by Nick Cleveland-Stout at Responsible Statecraftr
Netanyahu referred this week to a ‘community’ pushing out preferred messaging in US media — and boy are they making a princely sum
In a meeting dedicated to harnessing pro-Israel media energy on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alluded to a cohort of Israel’s influencers. “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.”
Being paid by Israel to post on social media is also very lucrative. According to previously unreported recent documents, these influencers are likely being paid around $7,000 per post on social media such as Tik Tok and Instagram on behalf of Israel.
Bridges Partners, a firm working for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sent a series of invoices for its “Influencer Campaign” to Havas Media Group Germany, an international media group working for Israel. The invoices detailed a sum of $900,000, starting in June and slated to end in November, for a cohort of 14-18 influencers to create content.
The document, which was filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, notes that the funding is for both “payments for influencers and production,” but does not provide a breakdown between the two. When taking into account the administrative production costs through Sept. 16 — legal fees, banking fees, marketing fees, and other project services noted in a separate document — that leaves an estimated sum of $552,946 for the influencers between June and September of this year.
The firm estimated that…
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