AI attack ads dominate Israel's election, WSJ reports

Generative AI video has become the dominant weapon in Israel's October 27 election, the Wall Street Journal reported on September 20, 2026, according to a summary published by South Korea's Seoul Economic Daily. The Journal's report, which Seoul Economic Daily says it drew on to describe the mood of the race, said conventional attack ads now look stale next to AI-made ones.

Creators watching the AI video beat should care because Israel's vote is turning into a live test of labelling rules that other countries are still drafting. What happens when a campaign posts an unlabelled AI clip, and how fast a watchdog can act on it, is the whole story here.

The most contentious clip yet is one Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared on his X account on July 21, 2026, produced by his Likud party, according to the Times of Israel. It shows Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot turning away from a young man running toward him with a shirt reading "Israeli unity," embracing Ra'am party chairman Mansour Abbas instead. Times of Israel journalists Guy Peleg and Barak Seri said the young man was implied to resemble Eisenkot's son, who was killed while serving in Gaza. Likud denied the resemblance was intentional, calling the comparison an "extremist" distraction from its message about Eisenkot's coalition partners. Netanyahu's aide later posted a revised version of the ad with a woman in the T-shirt's role, writing "to remove any doubt."

The Open University of Israel's "This is AI" monitoring project, led by Prof. Anat Ben-David, found that 1,097 of 8,611 campaign posts published since July 28, or 12.7%, showed signs of AI generation or editing, Calcalist reported. Calcalist's own count from that project put Likud's share of the identified AI content at 70%, or 773 items, well ahead of the Democrats and Yisrael Beiteinu at 5% each. Seoul Economic Daily's account of the same Open University research put Likud's share at 46%, a figure that conflicts with Calcalist's own reporting of the project's data; both outlets attribute their numbers to the same "This is AI" project, and neither piece explains the gap.

Campaigns have also hired "generative engine optimization" consultants to steer chatbot answers about candidates, the Journal reported, according to Seoul Economic Daily's summary. Separately, the security firm Intercept 9500 told the Journal, per that summary, that the Central Elections Committee itself has been the target of an AI-driven influence campaign since March, prompting the committee to form a task force with national security agencies.

Israel's Central Elections Committee has required labels on AI-generated or AI-altered campaign material that could pass as real since rules took effect on July 26, 2026, the committee said in a notice reported by the Times of Israel. The committee reviews possible breaches only after a complaint, and it has ordered a small number of takedowns so far, including one against Eisenkot's own Yashar party over an AI video showing IDF soldiers. Even a successful takedown order tends to arrive after a clip has already spread.

Watch Israel's Central Elections Committee's labelling notices for further breach rulings as the October 27 vote approaches.