Israel just quintupled its PR budget to $730 million; experts say it won’t work
Posted by SpontaneousFlame@reddit | anime_titties | View on Reddit | 127 comments
OsgrobioPrubeta@reddit
“$730 million for public diplomacy — the broad category known in Hebrew as hasbara — nearly five times the $150 million they allocated the year before."
Oh boy, prepare to be reported into stone age at Reddit by the chosen-bot-accounts.
Opening_Pizza@reddit
I got permanently banned from "World News" just for asking for evidence of an Israeli claim. The good news is they've permanently lost the hearts and minds of anyone who isn't a boomer evangelical. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/04/07/negative-views-of-israel-netanyahu-continue-to-rise-among-americans-especially-young-people/
Birds_are_Drones@reddit
Ye pretty sure world news is run by the IDF
jjcoola@reddit
One of the subs where its a bad look not to be banned from.
blizzerd@reddit
It probably literally is. It used to be run by Ghislaine Maxwell, along with r/politics and r/technology.
colorblind-and@reddit
Did she get arrested before or after this sub was created?
It's funny to think that her absence from being arrested may have led to this sub being created.
Dragoncat_3_4@reddit
This sub created due to a moderator coup in /worldpolitics that resulted in everyone spamming tits. The coup was itself caused by people being mad at the other mods doing no moderating and letting the sub descend into 'murican-based domestic politics and Trump-bad karmawhoring
LauAtagan@reddit
Waaaaay after, like 6+ years after the subreddit was created.
thegodfather0504@reddit
fr?!
blizzerd@reddit
Have a look for yourself.
spacejunk444@reddit
https://old.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/r45a5n/here_is_the_evidence_that_reddit_user_maxwellhill/?share_id=JKvz0EiWrhXOFzKDDqVOZ
For a useable link. wtf is up with people posting links that make you go in to the areas bar and change to old. It’s really annoying especially on mobile.
thegodfather0504@reddit
Mother...fucker...🤯
Freud-Network@reddit
They were both Massad agents collecting kompromat to use for blackmail. Look how successful they were. An entire generation of politicians and elites have sworn fealty to Israel.
jollyreaper2112@reddit
Yeah that sounds like shit someone made up like did you know Epstein met with moot and pol showed up on 4chan the next day? Haha. No it happened. Wtf?!
Canadian_Border_Czar@reddit
Maxwell was mossad... just look up who her father was, and look at when she became friends with Epstein.
Your_nightmare__@reddit
Lmao i recall reading it back then and seeing the same sentence types being repeated suspiciously often (that nobody else uses), then after a while chatgpt was released
UbajaraMalok@reddit
Had to unsubscribe from there and came here instead. Much better so far.
--___---___-_-_@reddit
Gotta go to the always trusty r/anime_titties
NotGalenNorAnsel@reddit
Someone had to take over for Ghislane Maxwell...
EternalAngst23@reddit
I got banned for suggesting that Israelis were killing Palestinian civilians. Proudest ban I’ve ever copped on reddit.
onepareil@reddit
I got permanently banned from regular News for saying Ynet publishes Israeli government propaganda, lol. Or I assume that’s why. It was the first and only comment I ever made on that sub, and no mods ever responded to my question about what rule I broke.
Sprintzer@reddit
You have to message again and be nice, vow to be “better” or use better words. Also try different times of day, like a world news mod who lives overseas might be more amenable to you
banjosuicide@reddit
Why, so they can ban you again the second you say something even remotely counter to their narrative?
Sprintzer@reddit
Yeah, I’ve just steered clear of the Israel / Gaza topics. I have noticed that world news is less pro-Israel now. But even to criticize you have to be careful
monocasa@reddit
I got perma banned there for posting a cnn article where a recently returned oct 7th hostage was chewing out netanyahu for being attacked by helicopters on oct 7th.
Haywoodjablowme1029@reddit
I've had that happen in a sub before, I just keep asking until they answer.
onepareil@reddit
I asked once and didn’t get a response. I asked again, and they reported me to Reddit for harassment. Then I gave it like 4 months before asking again, so they permanently muted me.
