Blood Money: Israel Pays Influencers to Whitewash Gaza Killings, $7K Per Post!
Responsible Statecraft exposé reveals covert campaign using Western social media figures to push Tel Aviv’s propaganda and conceal war crimes
Palestine, PUREWILAYAH.COM – A damning investigation by Responsible Statecraft has uncovered that the Israeli government is secretly funneling public funds into a vast influence campaign designed to sanitize its genocidal war on Gaza.
According to filings in the United States, “Israel” is paying Western influencers up to $7,000 per post to flood social media with pro-Tel Aviv propaganda while tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians are being slaughtered.
Netanyahu Endorses Paid Propaganda Strategy
The report, authored by journalist Nick Cleveland-Stout, details how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally endorsed the operation during a closed-door meeting last week.
“We have to fight back. How do we fight back? Our influencers,” Netanyahu told officials, urging them to engage Western social media figures to shape public opinion.
This candid admission highlights the regime’s heavy reliance on paid influence rather than facts to sustain Western support for its ongoing atrocities in Gaza.
The “Esther Project”: Covert Digital Warfare
Documents filed under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) reveal that “Israel’s” Ministry of Foreign Affairs contracted Bridge Partners, a Washington, DC-based lobbying and PR firm, to manage the covert influence campaign.
Codename: Esther Project
Budget: $900,000 (June–November 2025)
Allocated to influencers: approx. $552,946 (June–September)
Projected posts: 75–90 posts
Payout per influencer: $6,100–$7,300 per post
The project is run in coordination with Havas Media Group Germany and deliberately routed through US intermediaries to conceal direct Israeli sponsorship. This maneuver allows Tel Aviv to flood Western platforms such as TikTok and Instagram with state-crafted propaganda while avoiding transparency laws.
Architects of Manipulation
Bridge Partners is co-owned by Yair Levi and Uri Steinberg. Among its senior advisors is Nadav Shtrauchler, a former officer in the Israeli army’s Spokesperson Unit — a division notorious for whitewashing war crimes and manipulating wartime narratives.
For legal cover, the firm has retained Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, a US law firm previously tied to the spyware company NSO Group, infamous for its Pegasus software used to surveil journalists, activists, and Palestinian human rights defenders.
Whitewashing Genocide in Gaza
The Esther Project exemplifies “Israel’s” weaponization of Western influencer culture. By paying lifestyle and entertainment figures to repeat Tel Aviv’s talking points, the regime seeks to obscure the reality of its massacres in Gaza.
The offensive has already killed tens of thousands of Palestinians — mostly women and children — in what UN investigators have described as acts of genocide. Instead of accountability, Tel Aviv is investing in glossy digital propaganda to drown out Palestinian voices.
Digital Warfare and Western Complicity
The project’s name echoes the US Heritage Foundation’s “Project Esther”, which seeks to brand critics of “Israel” as antisemites or terrorist sympathizers.
While no direct link has been proven, both efforts share the same objective: criminalize solidarity with Palestine while amplifying pro-“Israel” voices in the digital space.
Analysts warn that such state-funded disinformation campaigns not only distort reality but also exploit Western audiences’ ignorance, turning popular culture platforms into weapons of psychological warfare.
A Glimpse Into Israel’s Information War
The Responsible Statecraft investigation provides a rare look into how “Israel” exports its propaganda machine into Western social media ecosystems.
By spending public funds to bankroll Western influencers, Tel Aviv aims to mask its crimes, manipulate public opinion, and sustain Western complicity in the Gaza genocide.
As critics point out, Netanyahu’s words — “We have to fight back. Our influencers” — lay bare the regime’s desperation: an empire of lies propped up by money, digital manipulation, and the silencing of Palestinian suffering. (PW)