In the context of the war in Gaza, a foreign influence campaign is flooding Israeli users of the social network X (formerly Twitter) with messages in Hebrew designed to promote Hamas’s objectives. The campaign is executed by a community of Arab Muslims from several countries and orchestrated by Egyptian activists affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood movement who operate from Turkey. Since the group seeks to recruit people to its efforts, it openly describes its goals and some of its action methods, allowing a rare “behind the...
Even during the war in the Gaza Strip, Israel uses public disclosure of intelligence as a tool for shaping the behavior of both sympathetic and hostile actors and audiences. These intelligence disclosures are usually reactive, intended to defend Israel and the legitimacy of its military actions and to protect sensitive sources. Given the centrality of intelligence-driven military operations for conveying messages and shaping reality in wartime, as well as the fact that this war began with Israel being in a disadvantageous position in...
Introduction: Social Media, Mass Emotions, and Power
Much of the discourse surrounding foreign influence has been predominantly focused on the spread of “fake news” and foreign campaigns aimed at undermining factual integrity.[1] While the negative impact of misinformation is undeniable, whether foreign influence campaigns advance truthful or false claims misses a far more important point. The central thesis of this article is that the true peril of foreign influence resides not in the distortion of facts, but, more critically, in...
Over the past decade, governments, private companies, expert communities, and civil society organizations around the world have invested significant efforts and resources to understand and address subversive malign activities conducted by foreign states and non-state actors. Research and policy-related initiatives and legal actions undertaken during this period have exposed significant conceptual and normative gaps not only between democratic countries and countries at odds with human rights, but among like-minded democracies as...
Unlike in previous rounds of fighting with Hamas, it appears that in the Swords of Iron war, thousands of Israeli citizens have joined “professional” network influencers in the global struggle over the narrative. In addition, dozens if not hundreds of civilian “war rooms” have been set up to stream public diplomacy explanatory material, and work groups focusing on technology and the cognitive campaign were formed, designed to make hasbara – Hebrew for public diplomacy – more effective. Israeli hi-tech has also joined the fight, and...
David Siman-Tov | Inbar Noy-Freifeld | Attila Somfalvi | Ella Keinan
The Gaza war that began after the murderous Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 in the western Negev is also a war in international public opinion. Although at the start of the war, due to the brutality of the attack, Israel received broad public sympathy, now it appears that Hamas is perceived as a victim that enjoys the decided advantage in the struggle for public sympathy in the international arena. One of the explanations for the Hamas success is that unlike Israel, which tries to justify itself to the world, Hamas clings to the...
Since the outbreak of the war, the amount of false information and fake content on the internet has reached new heights. Much of this content is created using deep fake applications based on artificial intelligence. The fact that any internet user is now able to create synthetic content has made the issue of public diplomacy especially complex. It is vital, therefore, that there be a deep understanding both of the phenomenon and ways to confront the challenges it poses.
A cognitive campaign is taking place between Hamas and Israel, that is, a campaign over determining the “narrative” that will dictate the perception of the achievements of each side in the local, regional, and even global arenas. Hamas is investing great effort to inflate its image of power vis-à-vis Israel as it beleaguers Israel in five arenas: the organization is threatening rocket fire and terrorist actions from the Gaza Strip, presenting itself as the defender of al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, operating “resistance” activists in the...
The strategic assessment for Israel for 2021 is shaped by significant uncertainty in three principal areas: the level of success in coping with COVID-19; the modus operandi and policies of the new administration in the United States; and the political developments in Israel. The current assessment is based on a broader conception of national security, which places greater weight than in the past on the domestic arena and on threats to internal stability, social cohesion, values, and fabric of life. This of course does not detract...
The strategic assessment for Israel for 2021 is shaped by significant uncertainty in three principal areas: the level of success in coping with COVID-19; the modus operandi and policies of the new administration in the United States; and the political developments in Israel. The current assessment is based on a broader conception of national security, which places greater weight than in the past on the domestic arena and on threats to internal stability, social cohesion, values, and fabric of life. This of course does not detract...
The strategic assessment for Israel for 2021 is shaped by significant uncertainty in three principal areas: the level of success in coping with COVID-19; the modus operandi and policies of the new administration in the United States; and the political developments in Israel. The current assessment is based on a broader conception of national security, which places greater weight than in the past on the domestic arena and on threats to internal stability, social cohesion, values, and fabric of life. This of course does not detract...
