
Israel to fund tour for MAGA and pro-Trump influencers: Report
Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Sunday reported that the planned tour will feature 16 influencers, all under the age of 30, who support US President Donald Trump's MAGA (Make America Great Again) and America First campaigns.
The influencers each have hundreds of thousands to millions of followers. They will be flown in to counter what the Israeli government sees as declining support for Israel among young Americans, the report said, without citing any date.
'With the rise of the America First movement and MAGA in American politics, it's essential for Israel that the movement adopt a pro-Israel position,' Yacov Livne, senior deputy director of the Israeli Foreign Ministry's Department of Public Diplomacy, was quoted as saying in the report.
The Israeli foreign ministry aims to bring 550 influencer delegations to Israel by the end of the year through such tours, it said.
'[While] older Republicans and American conservatives still hold pro-Israel views, positive perspectives towards Israel are falling across all younger age groups,' it said, according to the report.
The influencers will be pushed to share messaging that aligns with Israeli policy regarding the Palestinians. 'We are working with influencers, sometimes with delegations of influencers,' an unnamed source from the ministry told Haaretz.
'Their networks have huge followings and their messages are more effective than if they came directly from the ministry.'
The tour will be carried out through an organisation called Israel365, which is in a 'unique position to convey a pro-Israel stance that aligns entirely with the MAGA and America First agenda', Haaretz quoted the foreign ministry as saying.
Israel365 promotes support for Israel, specifically among Christians, based on biblical principles. Its website says the group 'stands unapologetically for the Jewish people's God-given right to the entire Land of Israel'.
The organisation also rejects a two‑state solution as a 'delusion' and describes its mission as defending 'Western civilization against threats from both Progressive Left extremism and global jihad'.
The ministry said it has struck a 290,000-shekel ($86,000) deal to carry out the tour, Haaretz reported.
Since the war on Gaza began in October 2023, Israel365 'deepened ties with MAGA and America First movements, appearing at their major events and helping recruit prominent conservative figures to visit Israel', the report added.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Al Jazeera
3 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
How Israel pushed Gaza to breaking point, ‘starving, alone, and hunted'
Through its unrelenting war on Gaza, Israel has killed over 59,000 Palestinians, injured 143,000 others, and pushed hundreds of thousands into forced starvation caused by its blockade on the enclave and its militarised distribution system. More than 100 Palestinians have starved to death as a result in recent weeks, 80 of them children. Whatever its ultimate intention, according to analysts, Israel has pushed the people of Gaza to the breaking point. 'Israeli policy has left Gaza uninhabitable,' said Derek Summerfield, a United Kingdom-based psychiatrist who has written on the effects of war and atrocity. 'It's destroyed the idea of a society and every institution that might serve it, from universities to hospitals to mosques. It's become a sociocidal war,' he added, describing a conflict intended to destroy a society's entire structures and sense of identity. 'People have been left with nothing, and are feeling they can't go on.' The constant spectre of death and the complete devastation of Gaza have driven many Palestinians there to desperation. Some are trying to leave – even temporarily – due to the horrors they have experienced and in a conflict that may continue for months or years to come. Others continue to cling to their homes in defiance of escalating Israeli aggression. The mass starvation that aid agencies have warned about has become a reality for Palestinians in Gaza, as aid workers and journalists join the ranks of the hungry and the malnourished. On Wednesday, more than 100 aid agencies issued an open letter urging the Israeli government to work with the United Nations and allow aid into Gaza. Al Jazeera has called for action to protect all journalists trapped in Gaza, many of whom are no longer able to report due to their own acute hunger and deteriorating health. AFP agency made a similar call. 'Famine isn't just physical, it's mental,' said Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, who has written extensively on famine. 'It dehumanises and degrades the sufferer … It's the experience of – and then the memory of – having searched through garbage for food and everything you have done to survive.' 'You need to remember, starvation is an act, and as often as not a criminal one,' he continued. 'It's also one that takes time. It's not like dropping a bomb… Starvation can take 60 to 80 days. Semi-starvation, such as we're seeing in Gaza, can take longer. 'Israel has had ample and stark warnings that its actions are leading to mass starvation. This should surprise no one.' 'This isn't just about starving kids. It's about dismantling a society and reducing its people to desperate, starving victims,' de Waal added. 'It also encourages the abuser to think of the sufferer as dehumanised, so it becomes self-justifying.' Through its 21-month war, Israel's leaders have repeatedly claimed their war on Gaza was to 'defeat Hamas' and rescue the captives held in the territory. However, with every new offensive, its critics around the world have accused it of either turning a blind eye to the humanitarian consequences of its actions or actively seeking to punish Palestinians and force starvation upon them. 'I don't know if you can call this a strategy,' said Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House. 'I don't know how much is planned, how much is tactical, cynical, opportunistic or just incompetence. It all depends where you look.' Mekelberg broke down the factions competing for final say in Israeli policy, from the messianic ambitions of ultranationalist government ministers, such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who would like to see the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank expelled, to a security establishment that Mekelberg described as divided over whether it should continue or end the war. 'Lastly, you have the cynical and the opportunistic,' he continued, 'which is essentially Benjamin Netanyahu and his adherents. To them, this is all about politics and surviving for another day,' Mekelberg said of the prime minister, who is on trial on multiple corruption charges. The consequences of Israel's actions in Gaza will last generations, analysts said. Those who survive Israel's current war will carry its scars, as will their descendants, while those who leave are unlikely to be allowed to return. 'Israel has adopted a formula in the last few weeks where it is making conditions in Gaza intolerable and unable to support human life,' said Mouin Rabbani, co-editor of Jadaliyya. 'If it can reduce life to such a level and at the same time increase the level of chaos and anarchy [across Gaza], the thinking is that people will leave.' Once they have been forced from their homeland, either through the conditions that Israel has imposed, or via the one-way entrance into what Israeli government ministers call a 'humanitarian city', while many critics call it a concentration camp, it intends to construct along the border with Egypt, they won't be allowed back, Rabbani said. Hardly a day has gone by since Israel's assault upon Gaza began in October 2023 that its war has not dominated headlines. In recent weeks, as starvation and the extent of the near-total destruction that Israel has visited upon the enclave have grown, so too has the disquiet among the international community. However, in the face of the protests, and with ceasefire negotiations supposedly ongoing, Israel's war has shown few signs of slowing. That has left Gaza's population, in the words of Summerfield, left to 'wander Gaza; starving, alone and hunted'.


