Just before the election, some of the finest cognitive scientists in Iran, Russia and Qatar are spreading toxic messages through countless profiles belonging to foreign influence networks, which you have probably liked or shared as well. A report by FakeReporter and the Brandeis Institute shows how widespread the phenomenon is and how dangerous the official disregard for the chaos and division being sown among us has becomeDror Feuer|I have 45 mutual Facebook friends with Rebecca Elia, among them journalists, spokespeople, activists and academics. Some are familiar names, both online and off. Rebecca Elia, 34, attended Ironi Hey High School in Tel Aviv, loves soccer and hates Bibi and the government. And I mean really hates them. Her posts receive hundreds of likes and shares and huge numbers of comments, most of them enthusiastic. I wish I had that kind of success online.But Rebecca Elia is not real. She is part of a foreign influence network whose purpose is to sow chaos and deepen polarization and hatred in Israel. There are many more like her, from every side and on every platform. Some hate the right and others the left; some hate the ultra-Orthodox and others the Arabs; some attack the police, the Central Elections Committee or the entire country.There is enough anger for everyone. No one needs to push, but they push anyway. In which direction? Beyond the edge of the cliff.One could certainly argue that sowing chaos, hatred, rage and distrust among Israelis toward anyone who does not think exactly like them is not the hardest job in the world. Still, someone has to do it.There are indeed many foreign workers flooding the market, meaning social media and, by extension, the streets and people’s hearts, with enormous quantities of precisely this kind of merchandise. Iranians, Russians, Chinese, Qataris and who knows who else. It is a true Tower of Babel, except everyone speaks Hebrew and still cannot communicate.We all remember how the original story ended. Unless we pay attention, this one could end the same way.× × ×The election is less than three months away. However ugly we expected it to be, it will probably be uglier still because of outside involvement by those who wish us harm.In less than three weeks, foreign election interference made headlines three times.The state comptroller published a report concluding that “foreign influence in the digital sphere could threaten the election,” even to the point of “distorting the election results and undermining public confidence in those results.”The comptroller found that Israel’s national preparations for attempts by Iran and other hostile states and actors to influence public opinion were “fundamentally deficient.”According to the comptroller, the Israeli government and prime minister neglected foreign online influence operations for years, ignored warnings from professionals and left citizens exposed to campaigns by enemy states seeking to tear Israel apart, destabilize its democratic institutions and even threaten its very existence by continuously undermining people’s perception of reality.For example, according to the report, Iran and Hezbollah sent around 5 million text messages to Israeli citizens in September 2024 containing an emergency warning ordering them to enter a protected space immediately, in an attempt to cause panic.According to the study, most of the networks spread messages against the right-wing government, as well as messages intended to undermine trust in institutions such as the Central Elections Committee and allegations of police violence. They also spread messages of demoralization and despair and encouraged emigration from Israel.The comptroller lists a long series of challenges that were met by an equally long list of failures, deficiencies, neglect and disregard. As usual.“The deficiencies,” the comptroller concluded, “leave the Israeli public exposed to foreign influence in the digital sphere without an adequate response.”Foreign influence, according to the comptroller, is “the full range of illegitimate activities by a foreign actor intended to covertly harm the state’s interests, potentially causing fundamental damage to its sovereignty.”At the end of the report, the comptroller explains what must be done, meaning what probably will not be done: establish an orderly national policy, appoint a leading government body to centralize the response and coordinate among the various organizations, and prepare comprehensively and systematically to combat disinformation, bots and the use of artificial intelligence on social networks.'The scattershot method.' Posts published by foreign influence networks, from the FakeReporter and Brandeis Institute report