The Voices of Israel: The Clandestine Digital Militia Deployed to Restore Israel’s Image

According to a recent report from the Grayzone, David Ellison, the new owner of Paramount Skydance, was involved in a plot orchestrated by the Israeli government to monitor and stifle pro-Palestine activists in the United States. Buried in the 25,000 Benny Gantz’s emails leaked by Handala and initially named “12 Tribes,” which alludes to the twelve Jewish billionaires recruited to finance the initiative, the plan aimed to identify American individuals to support surveillance companies operated by former Israeli intelligence personnel for the benefit of Tel Aviv. This sabotage operation was specifically focused on American citizens engaged in the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

In an detalied report published on All-Source Intelligence substack, investigative journalist Jack Poulson informs that the organization known as the ’12 Tribes’ was conceived as a central hub for the ‘Blue Network’,  a term used to describe a loosely connected international group of pro-Israel individuals whose role was to undermine the legal standing of the boycott organizations, destroy their reputation and attack their sources of finance. Reportedly, the “12 Tribes” were integrated into an initiative spearheaded by Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs, evolving into the intelligence division (ICS) of what is currently referred to as “Voices of Israel”.

Though it is a perfect example of strategic overreach, Israel’s “12 Tribes” project may be the most sophisticated influence operation ever carried out on American soil. Israel has exposed its own legitimacy’s weaknesses by fusing AI technology, commercial investment, and state-sponsored messaging. Ironically, the endeavor to algorithmically enforce consent—by advancing narratives, informing editors, and suppressing dissent—has accelerated the very decline it sought to prevent. An international scandal that reveals the foundation of modern propaganda has emerged from what began as a covert digital force to safeguard Israel’s image…

IMAGE: One of two apparent photos of a variant of Calman Shemi’s “12 Tribes of Israel” painting, which Benjamin Gantz quickly forwarded to his anti-BDS team on December 4, 2015 (Source: Jack Poulson Substack )

Richard Powell writes for Great Reporter…

Israel’s “12 Tribes” Network: Leaked Files Expose Billionaire-Funded Digital Militias and the Global Information War

Leaked Israeli documents have exposed a billionaire-backed influence network codenamed “12 Tribes,” revealing how former intelligence operatives, U.S. tech moguls, and government ministries coordinated a global campaign to manipulate public opinion, suppress pro-Palestinian activism, and train AI systems to promote pro-Israel narratives online.

At the heart of this sprawling operation lies a new kind of warfare—one fought not with tanks or drones, but with data, algorithms, and influence. Yet despite the millions poured into digital propaganda, public opinion in the United States and abroad is slipping beyond Israel’s grasp.

The polling collapse: a narrative losing control

In 2025, Israel’s image crisis reached a tipping point.

A July Gallup poll found only 32 percent of Americans approve of Israel’s war in Gaza, while 60 percent disapprove—its lowest standing in modern history. Pew Research data shows just 16 percent of adults under 30 support sending U.S. military aid to Israel, compared with 56 percent of those over 65. Among Democrats, the shift is even sharper: only 12 percent now sympathize more with Israelis than Palestinians, while 60 percent sympathize with Palestinians.

For the first time, American public opinion has effectively flipped. By September, more Americans sided with Palestinians than Israel, reversing decades of unbroken support.

Globally, Israel faces near-total diplomatic isolation. A Pew survey across 24 countries found majorities in most nations now view both Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unfavorably. A Morning Consult report showed Israel’s net favorability dropping in 42 of 43 countries, by an average of nearly 19 points.

As Ben Freeman of the Quincy Institute put it, “When people realize they’re being targeted by a foreign influence campaign, trust collapses even faster. Israel’s overreach in shaping online narratives may have undermined its own credibility.”

Project “12 Tribes”: The billionaire mothership

The story of Project 12 Tribes begins with a memo inside Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), the country’s most influential military think tank. It proposed forming “an exclusive group of the 12 most influential Jewish philanthropists, symbolizing the 12 Jewish tribes; Israel’s government shall act as a 13th, facilitating tribe.”