NeonArlecchino@reddit
I was banned and muted that way from the OnlineDating subreddit for explaining rape by deception. Kind of outs what the moderators are over there if an explanation with citations gets you removed.
Master_Mad@reddit
I got banned from World News because I was saying about the genocide they were doing on Palestinians that we were talking about in a thread: "You could call it a holocaust".
Stubbs94@reddit
Being banned from that subreddit is a sign you are on the right side of history.
banjosuicide@reddit
I got permabanned by pointing out an account spamming the same opinion pieces ("proving" that Israel isn't committing genocide) 40x throughout the comments of a single post was a bot. All I said was "this looks like a bot account. You can see the same post being made seconds apart in response to different posts" and the bot account was removed by Reddit around an hour after I was banned. Not even criticism of Israel itself. I was simply pointing out an obvious bot.
Pretty hilarious really.
OsgrobioPrubeta@reddit
Being perma -banned from that sub is a sign of dignity, congrats.
I have been permanently banned from other subs, temporary banned from subs like Europe and this one by Reddit itself, just for posting UN decisions and trustworthy news articles.
Lost track of the amount of reports I have fought back and reddit suicidal warnings.
I'm already prepared to be perma-banned from Reddit one day, this just made me think that will happen sooner.
Canadian_Border_Czar@reddit
Yeah its basically a right of passage. Theyve done so much damage to the Ukraine war effort by driving 10s of thousands of people away from the daily news cycle about Ukraine.
Amazing what happens when the CEO of one site is the on the tech advisory board of the ADL. They are constantly in breach of their duty to RDDT shareholders but allowing this site to used to spread fascist genocidal propaganda.
Morgn_Ladimore@reddit
They don't give two shits about Ukraine either. When the recent news came out that Israel was secretly buying stolen Ukrainian grain from Russia, the comments were all pro-Israel and anti-Ukraine.
Absolute joke of a sub.
-Ultra_Violence-@reddit
Based Jão
yuje@reddit
Given that Reddit failed at profitability for years, having a foreign government offer tens of millions for access to admin rights to one of the top social media platforms with an audience of tens of millions doesn’t seem like all that expensive of an investment.
waiver@reddit
Lol, the reddit CEO is in the advisory board of the ADL
-Ultra_Violence-@reddit
So im not the only one, my story is similar. Fuck worldnews subreddit
clubby37@reddit
I'm currently serving a 7 day suspension from OutOfTheLoop for saying "no one is buying your hasbara bullshit anymore" three weeks ago. Apparently, I was being uncivil. Gasp!
ScaryShadowx@reddit
It's crazy that almost 60% of Republicans in the 18-49 age range have a negative view of Israel. Israel is not recovering from this and they have maybe 10 years of unbridled support left. Will be a very interesting time when the status quo changes.
Treadwheel@reddit
Netanyahu has literally laid out a plan where Israel embraces an NK-like autarky model in the next several decades.
blindmodz@reddit
If you are perma from r/worldnews you did something right.
mrgoobster@reddit
It's the only subreddit I've been banned from. I thought I was just being reasonable.
Treadwheel@reddit
I had an account banned for making a factual correction to a headline (tabloid claiming "Palestinian activists" were protesting a children's hospital existing because it's Jewish, turns out it was a hospital operator being protested and the protests were against cozying up to a donor who funds a lot of pro-genocide groups, not the operator itself)
Hrud@reddit
My ban from there was well deserved, and I was lowkey disgusted I wasn't banned from reddit alltogether and merely got a warning.
I was trolling by pushing the most abhorrent and vile turbo-zionist discourse I could think of. The fucking ghouls and bots over there were upvoting me before my messages were deleted.
Sprintzer@reddit
Had a similar experience, although I’ve noticed the overall general sentiment on that subreddit to be less and less pro Israel as time has gone on.
