How is Israel using US PR firms to frame its Gaza war?

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/30/spinning-genocide-how-israel-is-using-us-pr-firms-to-frame-its-gaza-war

Israel has contracted at least three public relations companies to bolster its image online and among the US’s Christian right, filings under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) show.

According to US 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 European Havas Media Group.

All of the companies contracted promise to help bolster the country’s online image and restore support among young right-wing and Evangelical US voters that polling suggests is haemorrhaging as a result of Israel’s war on Gaza.



Show Faith by Works

According to its FARA filing, Show Faith by Works has been hired by Israel to run a $3.2m outreach and digital targeting campaign to foster “positive associations with the Nation of Israel” in churches in the US and portray “the Palestinian population” as “extremist”.

In documents enclosed in the FARA filing, Show Faith by Works also promises Israel that it will conduct “the largest Geofencing and Christian Targeting campaign in US history”.

Geofencing targets and tracks the communication devices of users when they come into proximity of a specific location or area – in this case, Christian universities or churches identified by the PR company.

The company is also planning what it calls a mobile “10/7 Experience” – referring to the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel – which could be taken to Christian colleges, churches, and events.

According to the filings, the experience would include a “VR headset, set pieces, full-length TVs for interactive experience” of the attack, during which 1,139 people were killed and about 250 taken captive.

The company details that it can also offer the participation of “Christian Celebrity Spokespeople” such as actors Chris Pratt and Jon Voight – the latter an outspoken supporter of US President Donald Trump.

_{Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a thumbs-up as he acknowledges cheers from tens of thousands of Christians on October 5}

Clock Tower X

Clock Tower claims in its FARA filing that it has been engaged to connect with the Gen Z age demographic through social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram and to engage with artificial intelligence (AI) platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok. The activities officially aim to “combat anti-Semitism” – a term often deployed by the Israeli government to counter criticism of its genocidal war on Gaza.

In its filing, Clock Tower promises to use AI modelling to ensure that the Israeli-supervised campaign – and by extension narratives – are prominent online during the course of its war on Gaza.

“If you can create enough online noise, through either social media or highly ranked websites, you’re able to influence AI’s large language models [like ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok],” said Marc Owen Jones, an associate professor of media analytics and an expert in disinformation at Northwestern University Qatar.

“LLMs [large language models] are trained on a set amount of data, where they scrape large amounts of [historical] information. However, many models such as Grok, ChatGPT or Gemini use what they call retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), where they also pull contemporary data from websites and social media,” Jones said.

“What companies like Clock Tower X are promising is that, if they can flood the information space with sites and content sympathetic to Israel – what’s called RAG poisoning – there’ll be enough there to at least muddy the waters around what others see as a clear-cut genocide.”

Clock Tower, headed by former Donald Trump aide Brad Parscale, also says that much of this content will be integrated with that of right-wing Christian network Salem Media, which in April announced a strategic partnership with Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, and his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump.

Bridges Partners

The campaign promised by Bridges Partners has already become the source of an online meme – but not in the way the company or Israel would have been hoping.

Bridges Partners’ campaign involves an unnamed cohort of between 14 and 18 influencers who would be paid to post in support of Israel. After breaking down the figures included by Bridges Partners in their invoices to Havas, Responsible Statecraft – the Quincy Institute’s online magazine – found that the influencers were likely being paid around $7,000 per post.

The number has been quickly seized upon by detractors of Israel, who regularly post the amount underneath posts they suspect of being part of the pro-Israel campaign, indicating that they believe the poster has been “bought” by Israel.

Responsible Statecraft reported earlier this month that the anonymity of the US influencers, who under the terms of their agreements would post paid pro-Israel content since July, could potentially be illegal if their identities remain undisclosed.

At present, the Bridges Partners filing names only one registered foreign agent: consultant Uri Steinberg, who holds a 50 percent stake in the company.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-869219
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/israel-influencers-netanyahu/
https://www.odwyerpr.com/story/public/23704/2025-10-07/bridges-manages-pro-israel-influencer-push.html

It is too early to say whether the campaign will ultimately be successful. But the backlash towards the arrangement once it became public illustrates just how difficult the task will be for Israel to change perceptions that have now become deeply ingrained, particularly among younger people.

“No matter what artificial data is produced, it still won’t be enough to counter the volume of factual reporting of the war on Gaza,” Jones said.

“However, there might be enough to promote a sense of ambiguity over it, to present both sides as more equal in the conflict, or to present Israel’s response to the attack of October 7 as more reasonable than some now think it is.”

