On Oct. 29, Al Jazeera reported that according to filings under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), Israel has contracted at least three public relations companies to bolster its image online and among the United States’ Christian right. According to U.S. Department of Justice records, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs hired the newly established Bridges Partners, the Christian PR agency Show Faith by Works, and the online consultancy Clock Tower X via the Paris-based Havas Media Group.
“Israel is acutely conscious of the need to control how its war, in which it has killed at least 68,000 Palestinians, is perceived by its allies and sponsors in the U.S.,” writes Al Jazeera. Companies contracted are tasked to bolster the country’s online image and restore support among young right-wing and Evangelical U.S. voters that polling suggests is haemorrhaging as a result of Israel’s war on Gaza.
While Israel was able to garner favorable coverage from traditional U.S. media outlets in the early months of the war, it was losing the battle in social media, where videos revealing the mass killing and devastation in Gaza were going viral, and generating sympathy for the Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recognized that, referring to social media as a “weapon” in Israel’s campaign to shore up support in the U.S.—and saying that the purchase of TikTok by a consortium led by pro-Israel billionaires was a “most important purchase.”
