Inside Israel's 'Esther Project': DOJ filings reveal paid US influencer campaign [View all]

Source: The Times of Israel

JTA — Newly filed records with the US Department of Justice show that Israel’s government has quietly launched a two-track influence operation in the United States, blending big-budget political advertising with grassroots-style influencer campaigns.

The filings reveal that a firm called Bridges Partners LLC has been hired to manage an influencer network under a project code-named the “Esther Project.” It is unclear if there is any link to Project Esther, a plan to combat antisemitism published by the Heritage Foundation, an American right-wing think tank.

In its disclosure, required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Bridges said its work was intended to “assist with promoting cultural interchange between the United States and Israel” and specified that the engagement runs through a German division of the global PR firm Havas.

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Netanyahu added: “We have to fight with the weapons that apply to the battlefields in which we engage, and the most important ones are on social media.”

Read more: https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-secret-esther-project-doj-filings-reveal-paid-us-influencer-campaign/