Al Jazeera has been unable to contact Bridges Partners, Clock Tower X, or Show Faith by Works for comment. Inquiries to the Israeli chief of staff at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Eran Shayovich, and to Havas Media Group have also gone unanswered.

Teenager dies during ultra-Orthodox protest against conscription in Jerusalem

A teenage boy has fallen to his death during a mass ultra-Orthodox Jewish rally against military conscription in Jerusalem, which had shut down the main entrance to the city.

Packed crowds of mostly men clogged the roads around the Route 1 highway leading into Jerusalem. Israeli media estimated that about 200,000 people flocked to the rally.

Photos showed some had climbed atop roofs of buildings, a petrol station and onto cranes. The Israeli ambulance service said a 15-year-old fell to his death, and police said they had opened an investigation into the incident.

The debate over mandatory military service, and those who are exempt from it, has long caused tensions within Israel’s deeply divided society and has placed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu under increasing political strain over the past year.

While ultra-Orthodox seminary students have long been exempt from mandatory military service, many Israelis fume at what they see as an unfair burden carried by the mainstream who serve.

That frustration only intensified during wars over the past two years that exacted the highest Israeli military death toll in decades as fighting stretched from the Gaza Strip to Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran.

Calls for Israel’s UN envoy to retract attack against UN expert

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations is facing growing calls to retract and apologise for recent ad hominem attacks against Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Speaking at the UN earlier this week, Danny Danon called Albanese – who has been a prominent voice denouncing Israel’s war on Gaza as a genocide – a “witch”.

“I call on Israel to retract and apologise for this sexist and hateful attack” against Albanese, another UN special rapporteur, Ben Saul, wrote in a social media post. “Such language is completely unacceptable in international diplomacy.”

UN chief Guterres’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric was also asked yesterday about the Israeli envoy’s comments, which he described as “shocking to say the least”.

“We have always felt that special rapporteurs are an important part of the international human rights mechanism,” Dujarric said. “They are UN officials when they do their work and they need to be respected when they do their work – whether it’s legally or verbally.”

Showdown at the UN as Francescą Albanese Shuts Down the Arrogant Isrąeli Ambassador

Israel confirms identities of two deceased Gaza captives returned on Thursday

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said that the two bodies handed over by Hamas on Thursday from Gaza have been identified as those of captives Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch.

The Prime Minister’s Office said that 11 bodies of captives now remain in Gaza.

One child injured by Israeli fire in Silwad, east of Ramallah

At least one child was injured by live Israeli fire during a raid on the town of Silwad, east of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. According to Wafa, citing local sources, Israeli forces stormed Silwad, and clashes broke out at the entrance to the town.

During the clashes, ammunition, toxic gas bombs and sound bombs were fired, which resulted in a child being hurt. Israeli forces also prevented an ambulance from transporting the injured child, before they were eventually allowed to be taken away.

UK to provide $5m in support to clear unexploded ordnance in Gaza

The British government announced it will provide 4 million pounds ($5.26m) towards international efforts to clear an estimated 7,500 tonnes of unexploded munitions in Gaza.

According to the Foreign Ministry, the funding for the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) will help to send in a “surge” of experts to clear the munitions dropped during the course of the war.

It added that removing the unexploded ordnance to allow for more aid into Gaza is “a vital component” of the ceasefire agreement.

“The situation in Gaza is desperate without the vital humanitarian support they need,” said Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, who is expected to visit the Middle East this week.

“We must do everything we can to flood Gaza with aid,” she added.

The new funding for UNMAS is part of 116 million pounds ($152.4m) of overseas aid pledged by the UK for occupied Palestinian territory this financial year.

Main events on October 30th

• Hamas has returned the bodies of two more Israeli captives from Gaza as part of the ceasefire agreement; Israel identified the remains as those of Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch, as 11 captives’ bodies still remain in the bombarded Palestinian enclave.
• The Israeli military has continued to carry out attacks in the Strip, with aerial bombings reported near southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.
• Palestinians across the occupied West Bank continue to face a wave of intensified Israeli army and settler violence, with the UN reporting more than 125 attacks in the context of this year’s olive harvest.
• Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has instructed the armed forces to confront any further Israeli incursions into southern Lebanon amid an uptick in Israeli attacks.

The Truth About “Greater Israel”

For over a century, Zionist leaders imagined a Jewish state stretching across the region. Netanyahu is now calling that “Greater Israel” project his historic mission. We break down what this means, as Israel wages genocide in Gaza and grabs more land across the Middle East.

Ports Across Greece Halt for Gaza – And Israel’s Lifeline Crumbles

Israeli ships arrived in Greece — but the dockworkers said no. What started as a refusal is now a nationwide revolt.