Granted, you need to just speak about Netanyahu or something and not Israel
Capybarhigh@reddit
The censorship is crazy. You can say horrible things about a ton of stuff without any issue, but start pointing finger to that specific country's government and you'll be banned for "Call for violence".
ChefCurryYumYum@reddit
r/worldnews is a joke literally not worth participating in.
People who know use r/animetitties
Pavlovsdong89@reddit
My ban from that sub was because I disagreed with someone who said that "vandalism is a violent act against objects." I'm pretty sure that only applies when said objects belong to the Israeli government, but the mods never replied.
Future-Excuse6167@reddit
I hate that worldnews is default news sub. I was banned for mentioning Israeli war crimes and my entire comment history there was wiped.
I love how Ezra Klein is getting roasted for his video article that should have been titled, "Welp, looks like genocide is politically unpopular now." High time we realize the majority of mainstream media commentators aren't selected for their research skills or their ethical acuity, but how well they can fellate those in power while making is look like they're being objective.
Phenergan_boy@reddit
It’s not like they already control the site. The mods at news and worldnews remove any post mentioning the war in Lebanon.
travistravis@reddit
Calling it a war is a bit of a stretch. It's just an invasion
No_Internal9345@reddit
with a side of genocide
clubby37@reddit
We're doing enough genocide these days that the latest one barely registers.
2dudesinapod@reddit
Spez is on the board of the ADL
reddit_is_geh@reddit
It was also only 10m the year before that.
The thing is... We've heard their arguments and tactics. They suck. No amount of money will fix the fact that they have no good argument. At least right wingers think tank sophisticated and confusing arguments that make sense until you pierce through it. But even the BEST Israeli arguments sound ridiculous.
So this billion dollar PR campaign is just going to amplify the most cringe, eye rolling, frustrating, arguments that we've already had to deal with. This is just going to backfire.
It's going to be like if someone was trying to market their dating profile by explaining away and justifying the time they got caught having sex with an 11 year old. Like uhh... Probably best to just not spend money on ads trying to defend that.
waiver@reddit
They tell you Israel needs money for "defensive weapons" while they waste 750 millions USD in bots and influencers.
schadenfreudender@reddit
Save $730M, jail Bibi.
OsgrobioPrubeta@reddit
Why do people keep calling him Bibi? Bibi should be for someone or thing cute, or funny, why not call him something like Satanyahu, as I usually do?
NearABE@reddit
“Nah sea” the German diminutive for the name “Ignatz”. Ignaz was fairly common in the 19th and early 20th century. The name we mean something different to people in the future. The Charlie Chaplin mustache has fallen out of style too.
loggy_sci@reddit
Bibi reportedly hates being called that
Fearless-Feature-830@reddit
Yeah that shit grosses me out
schadenfreudender@reddit
Because I was too lazy to type NetanYAHOO
your_red_triangle@reddit
he's just the face, he's been elected 6 times, polls shows 80-90% of Israelis support the genocide in Gaza. The top terrorist can be removed tomorrow and there's 100s more ready to take his place and be even more extreme. They need to spend that 750m on better education and ways to deradicalised the whole population.
Adventurous_Salt@reddit
Ugh, the internet is about to be so much more annoying.
voidox@reddit
sigh ya, gonna see a new wave of hasbara bots, going to be insufferable :/
Hesitation-Marx@reddit
There’s always money in the Hasbara stand
mycoctopus@reddit
There's an isreal times article in which a politician is boasting about one of the rounds of extra multi million dollar funding for hasbara, in which he proudly describes hasbara as "consciousness warfare".
Somehow they found a way to describe propaganda in an even worse way than just calling it their propaganda wing.
mycoctopus@reddit
“Israel’s hasbara (public diplomacy) efforts and consciousness warfare have for decades not received the critical and life-saving resources and tools they require,” Sa’ar told the Israeli newspaper Maariv. “I am determined to make a change. Every shekel devoted to this cause is an investment, not an expense, and will strengthen Israel and its standing in the world.”
A related article thats worth reading.
