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Israel's Spending to Influence US Public Opinion

A summary of documented spending, firms, and tactics disclosed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and reported by major outlets, 2023–2025.

This is well documented through Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) disclosures and has been the subject of extensive reporting in 2024–2025, including a Wall Street Journal investigation and a detailed Quincy Institute report.

Scale of Spending

  • A Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft study found Israel has spent more than $1 billion on public diplomacy efforts since 2023, with more than $100 million directed toward US-focused campaigns disclosed under FARA.
  • Israel's hasbara (public diplomacy) budget exceeded $190 million in 2025, and its FARA spending is on track to more than triple from 2024 to 2026, putting it on pace to become the single-largest FARA spender for 2026.
  • Israel's 2026 budget for improving its image and global standing was reportedly set at over $700 million.

Firms Registered or Paid to Shape US Opinion

  • Seventeen firms registered under FARA to represent Israeli interests in 2024 and 2025.
  • The largest contract, worth $46.5 million, went to Clock Tower X, a firm founded by former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale. Based on its FARA disclosures, the company has been building a network of websites to seed pro-Israel narratives into content that could be used to train large language models, aiming to shape how AI chatbots characterize Israel.
  • The French communications firm Havas Media sits at the center of the strategy, having subcontracted at least seven US-based FARA-registered firms since 2024, directing tens of millions of dollars toward campaigns targeting young Americans, evangelical Christians, and conservatives.
  • A firm called Bridge Partners sent invoices totaling $900,000 between June and November 2024 to 14–18 social media influencers, with Israel's Foreign Ministry paying roughly $7,000 per post on TikTok and Instagram.
  • A more recent report describes nearly $8 million in contracts, with at least $675,000 already paid out, funneled mostly through Havas Media Group and a network of American PR firms, as part of a roughly $150 million propaganda push approved at the end of 2024.

Named Individuals and Tactics

  • Brad Parscale pitched Israeli officials in late 2024, telling them his companies were "probably the biggest thing outside Fox News helping fight misinformation and Jewish hate." His effort included creating websites and content designed to produce more favorable AI-chatbot results about Israel, at times pointing bots to a site called Allyvia.org built by his team. Parscale is also an investor in a firm called Influenceable that pays social-media influencers for posts.
  • Time reported Parscale promised the campaign would generate at least 50 million digital impressions per month and aimed to influence how ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini characterized Israel and the war, including sending AI-generated texts to thousands of US citizens under the framing of "educating people about the importance of the US-Israel relationship."
  • Netanyahu has courted conservative influencers directly, meeting them on US visits, and said declining American support for Israel "correlates almost 100% with the geometric rise of social media." Evangelical influencers Stefanie and Caleb Rouse were paid $4,500 by an Israel contractor for "strategic marketing promotion."
  • In June 2025, the Israeli government ran ads on Google, Meta, and X, spending roughly $45 million around the time of criticism over the Gaza hunger crisis.

Separately, journalists Lee Fang and Jack Poulson (reporting picked up by The Guardian) documented an expansive covert US influence campaign and a pro-Israel group engaged in social media censoring efforts led by former Israeli intelligence officers — though these specific claims come from investigative journalism rather than official disclosures and are contested by some involved parties.

Caveat: Most of this documented spending is public diplomacy and paid advocacy — disclosed lobbying/PR activity, not necessarily "covert" influence — though critics argue some tactics (AI-chatbot seeding, undisclosed influencer payments) blur that line. This is also a topic where sourcing skews toward outlets and researchers critical of Israeli policy, so it's worth reading the original FARA filings and the Quincy Institute/WSJ pieces directly.

Sources

Compiled from public reporting and FARA disclosures. Last updated August 18, 2026.