For months Israeli cargo moved through Greek ports, Israeli cruise ships docked on its islands, and the government told the public it was just business. But the dockworkers disagreed didn’t they? They stopped the cranes, stopped moving Israeli goods – it’s a story that has been replicated elsewhere too, but not quite to the devastating effect we are now seeing. For months, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had balanced on the claim that Greece could be a reliable ally abroad and a democracy at home. But when the workers refused to touch a ship carrying steel for Israel’s war, that line collapsed. The state that has now lengthened the working day and banned protests around parliament could no longer claim to speak for the nation.

The dockers didn’t issue a manifesto. They did something harder. They withdrew consent. What began as protests about Israel have now grown into something so much wider and the dockworkers remain at the heart of it all. In a country sold as stable and compliant, that single act exposed who really runs Greece — and who it now answers to. It’s a lesson other states and other ordinary people could take some inspiration from. 

Israel intensifies shelling and demolitions in Khan Younis overnight

Israel has been shelling parts of the eastern regions of the city of Khan Younis with artillery and air raids, our colleagues on the ground report, which have been ongoing since the early hours of this morning.

Israel has also carried out demolitions across the city.

Palestinian children bear lasting trauma from Gaza air raids and violence

Palestinian parents and children continue to grapple with deep psychological scars after more than two years of Israeli assault.

Khalil al-Shareef says his young daughter, Lana, survived an Israeli air raid in which “the roof collapsed on her from the force of the explosion”. He told Al Jazeera she later developed vitiligo from chemical exposure and now “panics every time she hears an explosion”.

In Gaza City, child survivor Abed Al Aziz Abu Hawishal said an Israeli soldier pointed a gun at his head and recalled “a massacre in our neighbourhood, bodies were flying over our house”.

He added, “I saw a woman without a head, and I even stepped on bodies as I ran, terrified for my life.”

‘Israel intensifies Gaza attacks, restricting vital aid supplies to vulnerable populations’

Israel has stepped up the tempo and intensity of attacks across Gaza in recent days and maintains certain restrictions on aid, meaning necessary volumes of humanitarian supplies cannot reach people.

Luciano Zaccara, a Middle East political analyst, has told Al Jazeera that the measures Israel is taking are “not necessary to take these kinds of severe attacks against the population”.

“At the end of the day, these are targeting people, children, livelihoods of people in Gaza. There is nothing that justifies this kind of behaviour,” he said.

“Other mechanisms can be used as leverage to push Hamas to finish what they have to do,” Zaccara added, referring to the handover of the remains of captives, which is part of the ceasefire agreement.

Essential supplies blocked as Israel continues to prevent entry of scale of needed aid

With Israel’s ongoing violations of key terms of the agreement, from the sporadic drones to the gunfire, the heavy artillery along the eastern side of what the Israelis describe as the yellow line, a key breach of the ceasefire remains the ongoing blockade of the crossings, preventing the entry of key essentials into the Gaza Strip.

From the time the ceasefire was signed to now, almost three weeks, if we multiply the number of trucks that were agreed to enter the Gaza Strip, we’ve seen evidence of improvement, but not at the agreed levels.

Markets are also flooded in Gaza but not with what people need to survive. They are filled with chocolates, instant noodles, biscuits, and there is a large absence of vitamin and protein sources.

Palestinians suffer as they find newly reopened banks have no cash

Palestinians in Gaza have been going through a shortage of cash as they are unable to spend what little money they have, with no cash in the banks.

Banks began reopening on October 16, six days after the ceasefire was announced. Queues soon formed, but people came away disappointed.

“There is no money, liquidity at the bank,” said father-of-six Wael Abu Fares, 61, standing outside the Bank of Palestine. “You just come and do paperwork transactions and leave,” the Palestinian told the Reuters news agency.

Mother-of-seven Iman al-Ja’bari longs for a time when transactions at banks used to take less than an hour. “You need two or three days to go back and forth, back and forth, spending your whole life standing there,” she told Reuters.

“And in the end, you only get 400 or 500 shekels ($123 or $153). What can this (amount) buy with the incredibly high prices today that we can’t afford?”

<sub>Palestinian women queue outside the Bank of Palestine amid a cash shortage in Nuseirat


The damaged building housing the Bank of Palestine stands in Gaza City</sub>

UN reports serious obstacles remain for aid and healthcare access in Gaza

Access for aid agencies in Gaza has improved since the ceasefire, but serious obstacles remain, the UN reports in a humanitarian situation update. UN and partner groups report that only 5 percent of shipments are now being blocked, down sharply from 80 percent between May 19 and October 9 this year.

