Soldiers at the IDF’s central Kirya base in Tel Aviv have recently been banned from ordering food deliveries directly to the facility.
By Hezy Laing
In the high-stakes world of modern intelligence, even a simple pizza can become a tactical indicator.
The “Pizza Meter”—a term originally coined for the Pentagon Pizza Index—has recently surfaced in Israel as a legitimate concern for military planners.
This phenomenon, which tracks surges in food deliveries to strategic government and military hubs, is being treated as a latent “spy system” that could inadvertently signal the timing of major operations, particularly as tensions with Iran reach a boiling point.
The logic behind the Pizza Meter is rooted in “PizzINT” (Pizza Intelligence): when high-level officials and military staff are forced to work late into the night to finalize strike plans or monitor a crisis, they frequently order mass quantities of fast food to their desks.
In June 2025, this theory was validated in real-time when Google Maps activity data at pizzerias near the Pentagon spiked over 700% just one hour before Israel launched airstrikes on Iranian targets.
The correlation was so precise that online sleuths began discussing the operation before official news networks had even broken the story.
Recognizing this vulnerability, the Israel Air Force (IAF) has reportedly taken defensive measures.
Soldiers at the Kirya base in Tel Aviv—Israel’s equivalent of the Pentagon—have recently been banned from ordering food deliveries directly to the facility.
Instead, personnel must meet couriers at external rendezvous points to disrupt the data patterns that adversaries could use to “clock” the start of a military offensive.
This shift reflects a broader move toward managing Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT).
In an era where anyone with a smartphone can monitor the “Popular Times” feature on Google Maps for restaurants near sensitive sites, the Pizza Meter has evolved from a Cold War-era anecdote into a critical security leak.
For the IDF, the goal is now to ensure that the next major strategic move isn’t telegraphed by a sudden, late-night surge in delivery scooters arriving at the gates of its headquarters.
