Jillian Kestler-D'Amours, The Electronic Intifada, 24 February 2011
Israel desperately tried to control the message during its attack on Gaza in winter 2008-09. (Oren Ziv/ActiveStills)
The Israeli military establishment is once again on the offensive, but instead of high-tech weaponry and missiles, it is using computer screens, keyboards and rapid wireless connections to fight what Israeli military representatives are dubbing a "new media war."
In early February, military spokesperson Avi Benayahu announced that approximately $1.6 million would be invested to train more than a hundred Israeli "media warriors," who would use social media tools to disseminate Israeli propaganda to audiences around the world.
"We need to ensure the confidence of the public, and assist the minister of foreign affairs to obtain that legitimization which is required for an army like ours to effect a military operation, whether it's in the north or the south," said Benayahu of this new media campaign during the 11th annual Herzliya security conference in early February.
Held at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya near Tel Aviv, the Herzliya Conference is a largely right-wing, neo-conservative gathering that brings together mainly Israeli and American government, business and academic figures to discuss Israeli policy and regional and global issues. This year's conference, which was covered by this reporter, was held under the theme "The Balance of Israel's National Strength and Security."
Speaking on a panel called "New Media as a Strategic Weapon," Benayahu told the audience in Herzliya that Israeli soldiers are now forced to be more aware of the fact that new media users can be documenting their actions at all times.
"[There is] an unprecedented responsibility to the commanders," he said. "They have to think if the civilian across from them or the child on the second floor above them is a combatant or a new generation media person."
According to Benayahu, the Israeli military has prioritized the field of new media in order to combat "pro-Iranian factors" which use the Internet to "delegitimize Israel."
"It is orchestrated and timed and financed by all the pro-Iranian factors," he stated. "They know how to flood us with media and information. They are also nurturing all these pro-radical organizations. The Palestinian Diaspora [is] conducting this [work] in universities, in the [United Nations] institutions, in the human rights institutions, and in the new media," he added.
Strategy perfected during attack on Gaza
It was during the outbreak of Israel's attacks on Gaza in the winter of 2008-09 -- during which more than 1,400 Palestinians, including 300 children, were killed -- that the Israeli hasbara campaign concentrated its focus on new media sources.
"Hasbara," the Hebrew word for "explanation," is used to describe official Israeli efforts to release information, spin and propaganda on behalf of the state and its governmental, communication and informational branches.
Key messages during the three weeks of attacks, dubbed Operation Cast Lead by Israel, included the claims that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreement with Israel, that Israel's aim was to defend its citizens and that Hamas is a terrorist organization.
Israel's assault on Gaza has been condemned by numerous international human rights organizations. Israeli officials responsible for the attacks are suspected of war crimes according to the UN-commissioned fact-finding mission led by international jurist Richard Goldstone.
"Israel knew of the violent extent of its planned war on Gaza well before it took place," Ramzy Baroud, a Palestinian-American political analyst, journalist and author, told The Electronic Intifada.
"The political rationale for that was Hamas needed to be taught a lesson, hoping for two possible outcomes: that either Hamas will simply disintegrate under the weight of Israeli bombs, or that the people will topple the government," Baroud added. "For that to happen, the extent of the violence had to be extraordinary, and had to target largely civilian infrastructure and exact a high price in terms of civilian causality."
"That required planning and lots of it. The propaganda, as in disseminating misinformation, falsehoods, half truths and selective versions of events, was more institutionalized than ever," he said.
In order to carry out its hasbara campaign, the Israeli military opened a YouTube account in December 2008 (http://www.youtube.com/user/idfnadesk), where administrators uploaded dozens of videos depicting Israeli bombings and missile strikes, and images of Israeli shipments of humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip.
One of the first videos uploaded to the account on 31 December 2008, for example, displays what the Israeli military defined as "a precision [air force] strike against weapons hidden in a Gaza mosque."
According to Aliza Landes, an Israeli soldier originally from Boston, Massachusetts, who now heads the military's new media unit, the YouTube account has been the Israeli army's "greatest success" to date.
"YouTube is our greatest success," said Landes, who was called on stage by Benyahu during the "New Media as a Strategic Weapon" panel, to talk specifically about the Israeli military's New Media Desk and spoke for approximately ten minutes. "Visual material is what is most compelling online. It's evidence. It's proof in a way that a written statement isn't. If there is a big operation going on and we can provide visual evidence of what's happening, then other people can use that to make arguments and discuss things."
