Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine) 28.07.2026
Republican Vice President J.D. Vance said anyone running a “foreign-funded influence campaign” in his country could “go to hell.” Mr. Sabra Netanyahu is coming to Washington this week to eat the porridge he cooked.
Haaretz revealed what Israel has bought with the millions of dollars it has committed to since October 7: a network of websites posing as research institutes and fact-checking bodies, and 42 accounts on social networks, all of which are operated by a public relations firm of Brad Prescale, who was the director of President Donald Trump’s digital election campaign (Omer Ben Yaakov, Haaretz, July 23).
Vice President Vance did not elaborate on the details, but he did mean a real Israeli campaign. U.S. law requires anyone acting on behalf of a foreign government to register and report, and from these reports he revealed
This is not the first time that Israel has tried to influence with the help of subcontractors in order to distance itself from the hasbara it is trying to promote. After October 7, the hasbara efforts did not stop, they were only privatized to more and more subcontractors. The Government Advertising Bureau injected NIS 174 million into a digital campaign that was approved without a tender, and $40.5 million was transferred to Parscale’s company. In return, the 42 accounts together gained only about 855 followers. In total, Israel committed to payments of more than 100 million shekels to various companies in the United States for various campaigns.
No Zionist propaganda can cover up for the genocide in Gaza and the terror in the West Bank. Many Israelis who want to replace Netanyahu and support another Zionist who support the war will be surprised by the cost of the war for their own pocket. To give a sense of just how much two years of fighting have cost Israel (without counting the cost of the third year), it helps to start relatively small. Over three separate skirmishes with the Islamic Republic — April and October of 2024, and then during the 12-Day War of June 2025 — the regime fired approximately 800 missiles at Israel. If we assume a 2:5 interceptor-to-missile ratio, the United States and Israel may have fired a total of around 320 interceptors. If we assume that Israel fired about two-thirds of the interceptors (a rough assumption), that equal 213 Israeli interceptors. At roughly $4 million for each Arrow-3 interceptor, that amounts to $852 million.
That number is conservative. And it doesn’t include the Arrow interceptors deployed to shoot down dozens of Houthi missiles fired at Israel out of Yemen since November 2023. It is likely that Israel spent more than $1 billion on Arrow interceptions alone since the start of its multifront war.
Moreover, that estimate does not include the cost of shooting down dozens of cruise missiles, hundreds of drones, and thousands of rockets launched against Israel following October 7. Defeating many of those attacks required hundreds of Iron Dome and David’s Sling interceptors, and air-to-air munitions. Iron Dome is considered to be the least expensive of these defenses, yet it still runs at roughly $50,000 per interceptor.
Then there is the price of offensive operations. The number of precision, high-tech munitions fired at targets in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Iran has yet to be made public. But there’s no question that the total runs well into the thousands, meaning that the cost will also run into the billions. In fact, since the war began, Israel has had $11.4 billion worth of air-launched munitions requests approved by the United States for purchase. And don’t forget the price required to fuel Israel’s fighter jets for thousands of sorties over Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran.
Prices go up and up, the various taxes will go sharply up, education is on the ground, there will be serious cuts to public services. More than 160,000 Israelis escaped; another 23% are considering escaping. Most Americans oppose any support for Israel.
The fear of the Palestinians in the West-Bank is dying and a new intifada is knocking on the door and Trump’s intention to break the fighting spirit of the Iranians has been broken. The victory of Iran has global effects and may heleped the struggle of the Indian students in India.