On July 22, 1946, just ten months after the end of World War II, the King David Hotel in Jerusalem was bombed by the Jewish Irgun terrorist group, led by Menachem Begin, who would later become the Prime Minister of Israel. At the time, the British Empire still controlled the region known as Palestine, and Jewish nationalist groups sought to establish a Jewish state in the area. To achieve this goal, Jewish militant organizations operated terrorist cells within British-controlled Palestine, culminating in the King David Hotel attack, which killed 91 people. The bombing was intended to pressure the already weakened British Empire to withdraw from Palestine, paving the way for the creation of a Jewish state.

The attack significantly influenced British policy, leading to their decision to withdraw from Palestine in 1947. This withdrawal set the stage for the United Nations Partition Plan, which proposed dividing Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. In 1948, the State of Israel was officially established.

In 1949, the American Zionist Council (AZC) was founded. Its primary function was to channel funds and other resources from Israel to members of the U.S. Congress, effectively bribing them to support pro-Zionist and pro-Israel legislation. For five years, the AZC operated as a tax-exempt organization, avoiding scrutiny over its financial activities. However, it eventually faced pressure from Congress to disclose the sources of its funding and to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires organizations acting on behalf of foreign governments to report their activities and finances.