Israel’s former top general sought donations from David Ellison and his father, Larry, as part of a billionaire coterie to fund digital paramilitaries aimed at sabotaging pro-Palestine activists. The leaked documents show one planner explaining, “In the jungle, we need more guerrillas and less IDF.”
With Paramount and CBS News now under his control, the younger Ellison has installed self-described “Zionist fanatic” Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief.
Leaked emails reveal that David Ellison, now owner of Paramount, was involved in an Israeli-led initiative designed to monitor and undermine pro-Palestine activists within the United States. Originally named “12 Tribes,” referencing the twelve Jewish billionaires approached to finance the operation, the plan enlisted American intermediaries to back surveillance companies managed by former Israeli intelligence personnel. This effort targeted American participants in the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign on behalf of the Israeli government.
These emails, uncovered by journalist Jack Poulson and traced back to a 2024 leak by the Handala hacking group, expose former Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s role in recruiting affluent Westerners to bankroll these surveillance ventures as they pursued individuals suspected of supporting pro-Palestinian causes.
In one exchange, Hollywood agent Adam Berkowitz described Ellison as “very interested” in aiding efforts against the BDS movement. Berkowitz facilitated an introduction between Ellison and Gantz, writing on December 23, 2015, “Benny meet david. David meet Benny,” explaining he had “told david briefly about your [Gantz’s] 12 tribe idea which you can expound on to him which he seemed very interested in.”
Ellison responded two days later with, “Mr Gantz it is a pleasure to meet you over e-mail. I very much look forward to discussing everything you are working on, and in the mean time hope you are enjoying the holiday season,” adding that he would return to Los Angeles on January 3rd and hoped to connect then.
A planning spreadsheet detailed additional Zionist billionaires considered for the Israeli-funded project, including Ellison’s father, Larry Ellison—Oracle founder and Friends of the IDF board member; Israeli-American billionaire and key Democratic Party donor Haim Saban; and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, whose “Israel-support” remained “tbd.” Canadian book retailer Heather Reissman had reportedly “already agreed” to contribute.
The document also highlighted other wealthy Zionist activists as prospective 12 Tribes participants, accompanied by these profiles:
- Eli Broad ($5.7 billion, real estate magnate, philanthropist supporting pro-Israel causes),
- Selmo Nissenbaum (Art collector, Partner at Personale Investimentos Ltda since 2008. Director of Uhf Incorporated; financial supporter of the Weizmann Institute)
- Dorothea Steinbruch ($5.8 billion, steel industry)
- Safra family
- Kevin Bermeister (technology innovator, real estate investor, philanthropist, founding investor of Skype)
- Frank Lowy (co-founder of Westfield Group, overseeing over 100 shopping centers in Australia, New Zealand, the US, and UK, net worth $4.60 billion)
- Anthony Pratt (net worth roughly $7.1 billion, packaging sector)
- Édouard Cukierman (French-Israeli businessman)
- Rotchild [sic] family (Banking dynasty)
- Lord Stanley Fink (Net worth $180 million, ex-hedge fund manager, pro-Israel philanthropist)
- Sir Ronald Cohen (British businessman and politician, dubbed “the father of British venture capital”)
- Lord George Weidenfeld (British publisher, philanthropist, newspaper columnist, pro-Israel supporter)
- Poju Zabludowicz (Finnish-born London-based business leader, investor, art collector, and pro-Israel philanthropist and key backer of UK pro-Israel group BICOM)
The privileged group invited to contribute $1 million to this official Israeli propaganda fund would bear the title of the “12 Tribes” of Israel, all operating under guidance from the Israeli government, per a promotional document.
“Funding for this initiative shall be provided by an exclusive group of the twelve most influential Jewish philantropists [sic], symbolizing the twelve Jewish tribes; Israel’s government shall act as a thirteenth, facilitating ‘tribe.’”
Documents from Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, a thinktank closely tied to the Israeli military, reveal the 12 Tribes’ self-perception as “strategically, we want to be a non-hierarchical mothership, working for the people and the state” of Israel.
Yet, the organizers were acutely aware of the need to mask their direct links to Tel Aviv. “Government money is also a political constraint,” one stated, adding that “in order to act on all target audiences, independence is required.” Another echoed the importance of appearing autonomous: “In the jungle, we need more guerrillas and less IDF.” A third person remarked, “This will not be a covert project, but the connection to the state and the government needs to be very controlled.”
