Research: Israeli state-linked information & influence operations

This page documents Israeli state-linked information operations on the same terms the book applies to Russia’s Internet Research Agency and China’s United Front Work Department: named operations, named funders, primary sourcing. The bound matters as much as the cases — the evidence below shows a failed covert campaign, a public advocacy preference, a disclosure gap, and a diluted minority stake, not “control of the media.” When OpenAI first publicly named and removed a state-linked operation, it named Israel in the same report as Russia, China, and Iran: one documented instance among peers, not something uniquely sinister.

1. STOIC / “Zero Zeno” (2024) — the load-bearing case, IRA parity

• Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs funded (≥$2M) a covert online influence op run by STOIC (Tel Aviv political-marketing firm). NYT (Sheera Frenkel, 2024-06-05). — (NPR/OPB)
• Hundreds of fake “American” accounts on X/FB/IG pushed pro-Israel messaging, targeting Black Democratic lawmakers — Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Rep. Ritchie Torres, Sen. Raphael Warnock — to keep military funding. ChatGPT-generated posts. — (NPR)
• OpenAI takedown (2024-05-30), codename “Zero Zeno” — first time OpenAI publicly named/removed a state-linked op, naming Israel alongside Russia, China, Iran in the same report (the built-in anti-exceptionalism anchor). Targeted US/Canada/Israel/India. — (OpenAI report); (NPR)
• Meta takedown (Q1 2024 Adversarial Threat Report): removed 510 FB accounts, 11 Pages, 1 Group, 32 IG accounts; banned STOIC; cease-and-desist. Fake personas (Jewish students, African Americans), fake news outlets, purchased engagement from Vietnam. — (Meta Q1 2024 Adversarial Threat Report); (NBC)
• Israeli watchdog FakeReporter independently surfaced it (Git repo / GitHub user matching a STOIC co-founder). Gov denial: Diaspora Affairs Min. Amichai Chikli denied any connection. Effectiveness: low (“Zero” = near-zero engagement; some users called the accounts out). — (NPR); (CyberScoop)

2. Institutional hasbara: Min. of Strategic Affairs / Concert-Kella Shlomo / Act.IL

• Min. of Strategic Affairs created a public-benefit company 2017 (Kela Shlomo → Concert 2018 → Voices of Israel 2021), structured so US recipients “see a bank transfer from a non-profit… not from the Israeli government.” — (Forward); Haaretz “A Concert of Shame” (Haaretz)
• $10.5M granted (half to US groups); ≥$6.6M Israeli-gov funds to US orgs since 2018. Named recipients: **CUFI ($1.3M), Hasbara Fellowships/Aish (>$1M), Israel Allies Foundation ($118K+), America-Israel Friendship League (~$33K).** None filed FARA; experts say potential FARA violation (no DOJ action cited). — (Forward); Middle East Eye.
• Act.IL — an app from the Ministry of Strategic Affairs that assigned pro-Israel social-media “missions,” reportedly relaunched as RiseApp through Reichman University with around 40,000 participants. The participant figure ran cleanest in the Israeli press and should be read as a reported estimate. — The American Conservative

3. Oracle, TikTok, and the advocacy preference

• Jan 2026: investor group incl. Oracle (+ Silver Lake, MGX) controls the US TikTok entity; headline ~$14B deal; Oracle handles data security, US hosting, algorithm oversight. — (Democracy Now); TechCrunch.
• The $14B is the deal’s valuation, not Oracle’s holding: per a March 2026 SEC filing reported by CNBC, Oracle’s equity stake is roughly $2B — a minority position, not ownership.
• Advocacy framing, on the record: JFNA CEO Eric Fingerhut (JTA, 2025-10-30) optimistic re the deal; JTA notes JFNA was the only Jewish group that lobbied for the forced-sale bill, and internal concern that visible involvement “could activate antisemitic tropes about Jewish power.” ADL quote in that piece is Daniel Kelley, not Greenblatt. — (JTA)
• On the broader theme, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt’s reputably sourced framing comes from his January 2025 remarks reported by The Intercept, invoking the pager operation against Hezbollah: “We need the kind of genius that manufactured Apollo Gold Pagers and infiltrated Hezbollah… to prepare for this battle.” (A widely circulated “capturing TikTok / the next war will be decided online” line attributed to him fails the source bar — it traces only to unreliable reposts — and is not used here.)

Bottom line

The evidence here is a failed covert astroturf operation (STOIC/Zero Zeno, near-zero engagement), a disclosure gap (the Concert / Kela Shlomo funding that went unregistered under FARA), a public advocacy preference (the TikTok deal), and a diluted minority stake (Oracle, ~$2B) — not control of the media. The discipline is the anti-exceptionalism frame: OpenAI named Israel in the same report as Russia, China, and Iran. One documented instance among peers, never uniquely sinister.

Related research

• The Israel lobby · Israel aid · Israel extradition haven
• Diaspora PACs · Foreign-influence apparatus — the same documentary standard, every group