An analysis conducted by the American newspaper Politico, Thursday, December 7, 2023, revealed that advocacy organizations that support Israel spent nearly 100 times more on advertising through Meta’s social media platforms, compared to pro-Palestinian and Arab groups, at a time when the decline in Supporters of the entity inside America reached 66%, according to a poll conducted last month.

The combined spending of more than $2 million on Facebook and Instagram, though uncoordinated, shows how pro-Israel groups are trying to shape public opinion among Americans, especially younger generations who are increasingly skeptical of Israel.

More than two million dollars

The efforts of these groups, including a group that spent nearly half a million dollars on Meta platforms during that period, come at a time when American and international lawmakers are considering adding conditions to additional support for Israel, as its military campaign has caused the deaths of at least 17,000 Palestinians. According to health authorities in the Gaza Strip, which is run by Hamas.

Politico analyzed the company's Meta Ad Library, or online database that tracks which groups buy paid messages on both Facebook and Instagram over specific time periods. The tech giant is one of the few social media companies, alongside Google, that discloses details about its ad buying numbers.

Politico reviewed ads that ran between November 2 and December 1, based on advocacy group affiliations with either Israeli or Palestinian issues.

On Meta's platforms, which collectively are the world's largest social media sites by number of users, groups buying pro-Israel ads include well-known names like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as well as the Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism, a group founded by billionaire Robert Kraft.

Politico found that combined spending of $2.2 million exceeded almost any other entity during that period, except for the conservative news outlet The Daily Wire and its Meta accounts, which spent nearly $3 million.

A big difference

By comparison, groups supporting Palestinians, Muslims and Arabs spent less than $20,000 in the same period on descriptive ads, Politico found.

The American-Arab Anti-Defamation Committee was the largest spender on advertising among pro-Palestinian advocacy groups. The group spent just under $10,000 on Meta platforms between November 2 and December 1, although almost all of its paid messages did not specifically mention the Middle East conflict.

“Help us protect the rights of Arab Americans,” one of the American-Arab Committee’s ads said, and was viewed 50,000 times, by mostly female users between the ages of 25 and 54 in states including California, New York and Texas, according to Meta data.

In this context, Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the American-Arab Committee, said: “The purpose of our ads is for people to know that we are here to protect them.” When asked why spending on pro-Palestinian ads lags behind those defending Israel, Ayoub considered that “it takes a lot of money to change people’s opinions about lying.”

Decline in support for Israel

The disproportionate spending on ads, many of which target younger users, coincides with growing skepticism about Israel among young Americans. A Quinnipiac University poll released last month showed that 66% of respondents under the age of 35 said they disapproved of Israel's response to the Hamas attack on October 7, compared to older Americans who were more supportive of Israel.

The largest pro-Israel advertiser between November 2 and December 1 was an organization called Facts for Peace, which spent more than $450,000 targeting meta users under the age of 30 in major US cities such as Houston, Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Within a month, the group also amassed more than 18,000 followers on TikTok, which does not provide transparency about ad buys in the United States.

Organized campaign

In a related context, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) announced earlier its cooperation with a variety of pro-Israel Jewish organizations in launching an organized campaign that seeks to reshape the narrative circulating in the American media regarding the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, according to what was published by the British website Middle East Eye.

The committee, which is described as the largest pro-occupation pressure group in the United States, called this campaign “Project 7/10,” and included the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Federations of North America, and the Anti-Defamation League. And the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

The organizations participating in the campaign said that it aims to enable continued support from the two prominent American parties (Democrat and Republican) for the Israeli occupation war on Gaza. shaping media coverage of the war; and “mobilize more attention” to the issue of detainees and prisoners held by Hamas after the October 7 attack.

Source: Arabic Post