Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said in recent months that Israel plans to wean itself off military aid from the United States and to end its reliance within a decade. Yet, foreign-agent filings with the U.S. Justice Department reveals a different message is being delivered to the American public, in Israel's name. A media campaign that the Israeli government itself is funding has sought to persuade the American people that military aid to Israel is worthwhile, with the stated goal of dealing with the “erroneous claims” that are made about U.S. military aid to Israel.

The current deal with the United States, which is worth around $3.8 billion a year, will expire in 2028. Since the beginning of this year, the prime minister has said several times that his intention is to gradually reduce the amount of military aid that Israel gets from Washington. In an interview with the Economist, Netanyahu said that he plans to reduce Israel’s dependence on American military aid to zero within 10 years, insisting that the process is already well underway.

In his interviews and comments on the matter, which have been widely covered by the American media, Netanyahu presents a consistent line: the prime minister says that Israel has reached economic and defense maturity, which allows it to say no to American military aid, in the hope of moving from a relationship in which Israel depends on the United States to one of complete partnership. However, the content that the Israeli government is distributing in the United States reveals a much more complex and, in some cases conflicting, picture.

An Israeli-Funded Campaign Makes the Case for U.S. Aid

Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, firms carrying out political or public-relations work on behalf of foreign governments must disclose their clients and certain activities to the Justice Department. An example of this can be seen with Clock Tower X LLC, which is owned by a former campaign manager of U.S. President Donald Trump, and is registered in the U.S. as a foreign agent working on behalf of Israel. Clock Tower X has signed a contract with German advertising company Havas Media Germany GmbH, which is working on behalf of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, in which it has been contracted to “develop and execute a nationwide digital campaign in the United States to combat antisemitism.”

The original four-year contract with Clock Tower X is worth $6 million but was later amended and expanded significantly andIsrael is now paying $4.5 million a month. So far, more than $45 million has been spent on the project. The contract stipulates monthly targets for the campaign, such as at least 100 original content items, 50 million exposures on social media, as well as the optimization of search engines and AI models, with the goal of influencing how ChatGPT frames its response to certain questions.

According to official documents and reports in the Israeli and American media, the campaign operates through roughly a dozen branded websites, such as Econora, Culturavia, FactSignal and Justorium, that present content on subjects including economics, culture and legal affairs. At the foot of each page, all carry a disclosure stating that its material is distributed by Clock Tower X on behalf of the State of Israel. 

Clock Tower X is obligated to report to the U.S. Justice Department about the content that it disseminates on Israel’s behalf and, so far, it has made almost 200 such reports, covering issues as diverse as the economy, culture and fact-checking. The content on one of the sites – Allyvia – focuses on the security relationship between Israel and the United States, as well as the bilateral military aid agreement they signed. The content of the site is rather surprising, however, given things that Netanyahu has said in public of late.

Shortly before Netanyahu’s announcement, in late November 2025, Allyvia published an article with the headline “Why a 20-Year ‘America-First’ Security Agreement with Israel Is Vital for the United States.” The article made no mention of Netanyahu’s stated goal of reducing and eliminating U.S. aid to Israel within a decade.

The article argued that more than 80 percent of American military aid is invested back into American industries (in states like Texas, Alabama and Arizona) and calls for it to be extended for an additional 20 years. The article remained on the Allyvia website despite Netanyahu’s declaration.  Another article on the same website lauds American financial support for the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow missile defense systems. It was only in January this year that the site published any mention of Netanyahu’s comments, but even that article goes on to justify the continuation of American military aid to Israel, saying that “ending aid changes the shape of the partnership but not its essence.” It also stressed that it will be business as usual for cooperation on antimissile technology, joint development programs and Israeli procurement from American military suppliers. In other words, what Netanyahu plainly and unequivocally told the American public would be “an end to aid” has become, according to content that Israel itself is disseminating, merely a change in name and budgetary classification.

The same website published an article in June – months after Netanyahu first made his announcement – under the headline “What Does America Get for $3.8 Billion? The Answer Is Far More Than Most People Realize.” The article argues that most of this money is spent in the United States itself, that Americans are learning from Israeli military experience, that developments from Israel are eventually integrated into American weapon systems and so on.

Taking the Message to Evangelical Christians 

The issue of American military aid to Israel also came up in the activities of other companies that Israel has hired in the United States. One of them is a Christian marketing and communications firm called Show Faith by Works, which targets Evangelicals in states such as California, Arizona and Nevada. The company’s registration documents detail the content it has committed to delivering to these communities. One of the clauses explicitly states that its goal is “to debunk popular (and erroneous) claims regarding aid, military focus, the root of the conflict and the legitimacy of territorial claims.”

Shomrim has reached out to the Prime Minister’s Office, asking for a clarification regarding American military aid to Israel and the apparent discrepancy between the prime minister’s public comments and the content being published in Israel’s name in the United States. By publication time, the PMO had not responded.