With financing from the 12 Tribes, Israel planned to deploy “state-of-the-art cyber technology as a soft weapon” via companies like Black Cube—the infamous Israeli intelligence front known for harassing accusers of disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
Black Cube also operates as an enforcer for the creators of Pegasus spyware, Israel’s NSO Group. When President Barack Obama was negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran, Black Cube agents, under false pretenses, surveilled officials involved in the talks.
Internal files from Black Cube boast about their specialized “social engineering” techniques for moving “freely… in limited access environments” while gathering information from the darknet.
The email records also shed light on David Ellison’s initial steps as a prominent advocate for Israeli interests within Silicon Valley—a role seemingly inherited from his father Larry Ellison, who ardently supports the apartheid regime.
Paramount’s pro-Israel pedigree
Additional emails in the Handala leak show that Larry Ellison was assigned by Israel to assess Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s loyalty to the apartheid state a decade ago. In 2015, Israel’s then UN Ambassador, Ron Posor, asked Larry, “How was the conversation with Mario [sic] Rubio? Did he pass your scrutiny? Did you have a chance to talk about Israel?”
Larry replied affirmatively: “Marco will be a great friend for Israel.”
The elder Ellison has cultivated deep ties with Tel Aviv, donating tens of millions over recent years to Israeli militants through the “Friends of the IDF” organization. Notably, ten years before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced war crimes indictments for Gaza, Ellison sought to place him on Oracle’s board.
Today, Larry Ellison leads a group of Israel-connected billionaires acquiring influential American media outlets from TikTok to Paramount, which owns CBS News. With the Paramount takeover finalized, the Ellison family is positioned not only to shape US narratives on Israel but also to influence events on the ground in Gaza. Indeed, Ellison committed over $350 million to the Tony Blair Institute, whose founder was named by President Donald Trump as the prospective head of the controversial Gaza International Transitional Authority—a neocolonial occupation body set to benefit Blair’s tech backers.
Meanwhile, David Ellison, as Paramount Skydance’s new owner, appointed Bari Weiss as CBS News’ editor-in-chief and Zionist enforcer.
From ‘cancel culture victim’ to ethically conflicted CBS News chief
Weiss, 41, began her career as a pro-Israel activist targeting Palestinian academics at Columbia University before working with various Israeli media outlets. An admitted “Zionist fanatic,” she gained recognition as a columnist—a neoconservative diversity pick—at the New York Times opinion section before abruptly resigning amid accusations of “cancel culture,” despite her own extensive history of attempting to silence critics of Israel.
(Her last effort to suppress Israel critics at the NY Times reportedly contributed to the assassination of Palestinian scholar Refaat Alareer, who was killed by an Israeli drone strike after Weiss wrongly accused him of mocking a fictitious deceased Jewish infant.)
Launching her own path, Weiss received backing from techno-feudal financiers such as David Sacks and Marc Andreessen, founding an “anti-woke,” staunchly Zionist outlet ironically named the Free Press. The Free Press now collaborates with an Israeli propaganda front, the Center for Peace Communications, which seeks to sow discord in Arab communities and supports the militia of ISIS-linked Yasser Abu Shabab, a notorious Gaza smuggler who operates in cooperation with the Israeli army.
Supported by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, Weiss founded the “anti-woke” University of Austin (UATX), where students study Palantir CEO and trustee Alex Karp’s widely criticized book The Technological Republic alongside Plato’s The Republic. Visitors enter the campus greeted by a bust of Weiss, donated by Lonsdale, honoring her as the founding mother.
Contrary to journalism’s traditional role of challenging power, Weiss has crafted a career supporting it, earning praise as a trusted voice among conservative elites. Republican pollster Frank Luntz remarked, “She doesn’t just speak to the 1%. She speaks to the one-hundredth of 1%. And they’ll listen.”
To finalize Ellison’s Paramount acquisition, his company is paying an astounding $150 million for Weiss’s Free Press. Her role as CBS editor-in-chief raises significant concerns about the network’s editorial autonomy, especially given her use of Free Press to advance the agendas of her tech financiers.
Who among the Free Press investors profited from the Paramount deal? Was David Sacks involved? Now serving as a Trump White House Special Advisor on AI and Crypto, Sacks’s financial ties to Weiss represent a clear conflict of interest affecting CBS’s integrity.
In her inaugural act as CBS editor-in-chief, Weiss issued an October 6 letter to all staff pledging dedication to “journalism that is fair, fearless, and factual.”
Original article: thegrayzone.com
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