A new initiative to market Israel to American Jews is expected to cost up to $300 million annually, three times the Birthright budget. But a cheaper project for both Americans and Israelis that could bolster Israel’s image much more effectively is not on the table: Ending the occupation.

The Jewish Agency is reportedly developing its priciest campaign ever to connect Jews and Israel and it’s going to cost a lot of money. The budget is expected to reach $300 million per year in the next five years, The Forward reported. The massive operation is expected to launch in 2014 and concentrate on four main elements: “Israel Education,” “Israel Experiences,” “Israel Engagement on College Campus” and “Aliyah (immigration) of Young Adults” (all these have already being pursued heavily by “pro-Israel” groups for decades).

According to a report on the eJewishphilanthropy website, the Jewish Agency expects one third of the funding to come from the Israeli government (meaning Israeli taxpayer money) and will apparently dwarf Birthright, whose annual budget is a mere $100 million. and which similarly, also draws a third of its budget from Israeli taxpayers.

The project is being coined “The Prime Minister’s Initiative” even though Netanyahu’s office hasn’t actually endorsed it. But as the Jewish Agency’s U.S.-based fundraising chief, Misha Galperin, told the Forward: “This is the interest and the direction the prime minister wants to move in.” Well, that’s a relief. We wouldn’t want millions of dollars spent in the American Jewish community on programs that Netanyahu wasn’t behind, right?

The Jewish Agency is organizing a meeting in October to flesh out the campaign’s strategies with Israeli government representatives, heads of Jewish organizations and foundations, and a bunch of affluent donors. I can pretty much guarantee that no one in that room will represent an anti-occupation view or even one critical of Netanyahu’s government – despite the fact that these are views held by both engages and non-engaged American Jews.

The choice to coin the campaign “The Prime Minister’s Initiative” is bizarre and quite telling. Apparently the organizers are interested in branding all Israel-related programming in the U.S. as coming directly from Netanyahu and his government, rather than from Israeli society. Why not coin it “pro-Israel” as these programs usually are? Are we to understand that the Jewish Agency and the others involved in this overpriced operation are more interested in promoting the prime minister than the country itself?

It is also interesting timing, considering the fact that the government official in charge of promoting Israel’s image on social media platforms has been warned to halt his activities due to complaints of racist and incendiary language. Daniel Seaman, appointed by Netanyahu to head Israel’s digital public diplomacy, posted a comment during Ramadan that read:

Does the commencement of the fast of the Ramadan means that Muslims will stop eating each other during the daytime?