The AI battle for Gaza: how Israel is trying to shape what chatbots say

World artificial intelligencegazaIsraelTop News The AI battle for Gaza: how Israel is trying to shape what chatbots say Netanyahu Relevant News The AI battle for Gaza: how Israel is trying to shape what chatbots say 21 August 2026 Ready for kickoff: Your ultimate Cyprus viewing guide and fan preview for the new Premier League campaign 21 August 2026 Cyprus weather forecast: mostly clear skies, temperatures reaching 41 degrees inland 21 August 2026 Theodosis Pipis 21 August 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber Israel is opening a new front in its battle over the international narrative surrounding the war in Gaza and that is artificial intelligence. A campaign involving Israeli government agencies, public relations firms and digital companies appears to be producing and distributing online material designed not only to influence public opinion, but potentially to shape the information used by artificial intelligence systems such as ChatGPT, according to a recent article in Politico. The effort comes as Israel faces growing international criticism and declining support in parts of the United States and Europe. In Europe a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), “Justice for Palestine,” collected approximately 1.3 million signatures from EU citizens demanding that the European Commission fully suspends the EU-Israel Association Agreement over documented human rights violations in the Palestinian territories. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has himself acknowledged the economic consequences of what he described as Israel’s growing international isolation, calling for increased investment in “influence operations” across traditional and social media. According to documents filed with the US Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), French communications company Havas Media and its subcontractor Piro Inc. were involved in a $100,000 campaign to produce and distribute “factual, source-supported” material about Israel. One product of the campaign appears to be the Hanover Institute for Public Policy, a website carrying dozens of reports on subjects such as Gaza, antisemitism, anti-Zionism and the conduct of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The articles have no named authors and are structured around questions such as whether the IDF is “the world’s most moral army” and whether there is a “policy of starvation” in Gaza. Such content is particularly relevant in the age of AI because large-language models draw on vast quantities of publicly available online material when generating answers. Tests cited by Politico reportedly found that both ChatGPT and Perplexity had already referenced Hanover Institute material when responding to neutral questions about Gaza and related issues. This effort fits within a much older Israeli strategy commonly known as Hasbara, which is a Hebrew term generally translated as “explanation” or “public diplomacy”. In practice, Hasbara refers to efforts to explain and defend Israel’s policies and actions to international audiences, particularly through media, diplomacy, advocacy and increasingly social media and digital platforms. The emergence of AI adds a new dimension: influencing not only what people see online, but potentially what machines tell them. The urgency of this campaign is understandable in the context of the increasingly visible evidence emerging from Gaza. The war is being documented in real time through journalists, humanitarian organisations, Palestinian civilians and, at times, Israeli soldiers themselves. Images and reports of destroyed homes and hospitals, mass displacement, hunger and civilian deaths have become impossible to contain within conventional news cycles. The Israeli government rejects the genocide accusation and maintains that its military campaign is directed against Hamas, not the Palestinian population. It has also repeatedly disputed international assessments of the situation in Gaza. Yet criticism is no longer coming only from Israel’s traditional opponents. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has condemned aspects of the military campaign, while Israeli human rights organisations and prominent Jewish voices have publicly warned about the consequences of the war and the humanitarian crisis. Against this backdrop, Netanyahu has argued that Israel must invest heavily in influence operations to counter what he sees as hostile international narratives. He has blamed anti-Zionist and Islamist forces, as well as foreign actors, for shaping public opinion against Israel and warned that such perceptions could lead to sanctions and economic isolation. The question now is whether that battle for public opinion is moving beyond newspapers, television and social media and into the answers provided by artificial intelligence. If governments can deliberately populate the digital information environment with material designed to be discovered and cited by AI systems, the contest over Gaza’s narrative enters a new and largely invisible arena. The issue is therefore bigger than Israel or Gaza. As millions increasingly rely on chatbots for information about wars, politics and world events, the sources that feed those systems, and the interests behind those sources, matter enormously. 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