🇮🇱💰🧵 Israel’s Government Media Office has approved over ₪167 million ($45M) in no-bid contracts to Google (DV360), YouTube, Twitter, and Outbrain/Teads for international propaganda campaigns.
Signed June 17, 2025, these contracts run through December and are part of Operation Rising Lion a full-scale emergency effort to influence foreign audiences via digital platforms.
Breakdown:
Google DV360: ₪90M (~$24M)
YouTube: ₪60M (~$16M)
Twitter: ₪10M (~$2.7M)
Outbrain/Teads: ₪7M (~$1.9M)
According to the document, the goal is wide “international exposure” for state narratives across defense, diaspora, and foreign affairs, especially after the launch of a major military operation.
The effort is coordinated by Israel’s Government Advertising Bureau (LAPAM), citing “urgent operational needs” and “broad messaging for government and security bodies.”
(Google Translation below)
Operation Rising Lion and the Hasbara Contract
The Israeli Government Advertising Agency (Lapam) signed the contract with Google (YouTube + Display & Video 360) on June 17, 2025, right as Operation Rising Lion began.
The contract covers the period from June 17 to December 31, 2025, and identifies Google as a “key entity” for messaging during the military campaign and its aftermath.
Lapam’s own wording emphasizes this: “The request is for campaigns following Operation ‘Rising Lion’ as well as for ongoing activities.”
The campaign was part of a “full emergency format” deployed across all Israeli government ministries, including the:
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Ministry of Defense
• Ministry of Diaspora
• National Publicity Division
• Home Front Command
The campaign sought to:
• Deny famine in Gaza (“There is food in Gaza. Any other claim is a lie”).
• Discredit the UN (e.g., accusing UNRWA of “sabotage”).
• Promote the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is itself part of the U.S.–Israel occupation and aid-privatization scheme.
• Justify the Iran strikes via disinformation campaigns characterizing them as necessary for global security.
Google’s $24M Contract with Netanyahu Is More Than Propaganda, It’s Complicity.
On March 2, the same day Israel announced a total blockade of food, medicine, fuel, and humanitarian aid into Gaza, the Knesset did not debate ethics, law, or famine.
Instead, as shown in leaked transcripts, lawmakers discussed PR strategy, how to manage the optics of mass starvation. “Did you prepare for this thing this morning?” asked MK Moshe Tur-Paz, chair of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee. The Israeli army’s Arabic spokesperson replied, “We could also decide to launch a digital campaign… to explain that there is no hunger and present the data.”
That “data” turned out to be Google ads.
On June 17, 2025, Israel’s Government Advertising Bureau (Lapam) signed a ₪90 million (~$24 million USD) contract with Google’s DV360 platform as part of Operation Rising Lion, a full-scale propaganda effort targeting international audiences. The contract identified Google as a “key entity” for messaging during and after the military campaign. Its explicit aim: deny the famine in Gaza, discredit the UN, and rehabilitate Israel’s image during a genocide.
The Google-run ads claimed “there is food in Gaza.” They accused UNRWA of sabotage. They promoted the U.S.-Israeli proxy NGO Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. They echoed debunked rape allegations. And they glorified the bombing of Iran which killed over 400 civilians.
In August, the UN formally declared a famine in Gaza City. Hundreds of children have already died of hunger. Israeli ministers like Bezalel Smotrich and Amichay Eliyahu have openly endorsed starvation as a strategy. “They can die of hunger or surrender,” said Smotrich. “They need to starve,” added Eliyahu.
Google is not a neutral platform. Its ad infrastructure is helping run cover for a man-made famine.
If you think this is just a moral crisis, think again, it’s a business model. And your data, your clicks, and your silence are part of it.
YouTube’s Role in Israel’s Information War
As Israeli bombs fell on Gaza and Iran in June 2025, the Netanyahu government quietly signed a ₪60 million ($16M) contract with YouTube, tasking the platform with laundering the war’s image abroad.
Unlike static display ads, YouTube’s role was audiovisual—designed to override emotion with narrative:
“There is food in Gaza.”
“UNRWA sabotages aid.”
“Iran must be stopped.”
These ads were not user-generated, they were purchased, prioritized, and pushed by the state through a special agreement with Google, naming YouTube a “key entity” for messaging during Operation Rising Lion.
The videos targeted users worldwide, delivered in English, Arabic, French, Spanish, curated to soften resistance, sow doubt, and buy Israel more time to starve and bomb.
By August, the UN had declared a famine. Hundreds of children were dead. But YouTube’s monetized machinery kept running.
How Israel is Using Clickbait Networks to Spread Propaganda During Genocide
Most people haven’t heard of Outbrain or Teads, but chances are you’ve clicked on their content.
Outbrain, a global native advertising platform that pushes “recommended content” onto major news sites like CNN, Fox News, and The Guardian, isn’t just any tech company, it’s deeply Israeli.
Founded in 2006 by Yaron Galai and Ori Lahav, both former officers in the Israeli Navy, Outbrain began as an Israeli startup and remains tightly linked to Israeli institutional interests. Its technology has been used by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, and its core engineering and R&D infrastructure have long operated out of Israel.
In 2021, Outbrain merged with fellow Israeli-founded rival Taboola, consolidating their grip over the global native advertising industry. By 2024, Outbrain had absorbed parts of Teads, a European video-native ad platform—making it a global powerhouse in blending ads with editorial content across nearly every major online publisher.
But that “discovery engine” is now being used for something more sinister when the Israeli government signed a ₪7 million ($1.9M) no-bid propaganda contract with Outbrain and Teads. The goal? Inject state messaging into editorial-style links disguised as “From Around the Web.
🕳️ The rabbit hole runs deeper:
Most readers won’t realize these articles are paid state content. They blend in with editorial recommendations, often escaping ad blockers and fact-checkers. That’s the danger of weaponized native advertising, it’s propaganda.
In addition to hosting ads, these platforms embed narratives directly into trusted news environments. Israel’s talking points can appear alongside real articles about famine or war, creating the illusion of consensus.
It’s psychological warfare.
The use of clickbait networks lets governments disguise propaganda as organic content, target specific demographics, and avoid detection by ad blockers and moderation teams.
Outbrain doesn’t care what’s true. It cares if you click.
X Took ₪10M (~$2.7M) to Promote Israeli Hasbara. The Influence Doesn’t Stop at Ads.
In June 2025, Israel’s Government Media Office awarded Elon Musk’s platform a ₪10 million ($2.7M) contract to promote government narratives across X.
This deal was a no-bid, emergency contract coordinated by Israel’s Government Advertising Bureau.
What did Israel pay for?
• Amplification of state talking points: denying famine in Gaza, attacking UNRWA, promoting U.S.-Israeli proxy NGOs like the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and glorifying military operations.
• Platform-wide exposure to English-speaking and foreign audiences during a period of extreme scrutiny and rising international condemnation.
But the reach goes beyond paid ads.
Enter Grok. Grok generates answers based on X content. That means if Israeli propaganda dominates promoted posts and hashtags, it also shapes Grok’s responses.
Israel’s hasbara doesn’t just show up in your feed, it shows up when you ask a question. And because Grok presents answers as neutral, chat-based facts, the line between information and influence collapses.
This is about weaponizing engagement algorithms and AI to manufacture consensus. X is the tip of the spear.
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