And another
OsgrobioPrubeta@reddit
Unfortunately, they have made worse than that, and chances are that soon they'll surprise us with a Israeli version of Mengele.
mycoctopus@reddit
Oh yeah there is significantly worse footage unfortunately, as you say.
I just put this one as an example as it was the post above this one in my feed at the time.
InspiredPhoton@reddit
They needed to win eurovision to show everybody loves them.
floralbutttrumpet@reddit
Ah, yes, more vote manipulation and losing more big contributors, that'll do it.
mycoctopus@reddit
There's an isreal times article in which a politician is boasting about one of the rounds of extra multi million dollar funding for hasbara, in which he proudly describes hasbara as "consciousness warfare".
Somehow they found a way to describe propaganda in an even worse way than just calling it their propaganda wing.
Shane-8300@reddit
Just one more AI rendering of a khamas secret lair bro, the world will love us again!
Call_Me_Clark@reddit
The irony is they could spend 1/100th that amount to improve the lives of Palestinians, and it would effectively improve opinions of Israel AND make Israelis safer.
meister2983@reddit
Is there actually evidence of this? Israel historically spend lots of money to improve lives of Palestinians (just the basics of electrification), but that hardly led to Palestinian population en masse to become all cool with Israel (even if there were plenty of collaborators in the 1980s).
Ultimately this type of action leads to the population fearing economic dependency on its enemy and such aid gets refused or even attacked.
At best, I see no path where the Palestinian population can be sufficiently bribed by aid to crack down on its own militant organizations.
Call_Me_Clark@reddit
It doesn’t need to be spent on aid, even. They could crack down on the militant setters and invest in the WB police agencies to help keep them out when the settlers inevitably pop back up again.
meister2983@reddit
Again, what evidence is there it would buy them enough goodwill to make Israel far safer?
If anything, I think cracking down on settlers would look like a concession and embolden militants further. Exactly what happened after it removed settlers completely from Gaza
Call_Me_Clark@reddit
I think that’s a real problem with Israel’s mindset for relations with the Palestinian, with its neighbors, with its allies like the U.S. etc. There’s no concept of trying to make things better for its own sake, just posturing at threats real and imaginary. “Belligerent” or “cutting one’s nose off to spite its face” come to mind as descriptions.
I really don’t think Americans want Israelis to suffer or be unsafe, although I hear from Israelis that they perceive Americans as wanting exactly that. I think we just want to see less bad stuff and more good stuff.
Maybe the gap in mindset is that we see friendly positive relationships as a source of strength and they see it as a weakness
Ropetrick6@reddit
See, the problem with that is Israelis are dedicated to making Palestinian's lives worse, even to the expense of themselves.
Never ask a woman her age, a man his salary, or why Israel supported Hamas taking power in the Gaza Strip.
timmytissue@reddit
It's not politically possible. The Israeli population wouldn't allow that.
SpontaneousFlame@reddit (OP)
This is true, but Israelis are wedded to the idea of brutalising and mass murdering Palestinians, so it will never happen.
TheLastSamurai101@reddit
Telling their story well enough means getting people to hate Palestinians enough to accept that anything Israel did to them was for the best.
Hot-Championship1190@reddit
This - but in high definition!
Beliriel@reddit
Fucking dying at your profile pic and the flair lmao
SpontaneousFlame@reddit (OP)
I particularly loved the “ICBMs stored in attics” stories. There’s also the “every apartment has a rocket” story. I would never dispute those stories and, it’s only been two and a half years. The IDF will find the evidence to back this up real soon.
CwazyCanuck@reddit
Maybe if their story was a little more like a documentary, and a little less like a big budget fiction, it would be easier and cheaper to tell the story.
Dripdry42@reddit
A lot of this is going to go toward Oracle, who basically owns CNN. They own you. They own what you see, they own what you hear. they own and watch all of your data, because Oracle runs Palantir.
PurpleMclaren@reddit
Most americans dont understand they are an Isreali vassal state now.
loggy_sci@reddit
Israel is a U.S. European colonial project but also a vassal, but also Europe is a U.S. vassal and the U.S. is an Israeli vassal.
