Who Shapes Public Opinion in Israel — And Who Pays for It?

The story of the "Russian institute" in Haifa unexpectedly raised a far more interesting question — who shapes public opinion in Israel, and with whose money? It appears that Israel's election campaign has begun before it has even been officially announced. And, as often happens during such periods, an old and familiar storyline has returned to the information space — Russian influence, the Kremlin, covert operations and, of course, Benjamin Netanyahu. The trigger was an investigation by OCCRP, which was later picked up by the Israeli project Shomrim. According to documents allegedly leaked from the Kremlin, the Russian Social Design Agency (SDA), described as the Kremlin's main executor of information operations in the West, developed a plan to create a fictitious research institute in Haifa that would produce analytical materials and promote a Moscow-friendly agenda in the Israeli media space.