Gaza.

Disinformation Warfare

We are always wary on this blog of people who spew nonsense about insidious Jewish plots to control the media.  Such assertions are always proven to be the ridiculous fantasies of racist hate mongers.  However, it cannot be denied that as a sovereign State, Israel appears to be going out of it’s way to ensure that public opinion is not swayed by compassion for Palestinians living under the military occupation of a foreign nation.

In July Jonathan Cook told us that:

The passionate support for Israel expressed on talkback sections of websites, internet chat forums, blogs, Twitters and Facebook may not be all that it seems.

Israel’s foreign ministry is reported to be establishing a special undercover team of paid workers whose job it will be to surf the internet 24 hours a day spreading positive news about Israel.

Internet-savvy Israeli youngsters, mainly recent graduates and demobilised soldiers with language skills, are being recruited to pose as ordinary surfers while they provide the government’s line on the Middle East conflict.

“To all intents and purposes the internet is a theatre in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we must be active in that theatre, otherwise we will lose,” said Ilan Shturman, who is responsible for the project.

The existence of an “internet warfare team” came to light when it was included in this year’s foreign ministry budget. About $150,000 has been set aside for the first stage of development, with increased funding expected next year.

The project is apparently a formalisation of volunteer work that was undertaken by Israelis and non-Israelis to promote the Israeli stance across the Internet during the 2008/2009 Israeli attack upon Gaza.

What is particularly immoral about this project is that the targets of this state propaganda will never know if they are being addressed by a non-salaried supporter of Israel - who may be open to discussion - or to a paid up member of the Israeli PR team whose paid purpose is to crowd out criticism of Israel from Internet:-

“Our people will not say: ‘Hello, I am from the hasbara department of the Israeli foreign ministry and I want to tell you the following.’ Nor will they necessarily identify themselves as Israelis… They will speak as net-surfers and as citizens, and will write responses that will look personal but will be based on a prepared list of messages that the foreign ministry developed.”

Many consumer brands use this practice to market their products, but this appears to be the first time an actual state has straight out admitted it’s intent on the Internet. This is literally the next level of state propaganda.  Government sponsored spam, anyone?

Cook raises the possibility that such teams of online propagandists could be used against internal dissidents

Nasser Rego of Ilam, a group based in Nazareth that monitors the Israeli media, said Arab organisations in Israel were among those regularly targeted by hasbara groups for “character assassination”. He was concerned the new team would try to make such work appear more professional and convincing.

Indeed.

But this blog is well aware that Israel is spending money not only on politics-for-hire spammers, but also on far reaching banner advertising.  We noticed at least a month ago that Israel was gearing up it’s online presence by using the Google banner advertising network to spread it’s own messages.  Apart from the YouTube example we give above, here are some more:-

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Israel has many enemies in the media, but more often than not it is its own worst enemy.

So says Stephen Pollard in his  comment piece in the Jewish Chronicle, a publication which claims to be “the world’s oldest and most influential Jewish newspaper”.  According to Pollard, Binyamin Netanyahu was “begged” by Newsnight, Sky, ITV, Channel Four and every newspaper to appear on screen or in print.  Perhaps Pollard is confused?  On the one hand, he claims that Israel has so many media enemies, but on the other he boasts a roll call of the largest and most powerful media organisations in the UK which are - by the account of Pollard, himself an editor - offering a platform for Israel to participate in the international debate.

Pollard actually has the chutzpah to suggest that Mark Regev is perhaps the only other Israeli with the skill and eloquence to set out a case in defence of Israel.  Well, it isn’t hard to match the skill, or lack thereof, of Regev who has been caught out several times in his blustering obfuscation and deception, and whose default position appears to be to criticise the methodology of anybody who questions the blatantly illegal actions of Israel.

Perhaps Pollard thinks that Israel should view organisations that wrest elements of the truth from the mouth of people like Regev as “enemies in the media”?

Actually, Pollard does have a point. Netanyahu clearly did avoid contact with the media.  Pollard explains that Natanyahu’s “office” were determined to keep his profile low.  But why?

The truth of it is that for all they moan about coverage of the Middle East, they don’t actually care. They don’t care if Brits end up thinking they are warmongers. They don’t care if they are losing the PR war.

Bingo.  Israel does not care if it loses the PR war, as long as in the end it wins the real war, the one being waged in Gaza and the West Bank on a daily basis.

A more insidious opinion about why Netanyahu ducked meeting the press was expressed by Anthony Julius according to The Independent:

…if the Prime Minister of Israel was here setting up the peace conference which may be taking place, and he’s avoided the press for that reason, it is very sensible.

Huh?  This is an amazingly tortuous piece of logic, though I suppose one can expect nothing less from an apologist of Israel.  Let us dissect it.

Firstly, the expression of the very idea that there is any credible ‘peace’ process in Palestine can only come from someone who either lacks knowledge or who is deliberately seeking to disguise the fact that, as we have pointed out, Netanyahu has publicly stated his position on what ‘peace’ will consist of for him, and it is in effect the subjugation of Gaza and West Bank to Israeli rule.  A peace in which the needs of Israel, whatever they may be, should take primacy over the Human Rights of Palestinians.  Secondly, why does Netanyahu need to even set foot in the UK to set up a peace conference with Palestinians whose government is based, unsurprisingly, in Palestine?

Perhaps the real reason why Netanyahu wishes to avoid the press is that he wants to keep his views from becoming too widely known and understood.  His vision is incompatible with a democratic, free and sovereign Palestinian state.

Also quoted in The Independent was Monroe Palmer, who thinks that some Israelis are

…so committed to fighting for Israel’s security and its future that they sometimes, or very often, underestimated the power of the press and international opinion

How quaint.  We are now being asked to swallow the line that  Israel has the wherewithal to ask amateur propaganda merchants such as Mark Regev to be a spokesman for the entire country, and yet also underestimates the power of the press and international opinion?  This view is completely incompatible with the fact that Israel did not allow foreign journalists into Gaza during the December 2008/January 2009 offensive precisely because they do not underestimate the power of the press and international opinion.

The Media War

James Zogby: How Israel’s Propaganda Machine Works

BBC Newsnight: Israel’s Gaza news management
(mentions BBC cutting back coverage)

Time Magazine: Fighting the Media War in Gaza