{"id":561697,"date":"2026-07-27T10:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T10:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/561697\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T10:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T10:42:08","slug":"turkey-working-to-influence-israels-elections-through-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/561697\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey working to influence Israel’s elections through social media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turkey<\/a> is attempting to interfere in Israel\u2019s upcoming election through activity on social media, senior Israeli security officials told The Jerusalem Post\u00a0on Monday.<\/p>\n

According to the officials, the activity is intended to influence Israeli public opinion, disrupt the election campaign and deepen divisions between different groups within Israeli society.<\/p>\n

The officials did not provide details about the social media accounts, platforms or organizations involved. They also did not say whether the operation was being directed by the Turkish government.<\/p>\n

The assessment places Turkey alongside Iran among the foreign actors Israeli security authorities suspect of attempting to influence the election and exploit divisions within Israeli society.<\/p>\n

Further, the disclosure comes as Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) chief David Zini<\/a> prepares to present information about indications of foreign election interference to a classified Knesset subcommittee on Monday, Israeli public broadcaster KAN News reported earlier on Monday.<\/p>\n

\"IsraelIsrael Security Agency (Shin Bet) Director David Zini visits at Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem during Memorial Day which commemorates the fallen Israeli soldiers and victims of terror, on April 21, 2026. (credit: CHAIM GOLDBERG\/FLASH90)<\/p>\n

Zini is also expected to brief lawmakers on Israel\u2019s ability to track covert flows of money intended to finance political activity inside the country, according to the report. Central Elections Committee chairman and Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg is also expected to attend the hearing.<\/p>\n

The National Cyber Directorate told previous Knesset hearings that indications of attempted election interference had already been detected, KAN reported.<\/p>\n

Foreign attempts to influence the vote have become a growing concern ahead of Israel\u2019s October 27 election, the country\u2019s first national election since the October 7 massacre<\/a> and the war that followed.<\/p>\n

Herzog warns of threats to election’s integrity<\/p>\n

President Isaac Herzog warned last week about threats to the integrity of the election after meeting with Zini and Sohlberg.<\/p>\n

Herzog urged law-enforcement authorities to act firmly against the threats and called on Israelis to exercise caution when consuming and sharing material on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cElections<\/a> are a test for Israeli democracy, and they are also a test for the unity and cohesion of Israeli society,\u201d Herzog said.<\/p>\n

A State Comptroller\u2019s Office report published earlier in July found that Israel had no national policy or designated government body responsible for coordinating the response to foreign online influence campaigns, despite authorities having identified the threat years ago.<\/p>\n

State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman warned that hostile actors, including Iran, were using social media to deepen divisions, spread panic and manipulate Israelis\u2019 understanding of events.<\/p>\n

Former Central Elections Committee chairman Hanan Melcer also warned this month that Israel must prepare for attempts by foreign and domestic actors to interfere in the election, including through artificial intelligence and anonymous social media activity.<\/p>\n

Sarah Ben-Nun contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turkey is attempting to interfere in Israel\u2019s upcoming election through activity on social media, senior Israeli security officials…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[147752,4410,42,47,43,2460,40,38,41,39,1582],"class_list":["post-561697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-2026-israeli-elections","tag-elections","tag-headlines","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-social-media","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}