doomhamster
"Israel spends millions of dollars every year on crafting its image - "
Yeah so does Sweden. So do Lithuania and Zambia and South Korea. Let's not even get started on the US, which is where I'm guessing you're from.
If you think diplomacy and propaganda and foreign aid that's at least partly about creating a good impression of your country isn't something that EVERY country on earth does, you're naive. And if you're somehow okay with it except when Israel does it... well.
darkladynyara
Istg like 90% of the "criticism" I see of Israel is just "oh my god did you know it's a country?"
zaprowsdower27
Fun fact- did you know the entire reason Thai food is popular in the US is a concerted effort by the Thai government, with funding and resources and restaurant templates made available to facilitate PR?
biglawbear
Like
Come on, Israel isn't even the biggest country in the middle east trying to peddle influence
Qatar, a tiny oppressive nation made rich from dirty oil money, has spent billions trying to influence the US
indecisiveavocado
Okay. That’s money.
Iran International (note that this is vastly more than the 2025 budget)
It is noteworthy that they used to spend more:
Et cetera, et cetera.
Let’s look at OpenSecrets.
The cleverer among you will notice that Israel is not on the list.
It is, of course, possible that the countries have entirely legitimate interests. The US and the Marshall Islands are deeply entangled – Marshallese citizens can stay in the US for indefinite periods of time and vice versa – and so their unusually high ranking is fairly reasonable.
In fact, according to OpenSecrets’ data for Israel, they spent this much:
Compare, say, Ireland:
South Korea:
Venezuela:
There are many others on par with Israel, especially if you only count the government budget. And, of course, these exclude the ten listed countries, i.e., China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Japan, the Marshall Islands, Bahamas, Liberia (??), Australia, the UAE and Bermuda.
Keep in mind that these numbers rely somewhat on honesty – Russia’s figure is absurdly low. E.g., in 2024 – they don’t seem to have data for 2025:
