Премьер-министр Израиля Биньямин Нетаньяху заявляет, что снижение поддержки его правительства со стороны США не связано с тем, что люди видят в Газе. Он возлагает вину на российские и катарские боты, которые «отравляют» ...
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the drop in American support for his government is not caused by what people see in Gaza. He blames Russian and Qatari automated accounts that “poison” young minds. New polling from Pew Research Center tells a different story: concern has risen steadily as the war has continued. What does the evidence show?
On 19 October 2026, Netanyahu spoke about what he calls the “eighth front” of Israel’s wars. In remarks shared widely on social media, he said Qatar and “some Russian operations” use bots to turn young Americans and Europeans against Israel. He pointed to claims about “settler violence” as one example of what he called a “blood libel.” His answer: Israel must use artificial intelligence and better technology to fight back.
The statement matches a pattern. Netanyahu has described social media and public opinion as a real battlefield alongside the military ones. Israel has sharply increased spending on messaging, influencers, and tools meant to shape what people—and now AI systems—read and repeat.
The core claim is simple: if Americans are turning against Israel’s actions, they have been manipulated. The alternative view is that many people have watched the same images, casualty figures, and aid reports for nearly three years and reached their own conclusions.
What the Polls Actually Show
Pew Research Center surveyed U.S. adults in late September 2025, almost two years after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack. The results are clear and have moved in one direction.
Fifty-nine percent of Americans held an unfavorable view of the Israeli government. That figure stood at 51 percent in early 2024. Thirty-nine percent said Israel was “going too far” in its military operation, up from 27 percent in late 2023 and 31 percent a year earlier. A March 2025 Pew survey found 53 percent of Americans with an unfavorable view of Israel overall, compared with 42 percent in 2022.
🇮🇱🇷🇺 Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel will launch a propaganda campaign using AI and bots to defend itself on social media, accusing Russia and Qatar of directly spearheading anti-Israel operations “We have to fight the information battle. That's the 8th front — the disinformation front, the propaganda front against us. We'll need to do a lot of AI work there because it's done with bots. Everything, including the "settler violence blood libel," is done with bots. They're trying to poison young American minds, young European minds against us. We know that it's Qatar and some Russian operations that have this traditional anti-Semitic thing that appeals to the "woke right" in America and some other countries. We have to fight it with our courage, with our guts, with our brains and with superior technology.”
— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) October 19, 2026
The same September 2025 survey found that 80 percent of Americans were at least somewhat concerned about starvation among Palestinians in Gaza and about Israeli strikes killing Palestinian civilians. Majorities also worried about future Hamas attacks on Israel. The concern for civilian life in Gaza was broad and crossed party lines, though it was stronger among Democrats.
Later Pew data from 2026 shows the trend continuing. Unfavorable views of Israel reached 60 percent in one spring survey. Confidence in Netanyahu himself has also declined. These shifts track the length of the war, the scale of reported civilian deaths, and the visibility of conditions inside Gaza more closely than any single bot campaign.
Polls are not perfect. They measure what people say, not secret motives. Still, the steady rise in negative views lines up with events that were widely reported by mainstream outlets, human rights groups, and the Israeli government itself. A large, coordinated bot effort would have to mimic the timing and the content of real-world coverage almost perfectly.
Israel’s Own Information Effort
Netanyahu’s call for AI work is not only talk. Public filings and reporting show Israel has hired outside firms for large-scale messaging in the United States.
Clock Tower X, a firm linked to former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, signed contracts connected to Israeli government work. Early Foreign Agents Registration Act documents described a $6 million deal focused on Gen Z audiences across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms, with a goal of tens of millions of impressions. Later reporting by Drop Site News and others put the overall value higher, with figures reaching $46.5 million across related work. Part of the plan involved building websites and content meant to influence how large language models such as ChatGPT frame topics about Israel.
Separate reports have described payments to influencers, automated commenting systems, and a sharp rise in the overall public-diplomacy budget. One analysis put annual spending on influence work far above pre-war levels, reaching hundreds of millions of dollars. Israeli officials and allies describe this as necessary defense against lies and antisemitism. Critics call it an attempt to flood the information space and train future AI systems on preferred narratives.
Both descriptions can be true at once. Foreign governments, including Russia, Iran, and Qatar, have run documented influence operations. Israel has also invested heavily in shaping what Americans see and hear. The existence of one does not erase the other.
What People Have Been Able to See
Casualty numbers from the Gaza Health Ministry, which is under Hamas authority, have been high for most of the war. Israel disputes the civilian-versus-combatant breakdown and says many deaths are the result of fighting an enemy that embeds among civilians. Independent tallies and satellite imagery have confirmed widespread destruction of buildings and infrastructure. International organizations, including parts of the United Nations and aid groups, have repeatedly warned of severe hunger and restricted aid entry. Israel has said it allows sufficient aid and blames Hamas for diversion and for starting the war.
Legal and human-rights bodies have used the word “genocide” in reports and statements. Israel and its supporters reject the term and say the campaign is a lawful response to the 7 October attacks, which killed about 1,200 people and took hostages. The gap between these views is large. What is harder to dispute is that large numbers of Americans have seen enough images, videos, and official statements to form opinions without needing automated accounts to tell them what to think.
Related coverage on this site has tracked other parts of the same story, including Netanyahu’s recent comments on warnings before 7 October and the political calendar in Israel ahead of its 27 October 2026 election.
Bots and Narratives on Every Side
Automated accounts are real and common. Reports have identified networks boosting Netanyahu’s own posts inside Israel, foreign campaigns targeting Israeli audiences, and pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel activity online. Qatar has long funded media and political projects that are critical of Israel. Russia has used information tools in many conflicts. The United States and its partners have done the same.
Dismissing all criticism as the product of bots makes it harder to measure how much of the shift is organic. When 80 percent of a large national sample says it is concerned about starvation and civilian deaths, the simplest reading is that many people have been watching the same public record. Treating that concern as the output of a foreign plot requires evidence that the plot accounts for the bulk of the movement. So far, that evidence has not been presented in detail.
Netanyahu is right that an information battle exists. He is also correct that foreign actors have incentives to amplify criticism of Israel. The polling data, however, shows a public that has grown more negative at roughly the same pace as the documented costs of the war. That pattern is what one would expect if people were responding to events rather than to a hidden campaign alone.
What Happens Next
Israel’s election is days away. Public opinion in the United States will continue to matter for aid, diplomatic cover, and political support. Netanyahu’s government has chosen to treat the decline as a technology and messaging problem that can be solved with more AI, more content, and more targeted outreach. Whether that approach narrows the gap, or whether the gap keeps widening as long as the underlying events remain visible, is now an open test.
Readers can compare the statements, the contracts, and the Pew numbers for themselves. The record is public. The conclusions do not have to be the same.
Original source of the circulating remarks: Video and transcript shared from Netanyahu’s comments, including this widely viewed post on X (19 October 2026). Primary polling data: Pew Research Center, October 2025 report.
Disclaimer: This article draws on publicly available polling, government filings, and reporting from multiple outlets. Claims about “genocide,” exact bot volumes, and the precise effect of any single campaign remain contested. Fact-checkers and readers should consult the original Pew datasets, FARA documents, and primary statements. Planet Today presents the documented numbers and the stated positions of the parties involved so readers can judge the evidence directly.
