On Oct. 4, 2025, the Times Of Israel published an article revealing an in-depth examination of the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s efforts to engage on what PM Benjamin Netanyahu called the “Eighth Front” of the war in Gaza—“the battle of narratives and public opinion around the world.”
The article detailed a significant ad spend totaling $4.1 million, primarily targeting evangelical Christian church-goers in California, Arizona, Nevada and right here in Colorado via a “geofencing” campaign. The focus of the campaign is reportedly to bolster Israel’s image, combat antisemitism, and shape Israel’s narrative around public perception of the war in Gaza, Palestinian statehood, and Israel’s religious importance to Christians.
Geofencing is a method of ad serving that defines a specific geographic boundary—such as Flatirons Community Church and maybe a few surrounding blocks, for instance—and then uses available wi-fi, GPS, and cellular data to target mobile devices recognized within that boundary to receive ads on any platform that provides them (Google, Facebook and thousands of other apps and websites). It’s most commonly used in the retail market. For example, you decide to stop by Target to pick up a few things and maybe you get a push notification from your Target app that informs you about a sale on light bulbs. Or you’re having lunch at that ramen place you love so much and while you’re scrolling through Facebook, you see an ad for the shoe store right next door.
The technology isn’t new, and has been in use in various forms for well over 20 years. It’s ubiquitous in marketing applications and if you have a mobile phone, you’ve been subjected to geofencing marketing campaigns far more times than you can count.
And despite its accepted and common use, Israel’s Foreign Ministry’s choice to engage in this tactic is a poor one that at best will be seen as an insult to the intelligence of the average American, but at worst works against Israel’s interests in a deeply trenchant way.
Admittedly, much like the way Israel was drawn into the Gaza war, Israel faces an unfortunate reality of conflict—you often don’t get to choose the battlefield. The war of propaganda that Netanyahu acknowledges is a real one, which most can agree that Israel has been losing since before they fired their first shot in response to the Hamas terror incursion on Oct. 7, 2023 that slaughtered 1,200 Israelis and other foreign nationals marking the single biggest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. Pro-Palestinian organizations here in the West appeared to have been prepped well before the attack, and were on offense before Israel had even finished counting the dead.
Israel was never able to catch up on that front. The myriad factions employed by Iran as “terror proxies” such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps themselves, have long engaged in cyber-driven disinformation warfare (often supported by Russia as well), using fake news sites and thousands of sockpuppet accounts across all social media platforms to disseminate untold reams of disinformation and imagery, often generated using artificial intelligence. This machine existed prior to the Gaza war, and was weaponized against the United States during the 2024 election, for instance. The New York Times published a piece detailing the scope of that effort last year, revealing attacks on both presidential candidates as well as President Biden. Sowing discord, stoking the fires of division, and discrediting our entire democratic system were their obvious goals.
“Iran’s government had increased the already significant resources it poured into its information operations since 2022,” the article reads, “when women-led protests rocked the nation. Government agents…routinely scout Iranian universities to recruit top tech graduates, offering high salaries, research funding and office space. ‘Iran’s strategy in the field of information and propaganda is similar to how the Revolutionary Guards manage the proxy militias across the Middle East,’ said Amir Rashidi, director of digital rights and security at Miaan Group, a human rights organization focused on the Middle East. ‘They infiltrate gradually but forcefully and play the long game.’”
So, with that all in place and operating for years, Israel’s choice to wade into that battle at this point is foolhardy at best—and represents the kind of hubris that appears to be a hallmark of the Netanyahu administration at this point. Hubris that can certainly be cited as a factor that even played a part in allowing the Hamas attack to happen in the first place.
When the sale of Tik Tok was announced last September, it was revealed that Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, Fox Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch, and Dell Tech founder and CEO Michael Dell were the main players in the purchasing coalition that also included MGX Fund Management, a United Arab Emirates investment firm that specializes in AI technology.
At the time, Netanyahu voiced his support for the deal, as reported in Jewish Insider:
“‘Weapons change over time,’ Netanyahu told a group of pro-Israel influencers in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. ‘You can’t fight today with swords and you can’t fight with cavalry…You have to fight with the weapons that apply to the battlefield, and one of the most important ones is social media.’ Netanyahu called the sale of TikTok ‘the most important purchase happening. ‘I hope it goes through, because it can be consequential,’ he added.”
On Tik Tok, I was surprised at the attention this garnered by so many people who seemed to ignore the obvious crony play by the Trump administration to ensure his most favored and most right-leaning friends were at the helm of the consortium. To me, it was little more than the “pearl-clutching” of people looking to blame yet another Jewish Boogeyman—Netanyahu—for a thing he wasn’t even materially attached to.
In retrospect, I was wrong to minimize their concern. It’s hard to ignore that this plays fully into his vision for the fight he’s now choosing to wage, one that even from a purely fiscal perspective, won’t provide the Return On Investment he’s seeking.
For one, he’s largely preaching to the choir. It’s true that overall support for Israel and the Gaza war has declined amongst usually stalwart Evangelical Christian Americans, especially those under 35, according to Brookings polling prior to the Gaza war, and polling continues to reflect that trend since, as indicated by the Baptist Press.
What does appear to be consistent is the gap between younger and older evangelicals is widening. This suggests that the campaign will only appeal to those who haven’t changed their position supporting Israel after the events of the last two years, and will only further alienate younger, far more digital-savvy audiences who will likely view this campaign with a great note of cynicism (and that’s a generous take).
I’m inclined to agree with that position. The intent of the campaign is clear — to manipulate the emotions of the audience while exploiting biases and relying on religious dogma (and centuries of highly honed religious guilt) to make its point. This isn’t about encouraging informed decision-making based on actual evidence or historical context. Even if those things are sprinkled into the advertising narratives, the simple choice of this distribution strategy renders them irrelevant. And worse, it will erode—not bolster—any trust in the Israeli government as an institution, which has already been hammered for years (for both good reasons and bad). As we all know, it takes but a moment to destroy trust, and years to rebuild it.
To me, it seems obvious that Netanyahu has expertly squandered much of the goodwill he was extended at the start of the Gaza war by those who were rightly horrified at the unimaginable violence Hamas inflicted upon Israelis in their attack, thanks to what’s likely the same enemy every long-time politician eventually loses out to: Hubris. This campaign is evidence to that.
Taking the “moral” approach in its military actions is something Israel touts as the philosophical platform that informs every battle it fights.
This isn’t that.
