Inside Israel’s U.S. Influence Operation
Faith, Money, and Algorithms
21WIRE –
Israel has ramped up efforts to shape public opinion in the United States, pouring millions of dollars into campaigns that strategically target both faith communities and digital platforms. Central to this initiative are U.S. evangelical Christians, who have long been considered staunch allies, and emerging technologies like ChatGPT, which are increasingly shaping public discourse.
Newly filed disclosures under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) reveal that Israeli government-linked contracts with American firms aim to bolster support among conservative and Christian audiences, particularly as younger evangelicals show growing signs of waning enthusiasm. A new investigation by Haaretz exposes the astonishing scope of Israel’s ‘AI Hasbara’ and the looming risk of American public opinion being subtly molded by foreign influence.
On the ground, these campaigns employ a mix of traditional and digital tools. Geofencing around churches, immersive “interactive museum” exhibits, and targeted social media ads are being used to reach millions of American worshippers. At the same time, efforts to influence AI-driven platforms like ChatGPT represent a novel frontier: shaping how widely used language models respond to questions about Israel and its policies, subtly guiding the narratives users encounter online.
This dual approach, melding grassroots religious outreach with digital narrative engineering, highlights a broader evolution in statecraft and public diplomacy. By focusing on evangelical networks, Israel taps into a historically supportive base while also addressing generational shifts in opinion. The engagement with AI platforms, meanwhile, signals an acknowledgement that the future of influence may increasingly reside in algorithms and automated systems.
These campaigns raise complex questions about ethics, transparency, and the intersection of faith and technology. How should congregations respond to targeted messaging within sacred spaces? What safeguards exist to protect AI systems from being subtly shaped by foreign interests? And what does this reveal about the changing strategies nations are employing to influence hearts, minds, and the digital landscape in the 21st century?
As influence operations evolve, the line between persuasion and manipulation grows ever more intricate, underscoring the need for vigilance in both physical and virtual arenas.
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Omer Benjakob reports for Haaretz…
AI Hasbara: Israel Pours Millions Into U.S. Influence Efforts, Targeting Evangelicals in Churches and ChatGPT
Contracts between Israel and Trump-linked firms reveal campaigns and plans to target millions of U.S. churchgoers, deploy bots, hire influencers and try to make ChatGPT more pro-Israel
The Israeli government has signed contracts worth millions of dollars in recent months to rehabilitate Israel’s standing in American public opinion, both online and offline. Amid a sharp drop in support from the conservative right, Israel has hired firms to conduct not just “hasbara [public diplomacy] campaigns” but also campaigns targeting millions of Christian churchgoers, bot networks to amplify pro-Israel messages online, and efforts to influence both search results and the responses given by popular AI services like ChatGPT.
Among the experts recruited is a former campaign manager for Donald Trump and many of the other firms are linked to the Republican party or Evangelical communities, indicating that Israel is focusing massive efforts on communities once considered automatically pro-Israel. Among the campaigns’ goals is fighting antisemitism, which has risen alongside the decline in support for Israel. Together, these campaigns signal a new phase in Israel’s post-war public diplomacy strategy, and a shift in the way it uses agents – both AI and human influencers – for hasbara abroad.
American firms representing foreign governments must register with the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Documents filed over the past two months show that the Government of Israel – through the Foreign Ministry, the Tourism Ministry, and the Government Advertising Agency (LAPAM) – signed multiple contracts in the United States to promote Israel’s interests.
Payments are routed through Havas Media Germany GmbH, a subsidiary of the international advertising and public relations giant Havas. In practice, Havas serves as an intermediary, executing contracts with U.S. firms on Israel’s behalf. The documents show that since 2018, the company has received at least $100 million to promote Israeli tourism campaigns in the United States and it also works with other countries, including several in the Gulf, on similar projects.
“This may be the first publicly documented case of a state attempting to shape discourse through generative AI systems such as ChatGPT and Claude.”
The largest of the new hasbara contracts was signed in August with a firm called Clock Tower X, owned by Brad Parscale, who played a lead role in Trump’s digital campaigns in 2016 and 2020. The $6 million, four-month contract – signed between his firm and Havas Media on behalf of the Israeli government – calls for “strategic consulting, planning, and communications services to develop and execute a broad U.S. campaign to combat antisemitism.”
According to the filing, Parscale’s company will produce “at least 100 core pieces of content per month” – including videos, audio, podcasts, graphics and text – and “5,000 derivative versions” monthly, aiming for 50 million impressions a month. Eighty percent of the content will target young Americans on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Campaign messages will be distributed via Salem Media Network, a conservative Christian media group that owns more than 200 radio stations and websites. Parscale was appointed this year to lead Salem’s strategy.