Former defense minister and army chief Benny Gantz was tasked with leading the initiative. The leaked planning papers describe the operation as “a non-hierarchical mothership, working for the people and the state”—a decentralized network designed to mobilize private capital, intelligence expertise, and digital influence without the legal or diplomatic constraints that bind government agencies.

“Government money is also a political constraint,” one strategist wrote. “In the jungle, we need more guerrillas and less IDF.”

The billionaire roster

The 12 Tribes documents list some of the most powerful names in global business and technology:

• Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle
• David Ellison, his son and CEO of Paramount Global
• Haim Saban, media magnate and longtime Democratic megadonor
• Sergey Brin, Google co-founder
• Frank Lowy, Westfield Group co-founder and ex-chair of Australia’s Institute for National Security

Each was reportedly asked to contribute $1 million to seed a covert fund supporting influence and surveillance operations, including contracts with the Israeli intelligence firm Black Cube to monitor and disrupt pro-Palestinian activism in the U.S. and Europe.

The goal was simple: use private-sector wealth to wage digital and psychological warfare on behalf of the Israeli state, while maintaining plausible deniability.

“The 13th tribe”: Israel’s government as facilitator

According to the INSS documents, Israel’s government would act as the “13th tribe”—coordinating strategy, intelligence, and target selection while keeping its role invisible.

Internal communications stress that official fingerprints must be hidden, with one line reading: “No government branding. No IDF signatures. Just results.”

Leaked presentations describe the 12 Tribes as “a non-hierarchical mothership working through sub-tribes—clusters of social media influencers, analytics contractors, PR firms, and AI developers.”

Each sub-tribe would receive project funding through private “philanthropic” donations routed via Israeli ministries and friendly intermediaries.

The INSS proposal explicitly calls for “using the energy of private enterprise” to conduct “psychological influence” and “digital operations targeting delegitimization networks.”

From boardrooms to newsrooms

The link between Project 12 Tribes and Western media control became concrete when David Ellison—one of the named donors—acquired Paramount Global in 2025. He promptly installed self-proclaimed “Zionist fanatic” Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News, promising a “new direction” in editorial integrity. Critics saw it as an ideological capture of a major U.S. broadcaster at a time when Israeli war crimes in Gaza dominated headlines.

Meanwhile, Larry Ellison’s Oracle, another 12 Tribes financier, gained a controlling stake in the newly restructured TikTok U.S. entity under a Trump-backed deal. Oracle now manages TikTok’s U.S. user data from Texas—effectively placing one of the most powerful social platforms for youth culture under the stewardship of a billionaire identified as a central figure in Israel’s propaganda consortium.

Ellison’s new role gives him unprecedented control over the flow of information consumed by tens of millions of Americans under 30—the very demographic now turning decisively against Israel.

The digital militias

The 12 Tribes project was not just a donor club. It was designed as an ecosystem—a digital army blending human influencers, AI systems, and algorithmic manipulation.

Documents outline partnerships with private intelligence and marketing firms tasked with “training generative systems” like ChatGPT to repeat pro-Israel framings, suppress Gaza casualty narratives, and promote “shared democratic values.”
This campaign blurred the line between information management and data warfare.

The leaked files reference a $6 million contract with Clock Tower X LLC, led by former Trump campaign strategist Brad Parscale, to “shape large-language model training data” and flood Gen Z feeds with targeted content. The plan envisioned “100 root assets and 5,000 derivatives per month” distributed across TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.

Another partner, Bridges Partners LLC, managed The Esther Project—a U.S. influencer network that paid social media personalities up to $7,000 per post for “positive storytelling” about Israel. FARA filings confirm roughly $900,000 was routed through Havas Media for this purpose.

A third contractor, Show Faith by Works LLC, focused on evangelical audiences, running the “largest Christian Church Geofencing Campaign in U.S. history.” It pushed pro-Israel messages to 47 million devices during Sunday services across California, Arizona, and Colorado.

Inside the AI war

A former Google engineer, Jack Poulson, who reviewed the leaked materials, called the integration of AI manipulation “a historic inflexion point.”

“Governments are realizing that training data is the new battlefield. If you can make AI repeat your talking points, you’re shaping millions of conversations invisibly.”

