Netanyahu returns to paid Facebook ads after three years of campaigning off the record

Haaretz published the analysis on 12 September under its election franchise, headlined “The Money Race: How Much Israeli Politicians Are Spending on Online Ads.” Its finding, in the paper’s own words: “For nearly three years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party barely touched Meta’s advertising platforms, running their campaign instead through WhatsApp groups and a Telegram chatbot that leave no public record. Two weeks ago, that changed. Netanyahu resumed paid advertising on Facebook, outspending almost every rival within days.” The method is described as an analysis of thousands of political ads. Haaretz’s live page credits an accompanying post to Omer Benjakob; the full byline on the article itself was not visible in the material available to this desk. The paper has been an interested party in the campaign it is covering: in July a Haaretz advertising campaign was pulled from billboards in central Israel after a letter from Likud attorney Ilan Bombach argued it was prohibited election propaganda, a move Haaretz called “an attempt to use election laws to silence a critical media outlet.”

The spending shift lands into a race that has not moved. Times of Israel reported on 11 September that polls showed “little change, continued deadlock after party slates finalized.” Channel 12 put Gadi Eisenkot’s centrist Yashar first on 25 seats against Likud’s 21; Channel 13 had it 22 to 19; Kan 24 to 21. The Democrats drew 9-10 across the three surveys, Yisrael Beytenu 7-9. Haaretz, reporting what appears to be the same Channel 12 survey a day earlier, projected the Eisenkot bloc at 57 seats. Channel 12’s Likud line has fallen steadily across the year — 25 seats in April, 23 in June and July, 21 now — while Yashar has climbed from 14 in April. None of the snippets available carried sample sizes. Election day is 27 October.

Assessment: The reportable number here is the small one. Three years of WhatsApp groups and a Telegram chatbot mean the visible Meta spend is a floor, not a measure, and the return to Facebook is most plausibly read as a decision that Likud now needs reach it cannot generate inside closed networks — a campaign behind, buying audience. Treat bloc arithmetic with care: the aggregator framing of 52-52 and 53-53 rests on a “Zionist opposition” construction that quietly excludes the Arab parties, which earlier Haaretz polling repeatedly found the Jewish opposition needs for a majority. And read the weekend’s quiet as calendar. Rosh Hashanah began Friday evening; the network polls did not run. The first real post-slate numbers arrive Sunday night into Monday.