Geo-tagging evangelicals
The focus on Christian audiences would have been suprising before the war in Gaza, since they, and particularly evangelicals, have historically been considered the most pro-Israel group in the U.S. But Pew surveys conducted between 2022 and 2025 show a rapid decline in support for Israel amid the war in Gaza – even among conservatives. Some 42 percent of Americans held a negative view of Israel in 2022; three years later, that number jumped to 53 percent. The collapse in support is not limited to Democrats: half of young Republicans (under age 50) now hold a negative view of Israel, up 15 percent since the war began.
A 2024 report by the Center for the Study of the United States at Tel Aviv University points to a similar trend among young evangelicals, who are more critical of Israel and no longer support it automatically, unlike their parents. To make matters worse, following the killing of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, conspiracy theories spread through far-right media and among online disinformation networks alleging Israel had assassinated him over his criticism of the Gaza war.
“My moral character is now being called into question… I don’t need lectures on my coverage…”
@MegynKelly and @charliekirk11 push back against some Israel supporters demanding their 100% Israel support.Watch below, and subscribe:https://t.co/Y12z2uLeBJ pic.twitter.com/bQ2HepsIaf
— The Megyn Kelly Show (@MegynKellyShow) August 6, 2025
The failure of Israel’s public diplomacy apparatus – which has long enjoyed both direct and indirect government support and remains popular domestically, with celebrities frequently volunteering for such projects – is alarming. It will be the focus of a State Comptroller report to be published later this year, part of a series of reports examining wartime failings.
Another Israeli campaign, commissioned for the Foreign Ministry, was proposed by Show Faith by Works, owned by Republican consultant Chad Schnitger, an evangelical operative connected to the Christian right. The campaign’s budget exceeds $3 million, one-tenth of which has already been paid via Havas, though a final contract has yet to be signed. Filings submitted in September describe a focus on “churches and Christian organizations in the western United States” aimed at countering “declining support for Israel among evangelical Christians” and “raising awareness of Palestinian ties to Hamas and support for terrorism.”
“Young evangelicals are more critical of Israel and no longer support it automatically, unlike their parents – previously considered Israel’s most loyal support base in the United States.”
According to the documents, these goals will be pursued through “biblically based arguments highlighting the importance of Israel and the Jewish people to Christians,” while spreading messages that “the Palestinians chose Hamas… they murder Christian aid workers… they celebrated the October 7 massacre and shelter terrorists… Palestinians and Iran share genocidal intentions toward Israel,” and more.
The filings for the proposed campaign explain that the messages will reach their audience through “the largest geofencing campaign in U.S. history” – a pitch to map the physical perimeters of every major church and Christian college in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado during worship hours; identifying attendees using commercial data, tracking them, and continuing to target them with relevant ads. The estimated audience for the suggested project: eight million churchgoers and four million Christian students.
IMAGE: Netanyahu meets with evangelical leaders, including John Hagee (in blue) and Mike Huckabee (to his left), during his visit to Washington in August. Credit: Avi Ohayon / GPO
Previous Haaretz investigations have shown how ‘advertising-intelligence’ (Adint) firms use tools that allow operators to draw a digital polygon on a map, extract identifiers of those who were physically present there, and continue targeting them online – a practice that poses a severe threat to privacy. The campaign would use such tools to identify, tag, and target potential Christian audiences with messages from Israel’s Foreign Ministry. This part of the project, the Foreign Ministry said, did not happen and remained a proposal – though the practice itself is legal and used in online advertising campaigns. In a statement to Haaretz, they said claims Israel was paying influencers or using geo-targeting were false and themselves part of attempts to discredit Israel.
A draft proposal attached to the filings lists potential celebrity participants, including “Guardians of the Galaxy” actor Chris Pratt, Jon Voight (Angelina Jolie’s father), football player Tim Tebow, and NBA star Stephen Curry, though it’s unclear if any were contacted. The campaign also includes a touring installation called “The October 7 Experience,” designed by “Hollywood set builders” with immersive virtual reality screens allowing participants to “experience the horrors of the Hamas attack and the Nova music festival massacre.”
From SEO to geo
A central element of Israel’s campaign is its attempt to influence the popular artificial intelligence chatbots that have exploded in recent years. One clause in the Clock Tower X contract reveals a “Search and Language Operation” designed not only to promote the campaign on Google and other search engines but also to “generate framing outcomes in GPT conversations and AI-based dialogue systems.”
