#Israel / How Israel Mastered Information Warfare in Gaza – Foreign Policy
Some might still perceive #Hasbarah (public diplomacy, explaining, or "welcoming") as having a positive connotation, distinct from outright propaganda. However, this has never truly been the case. In reality, it is far more insidious than one might assume.
Israel's extensive use of information warfare tactics during its barbaric war on Gaza has four-pronged strategy, leveraging social media:
Emphasizing the horror of the October 7th Hamas attack to justify retaliation (included distributing graphic images and videos through paid advertising campaigns targeted at Western audiences.)
Discrediting pro-Palestinian voices and narratives while justifying Israel's bombing of Gaza (included labeling criticism as #antisemitic, using dehumanizing language about Palestinians, falsely accusing media/aid workers of ties to Hamas, and lobbying for content takedowns.)
Rallying Israeli public support by promoting its military's destruction of Gaza targets and purported victories over Hamas through psychological warfare campaigns.
[…] In a polarized social media space, every fact has become contested. It seems that for every investigation into an Israeli airstrike or a firefight, there is an alternative framing of events. When an Israeli airstrike most probably hit a convoy of civilians fleeing on an evacuation route, hundreds of pro-Israel users and accounts pretending they were open source investigators worked to shift the focus to videos of an unrelated side-road explosion for which they blamed Hamas. One such tweet was viewed more than 1.1 million times.
> Within their bubble, Israel and its proxies can at the same time boast about the destruction of Gaza, deflect responsibility for their actions, and shrug off denunciations as missing the point. While the creation of social media echo chambers is not new, it is noteworthy that Israel’s superior resources and technology has helped it insulate its supporters against a powerful and well-documented counternarrative.
@ideal_CH I think the education system and army are much more powerful forces in that respect. Very few come out through them able to look at themselves critically. Including the ones perceived by outsiders as “rational”. The rejection of outside influence comes from the same place. “Natural immunity” to the ugly truth.
@oatmeal
Yes, for Israelis I'd suppose so. Actually when quoting this I thought of "proxies" in a broader sense than the authors did probably — including e.g. the defund-UNRWA crowd in our (Swiss) parliament.
The people I find not amenable to rational arguments (and decent ethics) on this topic is not limited to the fascistoïd right or evangelical christians, and I think it's in part the result of effective (dis-)information warfare.