A companion investigation by Dropsite News found Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office also commissioned a $45 million Google Ads campaign to deny famine conditions in Gaza. The effort, coordinated with pro-Israel NGOs, sought to flood search results and automated ad placements with “counter-narratives” debunking UN reports.

Netanyahu’s doctrine: the eighth front

In a closed-door influencer briefing in New York during UN week, Benjamin Netanyahu called social media “the most important weapon” and TikTok “the most important purchase going on right now.”

“If we get TikTok and align X with Elon’s cooperation,” he said, “we get a lot.”

This statement, caught on video, aligns precisely with the 12 Tribes strategy: to control both top-down and bottom-up information flows—from elite media to youth platforms.

Former diplomat Alastair Crooke has described this as the “eighth front” of Israel’s wars:

“The eighth front is inside the United States—against podcasters, influencers, and journalists. Without American consent, Israel can’t sustain its other wars.”

Censorship and editorial capture

Documents and testimony show how this influence strategy extends beyond algorithms to the editorial rooms of Western media.

Under Israel’s Freedom of Information Act, files revealed that in November 2023, then-IDF chief Aviv Kohavi held private meetings in London with BBC, Guardian, and Financial Times editors to “enhance support for Israel” during the Gaza bombardment. A BBC insider called the meeting “outrageous and unprecedented.”

The Daily Telegraph’s editorial shift has been even starker—amplifying Israeli talking points and publishing stories later debunked, such as false claims that Hezbollah stored weapons at Beirut International Airport. Analysts now cite the Telegraph as a textbook case of “narrative laundering.”

The backlash: public opinion and the taxpayer revolt

Despite the immense resources of the 12 Tribes network, Israel’s propaganda war is faltering.
Younger Americans are not buying it. Online engagement shows the opposite trend: viral videos criticizing U.S. support for Israel are outpacing official content by orders of magnitude.

The Tucker Carlson–Jeffrey Sachs interview, viewed more than 20 million times, crystalized a mood of national exhaustion. Sachs called Israel’s actions “genocide,” and Carlson described U.S. policy as “tribute, not aid.”

The backlash is now reaching Washington. Senate votes once automatic are tightening; progressive and libertarian lawmakers alike cite taxpayer fatigue and moral collapse. “Why are we paying for it?” has become a mainstream question.

The world turns away

At the 2025 UN General Assembly, Netanyahu addressed a half-empty chamber as delegations staged a mass walkout. Europe’s center-left governments—France, Spain, and even the UK—have since recognized Palestinian statehood, joining Latin America, Africa, and most of Asia.

For most of the world, Israel’s impunity is no longer seen as strength but as proof of U.S. corruption. The perception that America funds a rogue ally with no accountability is reshaping foreign relations and domestic politics alike.

Legal and ethical fault lines

Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, foreign-funded influence campaigns must disclose their operations. Yet many influencers and contractors linked to the Israeli government—including those involved in The Esther Project—failed to do so.

Civil-liberties lawyers warn that covert coordination between a foreign government, domestic billionaires, and AI infrastructure could constitute an unprecedented challenge to democratic oversight.

In Europe, Israel’s allies have mirrored its tactics. The UK’s proscription of Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act and the rise of “anti-Semitism action plans” conflating Israel criticism with hate speech have effectively criminalized protest. Across Australia and Germany, editors self-censor for fear of reprisal.

The empire of illusion

Israel’s “12 Tribes” initiative may be the most sophisticated influence project ever attempted by a democratic ally. But it is also a case study in strategic overreach.
By merging state propaganda with private capital and AI technology, Israel has exposed the fragility of its own legitimacy.

The attempt to algorithmically enforce consent—to buy narratives, brief editors, and silence dissent—has instead accelerated the very collapse it sought to prevent.

What began as a clandestine digital militia to defend Israel’s image has become a global scandal revealing the architecture of modern propaganda itself.

As Crooke warned, “Militaries can dominate ground briefly; narratives sustain legitimacy.” And legitimacy, increasingly, cannot be bought—even with billions.

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Source: https://21stcenturywire.com/2025/10/08/the-voices-of-israel-the-clandestine-digital-militia-deployed-to-restore-israels-image/