The project will use “the largest geofencing campaign in U.S. history” -mapping the physical perimeters of every major church and Christian college… identifying attendees, tracking them, and targeting them. The estimated audience: eight million churchgoers and four million Christian students.
This may be the first publicly documented case of a state attempting to shape discourse through generative AI systems such as ChatGPT and Claude – affecting how they frame issues related to Israel. This is a shift from “search engine optimization” (SEO) aimed at promoting pro-Israel websites in search results, to chatbot focused efforts aimed at how answers about Israel and Palestine are framed.
Still, Israel hasn’t abandoned classic platforms: a government tender exemption revealed that the state spent over $45 million in the second half of 2025 on regular online advertising with Google, YouTube, Twitter (X), and Outbrain.
IMAGE: Jane Zirkle on a sponsored trip to Israel. Faced backlash from some of her right-wing followers over the visit.
Another Israeli campaign disclosed in the Foreign Agents Registration Act filings was signed with SKDKnickerbocker, also via Havas for the Foreign Ministry, worth roughly 2.5 million shekels. Under the contract, the firm – actually considered close to the Democratic party – will develop a “bot-based program on various social media channels that `floods the zone` with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ pro-Israel message.”
The firm will also recruit up to five spokespersons to promote Israeli messages in international media and on social media, alongside bots which will operate on TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. A separate campaign run by Targeted Communications Global for the Tourism Ministry will use influencers and commercial content to promote travel to Israel, for $1.2 million.
‘Project Esther’
Another influence campaign was signed with Bridges Partners, a Washington-based consulting firm owned by Yair Levi and Uri Steinberg, the former Israeli tourism attaché in North America. The $1 million contract – signed via Havas on behalf of the Foreign Ministry and LAPAM – funds social-media influencers promoting Israel.
According to filings submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice in September, the campaign’s goal is to “promote cultural exchange between the United States and Israel through influencer-based content and related activities.” It includes recruiting and managing 14 to 18 influencers, each posting 25 to 30 times per month on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and X.
The focus on influencers has gained momentum recently. In July, Haaretz reported that the Foreign Ministry granted hundreds of thousands of shekels, under tender exemption, to a nonprofit tasked with bringing American right-wing influencers to Israel – the same demographic showing the steepest decline in pro-Israel sentiment. In August, they arrived and toured, including visits to settlements, in what the ministry described as a visit of “media, diplomatic, and public diplomacy value.” During his September visit to New York, Prime Minister Netanyahu met with American influencers and urged them to think of social media as a battlefield.
IMAGE: Netanyahu meeting with social media influencers during his recent visit to New York in September. Credit: Avi Ohayon / GPO
Records attached to the filings show Bridges Partners has already paid several figures, including Nadav Shtrauchler ($15,000), a communications consultant who previously worked with Netanyahu and the Hostages’ and Missing Families Forum; and Pnina Rezidor ($10,000), an Israeli digital marketing strategist.
The campaign is titled “Esther Project.” It’s unclear whether it relates to the Heritage Foundation’s “Project Esther,” a blueprint for tackling antisemitism from the conservative think tank behind the controversial plans to reshape the federal government under Trump’s second term. “Project Esther” is presented as a national strategy for combating antisemitism and protecting Jewish communities – but critics, including Jewish and progressive groups, said its real goal was to criminalize pro-Palestinian activism. It proposed restricting student visas and cutting federal funding to universities hosting such activity – steps that were implemented immediately after Trump’s return to the White House.
A core tool
The campaigns revealed in the filings indicate that Israel’s early experiments with artificial intelligence have now matured into a structured public-diplomacy strategy in the United States. Internal documents obtained by Haaretz show that AI has been explicitly defined as a “core tool” in the technological arsenal of Voices for Israel, a government-backed nonprofit (formerly known as Concert), and its sponsor, the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism. Voices for Israel’s mandate is to carry out mass online “perception operations” as part of Israel’s fight against “delegitimization campaigns” worldwide.
A wartime document from early in the conflict called for establishing a “Technological War Room” equipped with “monitoring systems, AI, Big Data, distribution and disruption capabilities, activation tools, and more.” The strategy materialized originally under “Project Max,” also funded by the Diaspora Affairs Ministry.
Under the title “Combating the Narrative of Online Hate Through Influencers and AI,” Project Max served as an early version of today’s influence operations. A Haaretz investigation earlier this year also revealed a state-backed effort to develop an AI-based hasbara bot that malfunctioned, producing antisemitic and anti-Israel content.
The newly exposed campaigns suggest a parallel strategy combining the use of human influencers with AI-driven agents to promote Israel’s message abroad.
Continue reading this investigation here…
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