(José Niño, Headline USA) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly acknowledged paying social media influencers up to $7,372 per post to shape American public opinion about Gaza operations, according to Foreign Agents Registration Act filings revealed in late September.
According to a report by Responsible Statecraft of Nick Cleveland-Scout, Netanyahu openly defended the strategy during a Friday meeting with American influencers at the Israeli Consulate General in New York. “We have to fight back. How do we fight back? Our influencers. I think you should also talk to them if you have a chance, to that community, they are very important,” Netanyahu declared in recorded footage
The Prime Minister provocatively described social media as Israel’s new battlefield weapon. “We cannot fight with swords anymore, that doesn’t work very well. We have to fight with weapons that apply to the battlefields in which we’re engaged in and the most important ones are on social media,” Netanyahu proclaimed, according to a report by Press TV.
Responsible Statecraft reported that Bridge Partners LLC, a Washington D.C.-based firm contracted by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, manages the covert operation through invoices sent to Havas Media Group Germany.
The campaign, running from June through November 2025, allocates $900,000 for a network of 14-18 social media influencers creating content across TikTok and Instagram.
After accounting for administrative costs including legal fees, banking fees, and marketing expenses through the middle of September, approximately $552,946 flows directly to influencer payments between June and September 2025.
With the firm estimating 75-90 posts during this timeframe, the mathematics reveals payments ranging from $6,143 per post on the low end to $7,372 per post on the high end.
The campaign operates under the codename “Esther Project,” though its connection to the Heritage Foundation’s similarly named “Project Esther” remains unclear. The Heritage Foundation’s Project Esther, launched in October 2024, aims to dismantle pro-Palestinian movements by labeling Israel critics as part of a “terrorist support network.”
Bridge Partners founders Yair Levi and Uri Steinberg, who each own 50% stakes in the firm, describe their work as “promoting cultural interchange between the United States and Israel,” per a report by The Times of Israel.
The Capitol Hill-based company enlisted former IDF spokesperson unit major Nadav Shtrauchler and retained Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman for legal counsel—the same firm that previously represented controversial Israeli spyware company NSO Group, as Responsible Statecraft noted.
This influencer operation represents one component of Israel’s dramatically expanded digital propaganda efforts, known as “hasbara.” According to Jewish Insider, the Israeli government’s public diplomacy budget increased to $150 million in 2025—over 20 times its pre-October 2023 war allocation.
The revelation about the Jewish state’s influencer scheme follows earlier exposed Israeli influence operations, including a $2 million Ministry of Diaspora Affairs initiative in 2024 that utilized hundreds of fake accounts to target U.S. lawmakers, particularly Black Democrats, encouraging continued military funding for Israel, as the New York Times reported.
The timing of Israel’s influencer scheme coincides with the U.S. government-backed deal transferring TikTok operations to an American consortium led by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, a Netanyahu ally and major Israeli military donor.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
