Israel spends $46M to shape AI narratives on Gaza
- Israel is spending $46.5M to flood the web with AI-optimized propaganda, skewing how chatbots report on Gaza.
- The campaign uses 1,000+ domains and mass-texting bots to push users toward manufactured sources.
- While AIPAC spends record sums to enforce pro-Israel orthodoxy, candidates now weaponize that spending against them.
Israel is systematically gaming AI training pipelines. Investigative journalist Nick Cleveland-Stout revealed on Breaking Points that a $46.5 million operation - led by former Trump aide Brad Parscale - has built a network of over 1,000 domains like Paxpoint.org, designed not for human readers but for LLM scrapers. These sites are filled with aggressively sourced, bullet-pointed content optimized to be ingested by AI systems. The goal: ensure chatbots like Perplexity and Gemini regurgitate pro-Israel narratives when asked about Gaza.
"Perplexity gives a one-word 'Yes' to whether military aid to Israel is beneficial, citing these propaganda sites as primary sources."
- Nick Cleveland-Stout, Breaking Points
The operation doesn’t stop at static content. Saagar Enjeti reported that mass-texting bots engage users in debate, driving traffic to these subsidized sites - amplifying their authority in the eyes of AI crawlers. The effect is already measurable: Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot frequently echo the manufactured consensus, while ChatGPT and Claude show more resistance. This isn’t just spin - it’s a new form of information warfare, where the target isn’t the public mind but the models that now shape it.
Meanwhile, AIPAC’s political machine is backfiring. On The Daily, Jonathan Mahler detailed how the lobby’s $120 million 2024 campaign and 2026 push - nearly $30 million in Michigan alone - has turned its spending into a liability. Candidates like Daniel Biss in Illinois have flipped the script, running against AIPAC’s influence and using their Jewish identity to deflect accusations of being anti-Israel. The group’s alliance with 2020 election deniers and its dark-money tactics have alienated moderate Democrats.
"AIPAC is more unpopular in my district than I am."
- Daniel Biss, The Daily
The political ground is shifting. A record number of Democrats - nearly 100 - voted to end military aid to Israel after October 7th, 2023. What was once political suicide is now a viable campaign platform. AIPAC’s attempt to narrow the definition of 'pro-Israel' is colliding with a new reality: American voters, especially younger ones, are demanding accountability. The lobby’s response - spend more - only fuels the backlash.
Israel’s AI campaign and AIPAC’s electoral blitz are two arms of the same strategy: control the narrative. But where once influence flowed through cable news and lobbying, it now runs through algorithms and training data. The frontier has moved. The question is whether democratic discourse can keep up.
Source Intelligence
- Deep dive into what was said in the episodes
Israel, AIPAC and Difficult Questions for Democrats • Jul 29
- Rachel Abrams notes AIPAC is spending a record amount in midterm elections, primarily Democratic primaries, to influence candidates based on a shifting definition of pro-Israel support.
- Jonathan Mahler observes a paradigm shift in the US-Israel relationship, with a growing number of Democratic politicians publicly questioning and distancing themselves from Israel, a stance once considered political suicide.
- Mahler points to an unprecedented House vote where nearly 100 Democrats supported ending US military aid to Israel, demonstrating a significant internal party divide on the issue.
- AIPAC's substantial spending in this election cycle has made it a focal point in Democratic primaries, becoming both a proxy for US-Israel policy and the broader debate about large campaign contributions.
- AIPAC was founded shortly after Israel's establishment in 1948 with a bipartisan mission to strengthen the US-Israel relationship, initially reflecting Israel's socialist political leanings.
- Jonathan Mahler explains that the 2018 election of "The Squad," progressive lawmakers openly critical of Israel and supportive of BDS, presented a new challenge to AIPAC's traditional bipartisan support model.
- Before the 2022 midterms, AIPAC established the United Democracy Project (UDP) super PAC, allowing it to spend unlimited sums in political campaigns following the Citizens United decision.
- In 2022, AIPAC's Super PAC spent $26 million to support pro-Israel candidates and used "dark money" for issue-based ads unrelated to Israel, like reproductive rights, without revealing the funding source.
- AIPAC's endorsement of over 100 candidates who supported efforts to overturn the 2020 election alienated many Democratic American Jews, prioritizing perceived Israeli interests over American democratic principles.
- After October 7th, 2023, and Israel's subsequent actions in Gaza, popular opinion turned against Israel, intensifying what AIPAC had feared since 2018: a growing anti-Israel movement in Washington.
- In response to heightened anti-Israel sentiment, AIPAC spent $120 million in the 2024 election cycle, notably defeating "Squad" members Cori Bush and Jamal Bowman, whom they considered central to anti-Israel views in Congress.
- Rachel Abrams and Jonathan Mahler discuss that criticism of AIPAC's influence, though measurable, often attracts more scrutiny than other groups and can intersect with long-standing anti-Semitic tropes concerning Jewish wealth and political power.
- In a Michigan Senate primary, AIPAC is spending nearly $30 million for Haley Stevens, a moderate, against Abdul El-Said, a progressive who criticizes US aid to Israel and frames AIPAC as a symbol of corrupting money in politics in this election cycle.
- Jonathan Mahler suggests AIPAC is at a crossroads and to remain relevant, it may need to expand its definition of "pro-Israel" to include politicians willing to criticize the Israeli government and scrutinize US aid.
- President Trump eulogized Senator Lindsey Graham, who died at 71, praising him as a "great figure" in Senate history while also acknowledging Graham's "hawkish" foreign policy views.
Also from this episode: (9)
Diplomacy (3)
- Jonathan Mahler states AIPAC's early pitch highlighted Israel as the sole Middle East democracy and a vital strategic ally during the Cold War, aligning US and Israeli interests.
- Over decades, AIPAC lobbying secured billions in US military aid for Israel, making it the largest recipient of US foreign aid and bolstering its military capabilities, including fighter jets and the Iron Dome system.
- The 2015 Iran nuclear deal marked a critical divergence, forcing AIPAC to choose between supporting Israel's opposition to the deal or President Obama's policy, ultimately siding with Israel.
Other (5)
- Jonathan Mahler notes AIPAC's spending is comparable to the crypto and AI lobbies, yet it faces the majority of public and political scrutiny compared to other single-issue super PACs.
- AIPAC has broadened its target pool to include moderate Democrats who question unconditional US military support for Israel, establishing a strict litmus test that deems such questioning as "not pro-Israel enough" in the current election cycle.
- In a New Jersey House race, AIPAC's Super PAC spent over $2.3 million attacking moderate Democrat Tom Malinowski on unrelated issues; their efforts backfired, as a progressive candidate more critical of Israel won the primary.
- Illinois congressional candidate Daniel Biss, a moderate Democrat with Jewish identity and family in Israel, campaigned successfully against AIPAC after it demanded his support for "unrestricted military aid for Israel."
- Polling in Daniel Biss's district showed 51% viewed AIPAC unfavorably versus 17% favorably, indicating a strategic advantage for candidates who publicly distance themselves from the organization.
Physics (1)
- Emergency workers are racing to find survivors of a powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake in southwestern Japan, which caused fires, damaged buildings, and left at least one person dead and dozens injured or missing.