It’s like you guys know 4 words.
PurpleMclaren@reddit
Honey, you typed some words but it doesn't change reality.
Why did Trump invade Iran? Definitely not isreal cashing in their epestien tapes, right?
loggy_sci@reddit
The U.S. is a benefactor and supporter of Israel, and they have a strategic partnership. Neither country is obligated to the other, and neither is subordinate. If that were the case the history of I/P would be very different. Something you’d know if you bothered to read anything other than UkraineRussiaReport and the drive through menu at Taco Bell.
But alas, because you’re a dingbat Russian shill and you’ve made being anti-western your entire personality, you screech about vassals online.
PurpleMclaren@reddit
HAHAHA I just saw this my buddy logi! Hahah
PurpleMclaren@reddit
Yeah every single high level military offical was telling him to not invade but he did it because of the strategic partnership..?
Get real buddy, open your eyes.
American weapons were using in the genocide, are you okay..?
kaptainkooleio@reddit
This is similar to if the Nazis spent $1billion to improve their PR 3 years after committing the holocaust. Experts say it won’t work and it really doesn’t take an expert to see why. I’m never gonna forget nor forgive the images I’ve see of Gaza. The stain of genocide is gonna remain for a long ass time, as it should. Fuck Israel.
meister2983@reddit
I predict no one is going to care in a decade.
How many people think about the Tamil Genocide?
Marble_Turret@reddit
Preach
meister2983@reddit
I assume the population of Israel cares enough about this? That's like $70 a person a year. If I were Israeli I imagine I could find a lot better use for $70 then trying to get a foreigner to to think more positive about my country
toq-titan@reddit
Lmao. You mean to tell me that they were paying \~$150,000,000 for PR before and the best they came up with was “Just call anyone that disagrees with you an antisemite”.
loggy_sci@reddit
It is absurdly easy to disagree with Israel and oppose the IDF while not being antisemitic, it’s just apparently very, very difficult for anti-Zionists online.
Socraman@reddit
It's actually very easy. Look:
Jews had a horrible history of persecution and genocide for centuries, and that is horrible. I respect human rights, in particular the right to life. They deserve to be able to live their life safely and free of discrimination.
Also fuck Israel, the IDF, and their fascist government. They are genociders that deserve the same fate as Milosevic. And Free Palestine.
loggy_sci@reddit
Have you demanded your goverment offer a right of return to Jews from Israel? Are you going to accept Jews from Israel once your dram comes true and Israel is dissolved?
Socraman@reddit
Why should Israel be dissolved?
My government allows even Sephardic jews to ask for Spanish citizenship. And the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, so that's a very generous reparation if you ask me. Is your government offering right of return to Florida and Georgia to the 5 nations that got death marched in the Trail of Tears barely not even 200 years ago?
Ropetrick6@reddit
Uh huh, suuuuuuuuuure. Mind providing a peer-reviewed and reputable source for that claim of yours?
photochadsupremacist@reddit
Don't forget the classic "The babies we starved were actually also sick so not our fault"
Meath77@reddit
Expect any comment like that to be downvoted in the future.
SpontaneousFlame@reddit (OP)
That’s absurd. There were also pretty graphics of tunnels that didn’t exist and photoshopped pictures of ICBMs that we were expected to believe were in every house in Lebanon.
Plus the army of online trolls saying things like “I saw the proof myself but I can’t tell you where!”
EducationalReply6493@reddit
They’ll do anything but end their reign of terror in the Middle East. It’s clearly very expensive to keep up with real time videos of their terrorist attacks
Chemical-Drawer852@reddit
Cat's already out of the bag, their reputational damage won't ever be repaired because they fundamentally misunderstand social media. Using zionist billionaires to censor for you backfired, what a surprise.
Ging287@reddit
Okay, that's nice, how about reparations and an immediate HALT to genocidal activies, rampant colonialism and imperialism from this terrorist rogue state?
Bolaumius@reddit
But...here is the problem: if they do that, how will the poor israelis be able to rape their prisoners, specially those that were not even charged with anything? Sorry man, we can't do that.
