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

A recent AI-driven analysis conducted for Channel 12 News reveals the social media dynamics among the candidates for Israel's prime ministership three months ahead of the elections. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu significantly outpaces his rivals in overall content exposure, with his posts reaching over 11 million users last week and generating approximately 52,000 shares and 42,000 comments. In contrast, Gadi Eisenkot, chairman of the "Yashar!" party, reached under half a million users with about 1,800 shares and a similar number of comments, while Naftali Bennett 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 a majority of responses to all candidates were negative: 63% for Netanyahu, 76% for Eisenkot, and 67% for Bennett. Notably, much of Netanyahu's engagement originates outside Israel, primarily from the United States, followed by Israel, Brazil, Nigeria, and India. The analysis does not clarify how much of this activity comes from genuine users versus bots, but these foreign interactions do not represent Israeli voters. Conversely, Bennett and Eisenkot's engagement is predominantly from Israeli users, with minor 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 Netanyahu's advantage in exposure does not translate into significantly higher 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 appearances on the international stage, 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 achieving objectives in the Gaza conflict. Bennett prioritized declaring Qatar an enemy state and promised reforms in security and social sectors, followed by critiques of the government and presenting alternative policies.