Political propaganda | Netanyahu advisers support campaigns in Germany and Romania

Srulik Einhorn is also said to have been involved in the "Bild" leak: Netanyahu's office persuaded the newspaper to produce a report with which the Israeli government wanted to counter domestic protests against the Gaza war. Photo: IMAGO/SOPA Images There appears to have been political cooperation between the Hessian CDU and two men known to be close advisors to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This is suggested by WhatsApp messages and contacts, which the “Frankfurter Rundschau” reported on Wednesday. Accordingly, a Hessian legislative proposal should be supported with an accompanying campaign that aims to criminalize the denial of “Israel’s right to exist.”

On September 5th, Srulik Einhorn, one of Netanyahu's advisers, is said to have sent an email to his colleague and business partner Jonatan Urich: "Talk to me, there is nice paid work with the CDU." Shortly afterwards, Urich and Einhorn exchanged ideas about how an approving X-post from Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar about the Hessian initiative could be spread by other high-ranking Israeli politicians. For this they are said to have won over the Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli.

In April, Hesse's Prime Minister Boris Rhein and Justice Minister Christian Heinz (both CDU) presented the draft law on "Israel's right to exist." The black-red federal government rejected it because it sees it as a significant constitutional risk. However, the Bundestag must decide on this.

It is unknown whether money was received from Israel for the shooting aid and, if so, from whom. According to the newspaper, the Hessian CDU and the Israeli authorities that were contacted refused to provide the “Frankfurter Rundschau” with any information, as did Einhorn and Ulrich. According to an Israeli broadcaster, both are said to have been in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin in Germany before the state elections in September.

The news that became public comes from a leak from Jonatan Urich's WhatsApp account. According to media reports, an AI application that he himself stored in the software development platform GitHub could have given unknown people access.

The same leak is said to show that Einhorn and Urich also worked on the political communication of the right-wing populist party Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR). The Romanian investigative portal “Snoop” reported on this on Wednesday.

As a result, on the morning of August 31, 2026, Einhorn sent a file entitled “Topics of the Day” to his business partner Urich, who was supposed to proofread it. Urich replied briefly that the suggestion was fine. That evening, Einhorn is said to have suggested a broader campaign for the AUR, divided into text posts, social media graphics, website articles and video scripts. The campaign targeted President Nicușor Dan and the ruling coalition.

From September 2nd, according to research by “Snoop”, articles on domestic political issues with the same content appeared on the official channels of the AUR and its politicians. The party should be positioned as an alternative to an impending political stalemate in Romania.

The AUR denies working with Einhorn and Urich. According to the report, the party leadership admitted that there had been an offer for such a campaign from Israel. She does not explain why the campaign material appeared verbatim on her channels at the beginning of September.

The former Netanyahu confidants have now founded a consulting firm called Perception Media. According to the investigative medium “Balkan Insight,” Einhorn is said to have recently lived in Belgrade and advised Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić there. He is being investigated in Israel in connection with the so-called Qatar Gate complex. Criminal proceedings for betrayal of secrets have also been ongoing in Israel since June of this year against 37-year-old Urich, a former spokesman for the Israeli armed forces.

Einhorn is also said to be responsible for a scandalous leak to the German “Bild”. Two years ago, Netanyahu's office gave the newspaper a classified document that was intended to stir up sentiment against Hamas in Germany - which Israel's government then wanted to use in its own country as supposed evidence of the necessary severity in the Gaza war.

A digital influence operation with suspected Israeli origins was also documented in France in 2026, targeting candidates from the left-wing party La France insoumise (LFI). The French state observatory Viginum described Operation Rokh Solis in a report dated June 11th. It was therefore aimed at the local elections in March in Marseille, Roubaix and Toulouse.

Viginum documented fake news sites, inauthentic social media profiles, and a bogus digital offering designed to appeal to Muslim voters. Forensic leads, including Hebrew metadata and accounts in Israel, led the agency to an Israeli structure known as the Black Core. However, the possible clients remained unknown.

As early as 2023, an international media consortium, including "Zeit" and the "Guardian", uncovered a group around the Israeli Tal Hanan that was said to have been active in election campaigns worldwide. Hanan therefore appeared under the code name “Jorge”. He claimed to have worked in 33 presidential campaigns, 27 of them successful. The group claims to have an infrastructure with more than 30,000 fake online profiles and opportunities to covertly influence user accounts.

In November 2023, Linkedin reported that the Israeli private intelligence firm Black Cube had operated a network of fake profiles to target journalists and activists in Hungary the previous year. The video chats initiated through fictitious professional contacts took place outside the platform and were secretly recorded. Excerpts from it are said to have appeared later in government-affiliated media. Who specifically commissioned the company was not disclosed.

Before the Slovenian parliamentary elections in March 2026, the authorities there also reported findings on suspected foreign influence attempts using Black Cube. According to the Slovenian government, the domestic intelligence service provided evidence of the Israeli company's links to a visit by Black Cube to the headquarters of the national conservative opposition party SDS. As far as is known, the allegations did not end up in court.

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