Bolaumius@reddit
Can't wait to see 5x the amount of people defending genocide and the mass murder of civilians. Thankfuly I already blocked most of these clowns but I'll still have to block the upcoming ones.
Big_Red_Machine_1917@reddit
Stuff like this this really shows how desperate and frankly, deluded Israel's apologists. They are desperate for some magic bullet of an argument, that they truly believe will suddenly make millions of people believe that the daily mass destruction of homes and human life they have witnessed for almost three years now, not only acceptable, but a moral thing.
NeonArlecchino@reddit
Oh no! People have become aware of reality and that's bad!
So the Israeli government knows online detractors are right so want to silence them? That does sound more feasible than fixing things.
Israel was founded on an ethnic supremacist ideology and runs hard with the lies that it is a scrappy underdog who always goes it alone. This quote is recognition that that is biting them in the ass! Many of their younger generations don't realize how weak their country would be without the US to fight their battles and believe being hated is the default for jews. It's like watching an abusive alcoholic drink themself to death.
Israel has spent so much on propaganda that they are in an incredibly bad position because their reality became accessible. This article is a chronicle of where hasbara led them while still embracing the 'look what you made me do!' logic of an abuser to blind themselves from what needs to change to stop their destruction. This article proves that their ministers know it and yet their answer isn't ending the "negative realities" of their society, but more propaganda!
JustChillin3456@reddit
Lmao yea im sure that will work
But for real tho anyone in this thread know how I can get a $7000 check? Do I need to make a Twitter or Instagram ? Ill even simp for Ben Shapiro , whatever it takes ngl
TrueRignak@reddit
Also known in other languages as "corruption", "disinformation" or "propaganda".
beeeeeeeeeeeeeagle@reddit
Wildly optimistic to think spending 750 mil on propaganda is going to be successful when there is endless footage of war crimes and near daily media reports of the next horrific undertaking by Israel.
The__Odor@reddit
And yet, it already has clearly worked for some - hell, it might even be allocated less towards propaganda tools and more towards acquiring and leveraging blackmail~ Diplomacy is such a wonderfully flexible term, isn't it 😊
beeeeeeeeeeeeeagle@reddit
Depressingly so.
andr386@reddit
It's pretty obvious already on reddit that some posts are totally at odds with some of the common sentiments shared in the community.
They are already exploiting reddits communities, their rules and public sentiments to orient debates. It's at multiple levels and involves an army of posters. They are whole campaigns that sometimes I feel like I am in an alternate reality. It makes me lose even more trust in Reddit. They will manipulate all social media even more than before. They are so good at it. They've been doing it for quite a while.
Eventually they might simply rile up everybody against them. If you're not allowed to have a critical opinion about Israel then this might simply lead people to have an outward negative view of Israel not based in critical thinking anymore. And that'd be a lot worse for them. Because that would not be very different from blind hate and resentment.
DocBigBrozer@reddit
I've had temp bans for using Zionist as a term... They banned me twice, after appealing, they rescinded them
floralbutttrumpet@reddit
My entire thoughts on this stillborn idea can be summed up in one emoticon: 🙄
The world has had years to see what Israel is like. Every human on earth has had ample chance to draw their own conclusions from what their eyes have shown them.
SpontaneousFlame@reddit (OP)
Israel’s problem is is that while mainstream media is still attempting to deceive a lot of people it’s the IDF themselves proudly posting videos of their own atrocities plus their victims being able to post videos that has undone the narrative. It’s hard to argue that Israel is taking care to avoid civilian casualties when there are bodies of dead children wrapped in shrouds covering the floors of hospitals.
AwayStation266@reddit
You remeber that one leaked video saying "we have a tiktok problem" yea, they were wayyyyy behind in recognizing
Su-37_Terminator@reddit
Spending money on the important stuff! The minions can rebuild their homes with the skin on their hands and the sweat off their backs, the govt MUST make sure Israel never loses an argument on Reddit again!!!
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