Israel paid at least $50 million to US-based firms to help its standing with Americans, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
The report alleged that the Israeli government had retained at least six firms to help in its efforts to sway public opinion in the United States in its favor. It added that at least three dozen new people, many of them in the marketing industry, have registered as foreign agents for Israel
This comes as 42% of American adults hold an unfavorable opinion of Israeli people, and 69% hold an unfavorable opinion of the Israeli government, a July poll from the Pew Research Center found.
The WSJ reported that Israel’s 2026 budget to improve its image and global standing was set for over $700 million. In 2025, Israel’s Foreign Ministry received $150 million, on top of what it gets for its existing activities, for public diplomacy, or in Hebrew, hasbara.
Israel spends record numbers on Hasbara in 2026
That sum was more than 20 times what hasbara efforts have typically been allotted in past years.
But in 2026, the government allocated roughly $730 million, more than four times the sum allotted in 2025.
Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft researcher Nick Cleveland-Stout told the WSJ that Israel is on track to spend more than any other country on influencing US public opinion, based on funds disclosed to the US federal government this year.
In the past, nations such as Qatar spent around $400 billion to influence US public opinion, according to a June memo from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Notably, the WSJ report is also the latest accusation that former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale has been hired to act on behalf of Israel.
According to the report, Parscale, who is now the chief strategy officer at Salem Media, was paid over $45 million to launch a series of campaigns by Israel to help boost its standing in the US.
Salem Media is a conservative Christian media conglomerate and is known for hosting conservative pundits such as Scott Jennings, Hugh Hewitt, and Lara Trump.
His contract involved the “integration of narrative messaging into Salem Media Network properties and aligned distribution channels,” the WSJ reported. It was the largest contract that the WSJ reported on.
Both Parscale and Salem Media had since said that they don’t pay their hosts, who are mostly known Israel supporters, to say anything specific about the Jewish state. They allege they used the money to buy more than half a million dollars' worth of ads on the network.
“Our hosts have built their careers by saying exactly what they think, not by reading from someone else’s script,” the WSJ quoted Salem Chief Executive David Santrella as saying.
Israel courts conservatives to help influence Americans' declining public opinions
“The existential threat to Israel is misinformation, from any side,” Parscale was quoted by the WSJ as saying.
Last week, Time Magazine reported that Parscale ran a campaign denouncing the US-Iran ceasefire and
Under the deal between Havas, a global advertising agency, and Parscale's Clock Tower X, Parscale's group would produce "100 original pieces of content each month, with at least 80% aimed at Gen Z audiences across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and podcasts," Time reported.
He also pledged to “amplify the campaign across social media” alongside the aforementioned deal featuring Salem Media, and would frame his overall effort as an “effort to combat rising antisemitism online.”
In fact, the WSJ reported that Parscale told Israeli officials during a 2024 business trip that companies he built were “probably the largest thing outside of Fox News to help fight misinformation and Jewish hatred.”
Time reported that Parscale promised the campaign would produce "at least 50 million digital impressions per month, as well as influence how AI tools such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, and Google's Gemini characterized Israel and the war.”
The WSJ also reported that part of Parscale’s contracts were launching artificial-intelligence-generated texts to thousands of US citizens under the guise of “sharing perspectives and educating people about the importance of the US-Israel relationship.”
The report added that Parscale's AI bots have shared links to websites like Allyvia.org, which Parscale’s team built, to share information about the alliance.
The goal of the AI in the campaign was to deduce the biggest concerns US citizens have about Israel, combat them, and report the answers back to the government, Parscale said, according to the WSJ.
One Foreign Ministry source told Time that another aim of the campaign was to prevent any “young conservatives from turning against Israel,” which the ministry believed Parscale was uniquely capable of doing.
The former Trump campaign manager denied the report, and told Time that he had “never funded, organized, or participated in any effort to undermine President Trump - ever - including his Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) or ceasefire proposal.”
But beyond Parscale, the Israeli government is using several other firms to improve Americans’ opinions of it.
One group, Show Faith by Works, reportedly filed documents outlining plans to send pro-Israel messaging to around 4 million megachurch members and Christian college students in the American Southwest through a geofencing campaign, the WSJ reported.
Show Faith by Works said that it would show “positive associations with the Nation of Israel while linking the Palestinian population with extremist factions.”
In the planned $3 million campaign, the group intended to reach out to big names such as actor Chris Pratt or NBA player Steph Curry.
In a later email, the group’s founder, Chad Schnitger, told the WSJ that it had decided to go in another direction and would spend the money to build a mobile museum featuring a video.
The WSJ also mentioned that Israel or agents working on its behalf have paid influencers on the Right and Left to help bolster its public image, but haven't mentioned paying for specific posts. The report noted that Christian influencers Stefanie and Caleb Rouse were paid $4,500 by a contractor for Israel in 2025 for “strategic marketing promotion," but the couple refused to comment on the matter.
While the next presidential elections are still years away, as America faces midterms in September, it is clear that Israel is fighting what could be considered an uphill battle to defend its most important alliance.