New US TikTok owner funded Tony Blair and ensured Marco Rubio's loyalty to Israel: Report

One of the world's richest men and a staunch supporter of Israel has been revealed to have screened now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio for loyalty to Israel as far back as 2015, before Rubio launched his failed bid for president, according to a new report from DropSite News.

Larry Ellison, the executive chairman of multinational tech firm Oracle - which now partly owns the US operations of social media app TikTok - had inquired about Rubio's level of support for Israel in a series of emails sent to the then-Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, which DropSite says it has reviewed.

Ellison then funded Rubio's campaign to the tune of at least $3m for the Republican primary when he was assured Rubio "will be a great friend to Israel".

Donald Trump - initially considered a long-shot candidate - handily won that primary and then the White House in 2016.

Ellison and Prosor appeared to have a close, amicable relationship, based on screenshots of the emails shared by DropSite. 

The emails are said to have come from a hacking group named Handala, which is believed to have links to Iranian intelligence. 

Ellison indicated that he would meet the then-senator from Florida after Prosor sent him a copy of a Rubio speech, a week after he had slammed the Obama administration for its "hostility to Israel" in his campaign launch speech.

The correspondence suggested Ellison and Prosor met for dinner around that time, with Prosor sending a follow-up email thanking Ellison and sending a "big hug". 

"How was the conversation with Mario Rubio. [sic] Did he pass your scrutiny? Did you have a chance to talk about Israel ? Would love to chat," Prosor told Ellison in an email from 30 April 2015.

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At the time, Ellison had put his money behind Libertarian candidates, and it was considered somewhat unusual for him to support someone as conservative as Rubio, but he assured Prosor that he had a "great meeting" with Rubio, and that he would "set him up to meet with Tony Blair". 

Until May 2015, Blair was the special envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East, working on Israel-Palestinian negotiations.

About a year later, he was implicated in the damning Chilcot Report in the UK, which found that Blair's declaration of war against Iraq during his time as British prime minister was based on false evidence and undermined the work of the UN, leading to unnecessary military action.

Estimates put the number of dead from the Iraq War at one million people. 

Tony Blair connection

On Monday, Trump named Blair as the de facto governor of Gaza during a post-war transition period. The decision was met with a wave of criticism from anti-war advocates. 

A report from late last month published by Lighthouse Reports showed Ellison invested $130m in the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) between 2021 and 2023, with another $218m pledged since then. 

Since first meeting Blair while he was at 10 Downing Street, Ellison's Oracle has been contracted "hundreds of times" by the British government, and earned nearly $1.5bn in public sector revenue since 2022, Lighthouse reported. 

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Ellison is a vocal proponent of mass surveillance, something his company, Oracle, is a leader in developing tools for. He has also spoken of the need to shape public opinion in a manner favourable to his pet causes. 

TikTok has been shown to be one of the foremost tools for expanding awareness of the Palestinian struggle and the devastating effects of the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Pro-Israel groups have ramped up their attacks on the app, leading to new US ownership away from the Chinese and the hiring of an ex-Israeli army instructor as a regulator of the content.  

The moves have gone hand in hand with Rubio's crackdown on pro-Palestine activists, which he has centred as a priority for the US State Department since he became the Trump administration's top diplomat in January. Rubio said he has personally revoked hundreds of visas from international students for activities that include writing op-eds and participating in marches that denounce Israel. 

Earlier this week, a US federal judge deemed Rubio's attempts to deport those students as an unconstitutional "full-throated assault on the First Amendment".