Covert online campaigns to influence American politics are often attributed to America’s geopolitical rivals, such as Russia and China. But some of the recent interference has turned out to be the work of a staunch American ally: Israel.
Shocking reports this week in The New York Times and Haaretz, citing current and former Israeli officials and documents obtained by the newspapers, allege that Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs hired an Israeli political marketing firm to secretly influence American lawmakers and voters through fake social media accounts and news sites. The accounts and websites published positions supporting Israel’s military operation in Gaza, criticizing pro-Palestinian groups, and spreading disinformation about anti-Semitism on American college campuses. (Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs denies funding the operation.)
The Times reported that according to social media experts, “the operation is the first documented case of an Israeli government orchestrating a campaign to influence the U.S. government.” The contracted marketing firm created hundreds of social media accounts on X, Facebook and Instagram, posing as local voters, students and activist citizens, and posting online comments using ChatGPT-generated content. These accounts, which attracted more than 40,000 followers, often targeted and replied to U.S. lawmakers, especially black Democrats such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Rep. Richie Torres (D-NY) and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA). Meta said this week that it had detected and started removing some of the AI-generated content, but at least some of X’s accounts remain active.
The effectiveness of this operation is unclear — at least some of the accounts are obviously fake and use awkward, repetitive language — but regardless of its effectiveness, this was no small undertaking: The department allocated a $2 million budget for the project, according to the Times.
This is not the behavior of a “special friend of America,” but the behavior of a hostile, rogue nation, and an act of disrespect for both American sovereignty and the sanctity of our democracy.
This disrespect is only magnified by the sheer scale of support for Israel by American politicians. After the October 7 attack by Hamas, Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed to always cooperate in Israel’s defense “as long as there is an American presence.” Since the war began, the United States has provided Israel with billions of dollars in military aid, shared intelligence, and given it exceptional diplomatic support. But the Israeli government has largely ignored or openly resented American requests to reduce civilian casualties in an operation that human rights experts have characterized as genocide. Israel has mostly and reluctantly cooperated with American requests to allow expanded humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip while instigating an artificial famine. Israel has repeatedly resisted the Biden administration’s efforts to draw some kind of line around the attack on the city of Rafah.
And now it turns out that Israel is not merely behaving like a cranky, belligerent friend, but like an outright enemy, covertly undermining American democracy to advance its own interests. Raising an army of bots to support Israel and criticize its enemies demonstrates a lack of trust that most Americans’ long-held sympathy for Israel will continue during a military campaign that has indiscriminately killed large numbers of civilians. Instead of changing in response to the growing fears of American public opinion, Israel has deployed a disgraceful strategy that is changing our ability to understand what American public opinion is.
The seriousness of Israel’s actions is compounded by the reality of upcoming elections: with support for Israel a divisive issue within the Democratic Party, Israel is seeking to stoke polarization around the issue and interfere in the 2024 elections, exactly the sort of thing that has led the US to impose sanctions on Moscow.
The revelations about Israeli influence operations have taken the tragicomic imbalance in U.S.-Israeli relations to new extremes. While the U.S. refuses to take serious steps to cut off aid to Israel, it continues to stab its biggest donor in the eye. But until Biden comes to his senses and starts treating Israel like any other country, Israel can continue to neglect its most important ally, safe in the knowledge that it will not face any consequences.
This article originally appeared on MSNBC.com.
