Israel’s minister of diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, in Krakow, Poland, Jan. 22, 2024. Photo: Beata Zawrzel via Reuters Connect

Israel’s minister of diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, has denounced a New York Times article that falsely accused the Israeli government of a “secretive” and “covert” campaign “to influence the US government.”

In a Hebrew-language post on X/Twitter, Chikli called the Times reporter “fake” and said that the story consisted of “absolute lies whose purpose is harming Israel.”

The Times article, published online, was headlined, “Israel Secretly Targets US Lawmakers With Influence Campaign on Gaza War.” A subheadline said, “Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs ordered the operation, which used fake social media accounts urging US lawmakers to fund Israel’s military.”

Notwithstanding the Times hype about the effort being “secretive” or “covert,” the Israeli ministry actually published a public request for proposals to advance digital initiatives.

In typical Times fashion, the article focused exclusively on Israel’s social media efforts, without mentioning at all that there are Iranian, Russian, and Chinese social media campaigns aimed at influencing American public opinion related to the war in the Middle East.

Even the context in the Times article was contentious. It said, “The United States has long been one of Israel’s staunchest allies, with President Biden recently signing a $15 billion military aid package for the country. But the conflict has been unpopular with many Americans, who have called for Mr. Biden to withdraw support for Israel in the face of mounting civilian deaths in Gaza.”

Actually the aid to Israel was part of a larger $95 billion package that also included $60 billion for Ukraine and $1 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza, as well as money to protect Taiwan. And the Times claim that “many Americans” want Biden “to withdraw support for Israel,” ignores polling that shows even more Americans — the overwhelming majority — support Israel, supported the aid to Israel, and think Israel is trying to avoid civilian casualties.

At least one former Israeli government official, Michael Oren, appeared to take the Times report seriously. “If the report is true, the campaign represents a flagrant violation of American law and an inappropriate interference in the internal politics of our most important ally,” Oren said in a social media post. “I call on the Government of Israel to immediately and thoroughly investigate the claim, to disassociate itself and denounce any such campaign, and to dismiss all the individuals involved.”

There’s a segment of journalists and opinion-makers out there who just want to bash Israel whatever the country does. If the Israeli government had not mobilized on social media, it’d be criticized for having poor public relations and doing a bad job of telling its story. And when the Israeli government does mobilize support on social media, it gets attacked for operating an “influence campaign.” Either it has too little influence, or it has too much influence. A reasonable person would reach the conclusion that what this is all about is not “influence” but Israel, and some people who intensely dislike it.

As a pro-Israel individual active on social media, let me tell you, if there’s some immensely orchestrated synthetic campaign to amplify pro-Israel voices, it doesn’t seem to have benefited me. Instead, I spend a lot of time blocking obnoxious comments from antisemitic or Israel-hating accounts.

It’s delusional to think that American public or congressional support for Israel is the product of a covert spending campaign rather than the result of shared values, religion, and national security and economic interests. Yet it fits perfectly with the worldview of New York Times land, which largely doesn’t share the values or the religion so can’t understand the durability of the US-Israel relationship.

To the Times, the only reason a member of Congress would vote for Israel is that they’ve been conned by a covert influence operation.

What’s remarkable is how few members of Congress have fallen for the New York Times‘ own campaign to erode support for Israel by falsely depicting American Jews as divided over the country and by demonizing Israel for conditions in Gaza that are Hamas’ fault. That Times influence campaign is costing a lot more than the $2 million the newspaper claims Israel spent.

The online comments on the Times article play into all the worst antisemitic stereotypes about Israeli “manipulation” of American democracy. Leave it to the New York Times and its readers to demonize a country for the sin of trying accurately to tell its own story. What bothers the Times most is the chance that Israel might be able to use new and democratic technology tell the truth to the American public without having to rely on the New York Times as an intermediary.

In other words, what really bothers the Times is the chance that the Israeli government can reach America without needing to grant an interview to Tom Friedman. The “influence” the Times is most worried of all about is its own. It is waning.

Ira Stoll was managing editor of The Forward and North American editor of The Jerusalem Post. His media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here. He also writes at TheEditors.com.