Haaretz Podcast Making Israel's case to ChatGPT and Grok: Hasbara meets AI in multi-million dollar PR push
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Apr 24, 2026 Omer Benjakob, Haaretz cyber and disinformation correspondent known for probing digital influence and surveillance, breaks down Israel’s multimillion-dollar PR push. He describes how networks of faux think tanks and targeted SMS reach evangelicals. He warns these sites are engineered to feed AI chatbots and skew online narratives. He questions the ethics and effectiveness of fighting influence with influence.
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AI-Optimized Hasbara Websites
- Israel funded a network of faux think-tank websites engineered to be ingested by GPTs and other AI chatbots to shape answers.
- Omer Benjakob found sites structured like Wikipedia articles with tables of contents to optimize AI indexing and answers.
Think Tank Styling Boosts Credibility And AI Reach
- The campaign mimics academic branding and think-tank structure to gain perceived credibility and AI visibility.
- Pages use sections, tables of contents and conclusions to read like reference material, boosting their chances to be used by chatbots.
Narrative Control Trumps Policy Substance
- The campaign is obsessively focused on narrative and perception rather than presenting substantive policy solutions.
- Omer describes an 'anti-essentialist' stance where unfavorable claims about Israel are dismissed as manipulation or disinformation.