Expensive billboards in Tel Aviv had a black fist (ala Black Power salute) on a bright yellow background with the Hebrew word “Resist” in large letters.
In July of 2023, just a few months before the horrific events of October 7 and the war we have all been suffering through subsequently, I was in Israel with my family for two weeks. It was an amazing journey filled with the beauty and magic that can only happen in the Holy Land, which brought us both King David and Jesus. But I was shocked at the time by the demonstrations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sponsored mostly through an Israeli NGO called Blue and White Future. They were too well organized to be “organic,” and clearly seemed like BLM 2.0 in their tone and behavior. Now, with the latest information uncovered by DOGE about USAID, we know that I was right: They were not organic Israeli demonstrations, but were unknowingly funded by U.S. taxpayers.
As an alumnus of UC Berkeley (1984), I have some experience with organic demonstrations. They never start or end on time, and are always chaotic. But in Israel, I saw protests against Netanyahu that were produced like a well-oiled machine. I was in my hotel room in Jerusalem and saw from my window an “organic demonstration” start promptly at 10:00pm; end exactly at 10:30pm; and be run by coordinators using a high-end professional sound system that must have cost at least $5000. It just didn’t look like any demonstration I had ever seen before.
And this was consistent throughout the country. Expensive billboards in Tel Aviv had a black fist (ala Black Power salute) on a bright yellow background with the Hebrew word “Resist” in large letters. Marches were taking place that had food stands along the way giving out free juices, sandwiches, and even expensive sun umbrellas by the thousands. This seemed to clearly be an extremely well-funded and well-planned attempt at a political coup against Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli elected officials.
Thanks to the good work being done to dismantle USAID, we now know that it was just that: an attempt to create political upheaval and hurt Netanyahu. Much of the funding came through USAID, which in 2023 gave NIS 14,000,000 (almost 4 million USD) to Blue and White Future and the Kaplan protest.