Netanyahu Leads in Social Media Reach, but Israeli Engagement Nearly Matches Bennett and Eisenkot

A recent AI-driven analysis conducted for Channel 12 News reveals the current state of social media campaigns by Israeli prime ministerial candidates three months ahead of the election. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu significantly outpaces his rivals in overall content exposure, reaching over 11 million users last week across social platforms. His posts garnered approximately 52,000 shares and 42,000 comments. In comparison, Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of the "Yashar!" party, reached fewer than 500,000 users with about 1,800 shares and a similar number of comments, while Naftali Bennett, leader of the "Together" party, achieved nearly one million exposures, double Eisenkot's, with 2,475 shares and slightly fewer comments.

Despite Netanyahu's vast reach, 25 times that of Eisenkot and 11 times Bennett's, the sentiment analysis shows that 63% of responses to his content were negative. Eisenkot's negative sentiment was higher at 76%, and Bennett's stood at 67%. However, a deeper look at the origin of engagement reveals that much of Netanyahu's exposure and interaction comes from outside Israel, primarily the United States, followed by Israel itself, with notable activity also from Brazil, Nigeria, and India. It remains unclear how much of this activity is from genuine users versus bots, but these foreign users are not Israeli voters. Conversely, Bennett and Eisenkot's engagement is predominantly from Israeli users, with smaller activity from the US, UK, Western Europe, and Asia.

A key finding is that when isolating Israeli user engagement, the gap between Netanyahu, Bennett, and Eisenkot nearly disappears, with only about 300 interactions difference, a negligible margin in social media terms. This suggests that Netanyahu's large overall exposure does not translate into a significant advantage in engagement among the Israeli electorate.

Regarding campaign messaging, Netanyahu focused almost exclusively on Israel's foreign relations, highlighting his meeting with US President Donald Trump, diplomatic engagements, and international appearances such as Senator Lindsey Graham's funeral. Eisenkot centered his campaign on confronting Netanyahu, emphasizing issues like military conscription, criticism of government policy toward the US, and alleged failures in the Gaza war objectives. Bennett prioritized calls to designate Qatar as an enemy state and promised reforms in security and social sectors, followed by critiques of the government and presenting alternative policies.