Israel spends over $1bn on global influence campaign to whitewash war, genocide

Support for Israel among young people in the US is collapsing, including among conservatives

News Desk

JUL 31, 2026

https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-spends-over-1bn-on-global-influence-campaign-to-whitewash-war-genocide

The Israeli government has spent more than $1 billion on propaganda since 7 October 2023 in a bid to reverse the collapse in public support following its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, according to a 24 July report by Responsible Statecraft (RS).

The amount represents a “dramatic escalation” in Israel's “global Hasbara” spending to shape public opinion, in particular in the US, Tel Aviv's biggest backer.

The effort was launched to counter the change in opinion of US citizens, who have turned against Israel due to the war crimes it has carried out in Gaza over the past nearly three years.

A Gallup poll from July 2025 found that 60 percent of US citizens disapproved of Israel's military actions in Gaza, which have killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children, and turned the strip into a devastated moonscape.

To change this, Israel has funded various propaganda campaigns, such as hiring US President Donald's Trump's former campaign manager Brad Parscale to carry out a mass texting campaign on behalf of Israel under the guise of “peace” groups like “Allies for Peace.”

Israel has long influenced the opinions of the US public through pro-Israel lobbying groups funded and staffed by Jewish US citizens.

Groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Christians United for Israel (CUFI) therefore were not required to register as foreign agents under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

However, RS notes that Israel has recently spent more than $100 million in the US to conduct influence operations by directly hiring registered foreign agents. This allows Tel Aviv to closely control messaging, target specific demographics, and act more efficiently.

RS used FARA data, Israeli government procurement documents, and interviews with dozens of sources to document Israel's recent propaganda initiative.

Much of the effort is directed by the French firm Havas Media, which subcontracts with US public relations firms to target the demographic Israel most fears losing support from: evangelical Christians, conservatives, and young US citizens.

Through such firms, Tel Aviv can pay social media influencers, fund mass texting operations, and even shape the answers given by AI chatbots to users seeking information about Israel and its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

The Israeli government pays for “LLM poisoning,” which entails creating pro-Israel websites that feed information to chatbots such as Claude, ChatGPT, or Grok whenever users ask questions about Israel.

The goal is to manipulate the answers given by the chatbots when users ask about straightforward events, RS notes, such as the murder of the young Palestinian girl Hind Rajab by the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza. 

Instead of providing the facts of the incident, the chatbot feeds the user a “he-said, she-said” account of the incident, highlighting Israel's justifications for shooting a five-year-old and her family.

Despite their role as foreign agents, some of the PR firms and influencers working for Israel have refused to disclose their financial relationships with the Israeli government.

“Israel's new tactics are transforming America's influence landscape, but they have so far proved insufficient to counter the erosion in public support that is being driven by Israel's deeply unpopular policies,” RS concluded.