this post was submitted on 09 May 2026
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[–] knexcar@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Is this budget for convincing the general public to support them, or convincing US politicians? Because if it’s the former I don’t see it working or anyone believing the lies. Bloomberg tried something similar to get into the democratic primary and I’m pretty sure he failed spectacularly.

But I’d bet it’s the latter, and I let buying US politicians will continue to be successful. Because if both republicans and democrats support Israel, even if the public hates them who else is there to vote for?

[–] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

or convincing US politicians?

That involves bags of money delivered via AIPAC and, shall we say, more informal means. That has been a long-term and extraordinarily successful effort.

[–] Rat_in_a_hat@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 days ago

It's definitely for the former

$730 million for public diplomacy — the broad category known in Hebrew as hasbara — nearly five times the $150 million they allocated the year before.

Hasbara is about changing perception of the general public. The only reason we see some shift in government officials changing their course is because of how toxic support from Israel is seen (so much so that they can lose elections because of it).

So long as Israel can perform public advocacy to at least get to a place of neutral outlook (or become a sideline topic), then they'd have achieved their goals.

Israel's current stated goal is to increase Arab-phobia and Islamophobia through populism and anti-immigration rhetoric to be greater than people's disdain for Israel.

[–] DillDough@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

3rd parties, independents, just not voting period, there are a lot of options... we're too far gone now though, no matter what we need to fully destroy and rebuild our government from the constitution up.

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[–] kurmudgeon@lemmy.world 35 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Israel was a fucking mistake. I'm not anti-semetic. I'm anti-Israel. I have no problem with Jews. I have a problem with a genocidal, land-stealing dictatorship mascarading as a cruisading democracy that has no value on human life. Fuck Israel.

[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 days ago

Well it was such a great idea when puritans did it we thought “why the hell not?”

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.cafe 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Why are you a Nazi? Why do you hate Jews so much?

/S

[–] Siegfried@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

The common reaction on my book would be "are you denying the right to exist of the state of israel?" As if that would be the highest unforgovable sin

States dont have a right to nothing.

[–] shittydwarf@sh.itjust.works 58 points 3 days ago
[–] yesman@lemmy.world 45 points 3 days ago (3 children)

This is a panic move. I predict that the Gaza genocide; the Iran War; along with allowing support for Israel to become a partisan issue, will go down as the biggest mistakes in Israeli history.

Even if you don't care about dead Arabs, you can draw a direct line between Israel and $5 gas. American support for Israel is low and dropping. It's not just the anti-Semites and far-left who oppose Israel anymore.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 21 points 3 days ago

And I don't think the war and $5 gas are fully reflected in these opinion surveys quite yet.

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[–] MrSulu@lemmy.ml 37 points 3 days ago

No amount of lipstick can make an ugly as fuck genocide to away.

[–] PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Israel is a pariah terrorist state created out of thin air by the British which displaced 700,000 people who’d lived there for centuries

[–] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The Brits colluded, but the Zionist program started long before the Brits got involved.

They just ended fucking up the Middle East in general

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Nuh uh, god granted a piece of sun-blasted desert to special people then also created lush and verdant plains and forests elsewhere on the planet.

[–] PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I will never understand the appeal that place has in religion. It’s such a boring ugly shit hole…

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago

Religion is a mental illness.

[–] rwrwefwef@sh.itjust.works 29 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Ngl, Israeli propaganda used to be a lot more subtle. Now it's like they don't even bother trying. They've lost their way.

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's like they're hellbent on living out the antisemitic stereotypes. It's getting difficult to fight antisemitism outside of Israel.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 16 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I don't see a lot of anti-semitism aside from fringe internet forums. Anti Zionism is pretty popular though.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

israel was able to convince many instituitions int he western democracies that anti-zionism is anti-semetic, Universities has been quashing dissent since.

[–] mrdown@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

Not a single institute and western leaders believes antizionism is antisemetic. They willingfully support a genocidal state that they always knew it's nature

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[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.cafe 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Who would have thought that the lesson they would take from the Holocaust was to "Pay It Forward?"

[–] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

Sadly, that's one common reaction to trauma.

[–] daannii@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Remember how just like 3 years ago it was super rare to see videos of people being murdered in broad daylight on common social media platforms. ?

If you wanted to see that dark shit you had to go to dark places online to find it.

Now it's every day I see a video on Instagram of someone murdered in broad daylight.

The u.s president even posted such a video.

But the videos I see every day...

Yeah Most of the time it is IDF killing a civilian.

Some innocent person. Sometimes a child.

No coming back from that. We all have seen it now.

We all know. We ain't gonna un-know.

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[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.cafe 6 points 2 days ago

Just the announcement of the PR budget was bad PR. Not a good start.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 9 points 3 days ago

I know what Israel is: An enemy to people in general. No different from the Nazis.

[–] Wfh@lemmy.zip 20 points 3 days ago

How much of that will be dedicated to buying votes at Eurovision?

[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 days ago

If your country has a budget for PR and it’s not for tourism…..dude

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 17 points 3 days ago

We commit genocide, but don't worry, we are nice guys, our commercials say so!

Oh yeah, I totally see that working. People will immediately overlook the genocide because of a funny ad somewhere

[–] hark@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

If people know you're a liar, lying more won't help you.

[–] sportsjorts@lemmy.zip 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I would rather have healthcare for all Americans before sending another tax payer cent to those genocidal maniacs. Stop sending money and arms to Israel full stop!

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 6 points 3 days ago

israel has healthcare for all, because they can afford since they dont need fund thier war machine, using USA as a proxy for all thier wars.

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago (5 children)

I don't think Israel can recover their reputation within foreseeable future. They'd need to completely reform everything.

[–] mrdown@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They need to stop colonization

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 days ago

That would be step one

[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago

Just like the US

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[–] Gates9@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago

No, but some folks will get rich off of United States tax payers

[–] aramis87@fedia.io 12 points 3 days ago

$730 million for public diplomacy [is] nearly five times the $150 million they allocated the year before. That earlier sum was itself about 20 times what Israel had spent on such efforts before the war in Gaza erupted in October, 2023, following Hamas’s invasion and massacre in southern Israel.

So 2023 was about 75 million, and they're about 10x the budget they were a few years ago.

survey after survey shows declining support for Israel in the United States, its most important ally. [...] 60 percent of Americans now view Israel unfavorably, up seven points in a single year, with only 37% viewing it favorably. [...] 57% of Republicans under 50 hold negative views of Israel. Support has cratered among the religiously unaffiliated, Black Protestants and Catholics. Among American Jews, support has slipped below two-thirds.

[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I will forgive israel if they give me all the land they occupy. I will immediately give it to Palestine

[–] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Why would they say that? It's been working for decades.

[–] aramis87@fedia.io 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

As the article says

“The problem is that people don’t believe the state anymore. And that’s a much, much deeper problem that no amount of money is going to repair.”

You might also want to read the essay on the thermocline of trust.

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[–] trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

Probably because its still less than their genocide budget

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[–] Kepion@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 3 days ago

Imagine how many more tweets like these they can afford now

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 5 points 3 days ago

They should probably save their energy for dealing with climate change.

Nothing can be done to change the public’s perceptions of their past and ongoing atrocities since 2023.

The ones who support them are either ignorant of reality or bought and paid for.

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