Al Jazeera
4 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
UNRWA's 'ability to respond' to needs in Gaza depend on Israel
UNRWA's 'ability to respond' to needs in Gaza depend on Israel Quotable Sam Rose says UNRWA could replicate the effective aid delivery it achieved during Gaza's first ceasefire, if allowed. Sam Rose, acting director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, says if allowed by Israel, the UN agency could replicate the effective aid delivery it achieved during Gaza's first ceasefire. Video Duration 01 minutes 20 seconds 01:20 Video Duration 01 minutes 12 seconds 01:12 Video Duration 01 minutes 10 seconds 01:10 Video Duration 01 minutes 21 seconds 01:21 Video Duration 01 minutes 39 seconds 01:39 Video Duration 01 minutes 07 seconds 01:07 Video Duration 01 minutes 39 seconds 01:39


Al Jazeera
4 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Fact check: Could Trump's trade tariffs pay off the US deficit?
One of the Trump administration's biggest tariff boosters, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, recently said tariffs will not only energise the industrial sector in the United States but also help the government's finances. During a July 20 interview on CBS's Face the Nation, Lutnick told host Margaret Brennan that the US is collecting close to $30bn a month in tariffs. 'You got to remember – this is going to pay off our deficit. This is going to make America stronger,' he said. But the maths falls short. Multiplying the most recent month of US tariff collections by a full decade would not cover the 10-year costs of President Donald Trump's new tax-and-spending legislation, much less all federal deficits during that decade. The current tariffs are slated to increase on August 1, including levies ranging from 20 percent to 40 percent for 21 countries, based on what the Trump administration has said. An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) – Congress's nonpartisan number-crunching arm – also projects that 10 years of tariff revenue increases under Trump will not pay for the added deficits from his bill or the cumulative deficits over the next decade. The projected added deficit from the bill is $3.4 trillion, on top of the existing projected deficit over the next decade of $21.8 trillion. 'I can't envision a scenario where the tariff revenues eliminate the deficit,' said Steve Ellis, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a group that tracks the federal budget. The White House did not respond to a request for comment for this story. How much is the US collecting from Trump tariffs? The federal government has been taking in higher tariff revenues under Trump's more aggressive tariff policies. Currently, the tariffs are a baseline 10 percent for all countries, plus additional tariffs on some products such as steel. Economists say consumers will ultimately swallow much of the tariff increases. Federal tariff revenue tracked by the Penn-Wharton Budget Model shows that, up to July 11, the federal government had collected about $100bn in tariffs so far this year. During the same period in 2024, before Trump took office, the federal government had collected less than $48bn in tariff revenue. In June 2025, the most recent monthly data available, the federal government took in $27bn in tariffs, according to the Treasury Department. A year earlier, that figure was $6bn. That's an increase of $21bn a month because of Trump's trade policies. If the government were to continue collecting tariff revenue at the June 2025 pace for a full decade – 120 months – that would produce $2.52 trillion in tariff revenue. That is in the ballpark of what the CBO published in June. Taking into account the potential economic shrinkage from higher tariffs, such as higher consumer prices, CBO projected that the boost in tariff revenue would reduce total federal deficits by $2.8 trillion over 10 years. How does this tariff revenue compare with the federal deficit? Without adding in the deficits from the bill Trump just signed, CBO's baseline projection for the cumulative deficits over the next 10 years is almost $21.8 trillion. That is about seven times the size of the CBO's projected tariff revenues over the same period. And the projected tariff revenue under Trump would not fully cover the added deficits just from the 'megabill' Trump signed. According to CBO estimates, the law Trump signed on July 4 will raise deficits by $3.4 trillion beyond their previous trajectory over the next 10 years, which exceeds CBO's tariff revenue projection. There is uncertainty about how much tariff revenue Trump's policies will generate, because he has frequently announced and then paused higher tariffs. 'It is hard to know what the end game is,' Ellis said. 'Is it high tariffs to generate revenue, which would reduce economic activity, or is it to rebalance the trade and eventually lower tariffs', and thus their revenue? The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a fiscally hawkish group, has noted that Trump's tariff policies have been challenged in court, and the initial ruling by the Court of International Trade went against the administration. If the initial ruling is upheld on appeal, then Trump would lose his power to unilaterally enact many of the tariffs he has been imposing, and the new tariff revenues now being generated would largely dry up. And even if Trump's tariff powers are upheld on appeal, Trump's successor could reverse them by executive order, meaning any tariff revenues would cover the next four years, not the next 10 years. Our ruling Lutnick said tariffs are 'going to pay off our deficit'. Trump's on-again, off-again pattern for implementing tariffs makes estimates tricky. But two projections show that the Trump administration's tariff revenues would not cover the next 10 years of projected deficits. The CBO said it expects tariff revenues to reach $2.8 trillion over the next 10 years, while a back-of-the-envelope calculation based on the tariffs collected in June 2025 would reach $2.52 trillion. Both sums are only a fraction of the nearly $22 trillion in cumulative deficits projected over the next 10 years. We rate the statement False.