The Israeli military has allowed a new wave of aid trucks to access Gaza over the past few hours. Different trucks affiliated with UNICEF and the WFP were making the journey to warehouses in central and northern areas of the Strip.

But it’s worth reminding that … the Israeli military is allowing for commercial trucks to flow to the Strip without any significant restrictions while humanitarian aid trucks remain partially restricted. UNRWA is still banned from delivering about 6,000 aid trucks stationed on the other side of the border … That’s considered to be another massive restriction on the ability of UN agencies to operate freely and sufficiently to meet the needs of Gaza’s population.

The healthcare system is under immense pressure. Only about a third of health facilities are operational, including 14 of 36 hospitals and 10 of 16 field hospitals, while the loss of more than 1,700 health workers since October 2023 has left staff stretched to the limit.

Medical teams are providing emergency care and evacuating patients where possible, but overcrowding, poor sanitation, and malnutrition leave millions vulnerable. Humanitarian efforts are slowly improving access, yet urgent support is still needed to prevent further suffering.

Israeli attacks expand to north Gaza

Our team on the ground reports that Israel has now bombed the Shujayea and Tuffah neighbourhoods of eastern Gaza City.

The army has been intermittently attacking areas of southern Gaza’s Khan Younis since the early hours of this morning.

Palestinian killed and his brother injured by Israeli gunfire in Gaza

A Palestinian has been killed and his brother wounded by Israeli gunfire in the Shujayea neighbourhood in east Gaza City, a source at al-Ahli Arab Hospital has told Al Jazeera.

Israel returns more bodies of Palestinian prisoners

The Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza’s Khan Younis says 30 more bodies of Palestinian prisoners have arrived from the Israeli side as part of the prisoner-captive exchange deal agreed in early October.

How many do they have...

Palestinian teenager killed during Israeli raid in Silwad

A 15-year-old Palestinian boy, Yamen Samed Hamed, was killed last night, shot during a raid by Israeli forces east of Ramallah. Troops used live rounds, tear gas and sound grenades, the Wafa news agency reported.

In Nablus governorate, Israeli forces arrested two men, Moamen al-Tawil in Nablus city, and Salim Ahmed Dawood Abu Sanoubar in the village of Qiblan. Troops also stormed the New Askar refugee camp east of Nablus amid heavy tear gas fire.

Near Jenin, Kafr Dan residents reported raids and detentions, including of Fadi Mar’i and several young men.

In Ramallah, settlers set fire to two Palestinian-owned vehicles in Burqa, and Israeli forces arrested 18-year-old Mohammad Yousef Ma’tan during a separate raid.

Palestinian farmers endure most violent olive harvest in years amid rising settler attacks in West Bank

Palestinian farmers face the most violent olive harvest season in five years as Israeli settler attacks surge across the occupied West Bank.

Monitors recorded 126 assaults on farmers gathering their crops during the first three weeks of October, with more than 4,000 trees destroyed in 70 communities. The damage is twice what was seen last year during the same period.

Seventeen Palestinians were injured in the past week alone, with 60 settler incidents documented – more than half targeting the harvest. New settler outposts have made it harder for farmers to reach their groves, even in places they could previously visit freely.

Israeli settlers steal olives and attack Palestinian farmers in West Bank

Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian farmers and stolen olives across the occupied West Bank.

The assaults took place on Friday in the Nablus and Ramallah districts, part of a sustained campaign of violence during harvest season.

In Qaryut village, south of Nablus, settlers broke into land closed to Palestinians for two years and stole olives. Days earlier, they destroyed hundreds of ancient olive trees in the same village.

In Sinjil, north of Ramallah, settlers backed by Israeli forces expelled farmers at gunpoint and detained several activists.

Reports of injuries in Israeli attack on southern Lebanon

An Israeli army drone attack has targeted a motorcycle in the town of Kounine in the Nabatieh governorate.

According to Lebanon’s official National News Agency, initial reports indicate that there are injuries due to the strike.

Houthis say 43 detained UN staff to face trial over Israeli attack: Report

The local United Nations staff will stand trial on suspicion of links to the air strike that assassinated top Houthi leaders in August, the acting foreign minister of Yemen’s Houthi government, Abdulwahid Abu Ras, has told the Reuters news agency.

In August, the prime minister of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi-run government and several other ministers were killed in an Israeli strike on the capital Sanaa, in the first such attack to kill senior officials.

The United Nations has repeatedly rejected Houthi accusations that UN staff or operations in Yemen were involved.

“The steps taken by the security agencies were carried out under full judicial supervision. The public prosecution was kept informed step by step with every action taken,” Abu Ras said in an interview with Reuters.

At least 59 UN personnel are being held by the Houthis, according to the organisation.