as a foreign agent to lobby the Trump administration on Gaza, according to a new Justice Department filing I obtained.
Menashe, who says he once spent a decade in the “innermost circles of Israeli intelligence,” is being paid $300,000 to promote Palestinian real estate mogul Samir Hlaileh (Hulileh) as the next president of Gaza.
Businessman Hlaileh is a hotel developer who says he has been working for years on a “master plan” to rebuild Gaza. His plan sounds remarkably similar to the remaking of Gaza that Donald Trump first described on February 4, when the president said he envisioned a “Riviera of the Middle East.”
On February 26, Trump posted an AI-generated video portraying a Gaza skyline dominated by lavish high rise buildings, with one hotel labeled, “TRUMP GAZA.”
There is no reporting as to whether Hlaileh and Trump have ever met, and Ben-Menashe himself is an infamous character who, despite his actual underground work with the Reagan administration, is a first class bullshit artist.
Ben-Menashe registered as a foreign agent to represent Hlaileh on February 23. The foreign agent registration form says that he “will attempt to influence United States policy in favor of the new Political Authority of Gaza through means of lobbying, public relations and economic development activities.” The form makes explicit reference to lobbying the executive branch of the U.S. government, as well as undertaking PR efforts to advance the plan.
Per the registration form:
“Within the United States, Registrant proposes to lobby the executive and/or legislative branches of the government of the United States and its agencies to support the efforts of Mr. Samir Hlaileh to become the leader of the new Political Authority of Gaza. Additionally, Registrant proposes to provide media and public relations services on behalf of the foreign principal's goals and activities. Registrant also provides lobbying services to the foreign principal in other countries.
Screenshot of FARA filing containing Ben-Menashe’s consulting firm Dickens & Madson Canada
Ben-Menashe rose to fame when during the Reagan administration he leaked to the press details of secret weapons shipments to Iran, a scandal that would later become known as “Iran–Contra” and resulted in the conviction of National Security Advisors John Poindexter and Robert McFarlane, the conviction of staffer Oliver North, and the indictment of Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger.
An Iranian born Israeli national, Ben-Menashe has said that his ability to speak Farsi, Hebrew, Arabic and English made him the ideal interlocutor for the arms deal. In 1989, he was charged with illegally attempting to sell U.S.-made C-130 military cargo planes to Iran. He was acquitted at trial in 1990 after claiming that he was an Israeli intelligence officer acting on behalf of the Israeli government, which countered that Ben-Menashe was just a low-level translator.
It’s hard to separate fact from fiction with Ben-Menashe, who congressional investigators found lied about claims of the original “October Surprise, ” a conspiracy, he claimed, where the Reagan administration worked with Iran to withhold the release of hostages in order to defeat Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential elections.
More recently, Ben-Menashe has alleged that the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was working on behalf of Israeli intelligence to collect dirt on famous people having sex with underage girls in order to make them susceptible to blackmail and coercion in their political and financial positions.
The fantastic figure Ben-Menashe has literally been a man of the world, lobbying on behalf of a long list of unsavory regimes, including Sudan, Myanmar, Venezuela, and Libya.
In his February 23 filing with the Justice Department, Ben-Menashe referred to a plan involving a future “U.S. and Arab (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE) military presence in Gaza,” echoing a similar proposal by President Donald Trump. Ben-Menashe says he will lobby for the removal of “any Hamas military presence” from Gaza, and its replacement with “a New Political Authority for Gaza,” led by Hlaileh.
Screenshot of consultancy agreement signed by Ben-Menashe
Palestinian economist and businessman Samir Hlaileh, 67, serves as chairman of the Palestine Stock Exchange, which was established in 1995. Described by Bloomberg as “one of the most important Palestinian investors and businessmen,” Hlaileh has worked with Israeli counterparts for decades on economic cooperation.
During the Hamas war, when Israel was threatening to cut off banking ties with the Palestinian territories, Hlaileh worked to keep the connection open. He told Marketplace that his supplies of cement, iron, tiles and electrical appliances needed for his real estate business depended on Israel. “All of that comes through Israel, as do most imports into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Fifty-five, maybe 57% of our imports come from Israel,” Hlaileh said.
Hlaileh says he’s created the first “five stars” [sic] resort in the Palestinian territories.
Before Donald Trump was elected president, Hlaileh was skeptical of the president’s bluster. “He is not the kind of person who can sort out this kind of conflict,” he said last August. “Business people don’t care about things except for money and profit and loss. They don’t care about history and nationality or what it means to be a citizen. Trump doesn’t care about all these values. He sees everything as a deal… It’s not a deal about gas. It’s about land and people’s relationship to land.”
Now, Hlaileh says he is ready to deal. “We are open and ready to do business with the American business community to help in rebuilding Gaza or investing in Gaza and after," he told the CBC on February 11.
Trump says his plan for Gaza will allow for “economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing.”
I’m skeptical that Hlaileh will ever come close to ruling Gaza, or that it will transform into a vacation spot anytime soon. But Trump is Trump, and his imagined Gaza business boom, fueled by hotels and a Mediterranean Riviera vibe, needs a pleasing, English-speaking partner. In that sense Hlaileh seems a lot like Ahmed Chalabi, the media pleasing (and manipulating) London-based Iraqi that the Bush administration (and almost no one else) embraced as the next democratic head of the country.
He’s already gotten one puff piece introduction by Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist, touting Palestinian business as the solution for peace in the region. He wrote that in 2010! Now, 25 years later, with a new newer Marshall Plan for Gaza, his same pitch might appeal to Trump.
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How much of trumps manifest destiny is just a way to eventually name a land mass after himself. First you rename the gulf then you acquire Greenland or Gaza and rename them Trumpland or the Trump Strip. Israel would gladly reward him.
How much of trumps manifest destiny is just a way to eventually name a land mass after himself. First you rename the gulf then you acquire Greenland or Gaza and rename them Trumpland or the Trump Strip. Israel would gladly reward him.
15 years later (2010 to 2025) but very interesting piece.