The hasbara brigade strikes again! You always hear about Israeli attempts at media manipulation. Everyone knows it's going on but usually the process happens through cyber insurgents like those involved with Giyus (and its media monitoring software, Megaphone). Now, we know that the Israeli foreign ministry itself is orchestrating propaganda efforts designed to flood news websites with pro-Israel arguments and information.
A reader of my blog has received the following email which documents both the efforts and the agency that originated them. The solicitation to become a pro-Israel "media volunteer" also includes a list of media links which the ministry would like addressed by pro-Israel comments:
Dear friends,
We hold the [sic] military supremacy, yet fail the battle over the international media. We need to buy time for the IDF to succeed, and the least we can do is spare some (additional) minutes on the net. The ministry of foreign affairs is putting great efforts in balancing the media, but we all know it's a battle of numbers. The more we post, blog, talkback, vote – the more likely we gain positive sentiment.
I was asked by the ministry of foreign affairs to arrange a network of volunteers, who are willing to contribute to this effort. If you're up to it you will receive a daily messages & media package as well as targets.
If you wish to participate, please respond to this email.
My friend did so and received this official communique from the ministry with talking points about Operation Cast Lead which s/he was to use in her/his propaganda efforts. Among the links was was a Peter Beaumont Cif piece. The following were identified as "target sites": the Times, the Guardian, Sky News, BBC, Yahoo!News, Huffington Post, and the Dutch Telegraaf. Also targeted were other media sites in Dutch, Spanish, German and French considered critical of the invasion.
Locally, here in Seattle, peace activists held a rally at our federal building attended by 500 protesters. In the foreign ministry communique issued the next day, activists were directed to comment in the Seattle Post Intelligencer's article about the demonstration. The comment thread for the article is riddled with clear hasbara "plants" who distort the balance and tone of the discussion with their programmed arguments, making it much more favorable than it otherwise would be.
Here the foreign ministry's coordinator describes a meeting he attended at the government's offical office:
Hi all,
I had a meeting in the ministry of foreign affairs today, and was very happy to hear that their metrics show that Israel's position in the internet is getting better every day. It means that you're doing a good job! MFA are concerned with the biased public opinion in Europe. So please focus your efforts on European media.
What can you do to help?
- Identify internet battle-grounds in different languages, and let me know
- Comment/post/vote in the listed links and others; you can use the material attached below
- Write letters to authors and editors. Identify yourself as a local resident
- Have your friends join this activity
This message was meant to encourage the pro-Israel activists in their work:
World governments are still patient with Israel's justified operation in Gaza. The [sic] public opinion, on the other hand, is impatient, to say the least. This gap will soon close – it always does.
It is our goal to shift the public opinion, as conveyed in the internet; avoiding, or at least minimising, sanctions by world leaders. We need to buy the IDF enough time to achieve its goals.
Besides the talking points provided by the foreign ministry to the pro-Israel web activists, they are offered online pro-Israel material to link to in their comments such as these:
Bicom.org.uk/
Aish HaTorah's What Really Happened in the Middle East
YouTube video: Amid Gaza violence, Israeli and Palestinian doctors save baby's life -
CNN's Amanpour interviews Tzipi Livni
Military incursion should be seen as part of War on Terror
Blog from Southern Israel, Morit Rozen
Remember when the defence department was paying public relations companies and Iraqi newspapers to insert articles praising the Iraq war? The companies also attempted to plant coverage favorable to the US military in US newspapers. There rightly was a media uproar about the manipulation. We'll see whether the same happens over this.
The foreign ministry shouldn't get a pass on this one. It may view such hasbara as maximising its efforts to "explain" Israel's position in the world media. I view it as a cynical attempt to flood the web and news media with favorable flackery in a vain attempt to tilt public opinion toward Israel. Not only does it do Israel a disservice, it stains every legitimate effort that the ministry might make to explain Israel to the world, since no one will believe a word it says knowing it engages in such outright propaganda.
Not to mention that this is such cheap pennyante stuff. What do they gain by this? How effective can it be and how many can be convinced? By the way, I've even noticed the hasbaraniks in my own blog. You can see them a mile away because they've never published a comment before yet write something like: "I've enjoyed your blog for a long time, but anyone with a brain in their head knows that Hamas is out to destroy Israel blah, blah blah." Pretty formulaic stuff. Also, you can Google a few phrases of the comment and if you find it appears elsewhere on the web you know you either have a hasbaranik or someone who has repetition compulsion.
In some instances, western media may intentionally or unintentionally fall victim to manipulation. Tony Karon points out that pro-Israel journalist-historian Michael Oren has published several stories since the Gaza incursion began in US media outlets like the New Republic and Los Angeles Times. He is also on active duty with the IDF in Gaza serving as a public affairs officer liasing with foreign media. You will find nothing noting this in the Los Angeles Times op ed. In effect, the media is allowing advocates like Oren to pass themselves off as disinterested experts when they are anything but. It behooves editors to do some due diligence when they publish any piece that advocates for one side or the other to determine whether there may be conflicts of interest or other unacknowledged factors influencing a commentator's judgment.
It seems we are now well and truly in the world of Propaganda 2.0.
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The dead speak louder than spam.
There is not much the Isreali govt can do to cover facts.
Like they have killed hundreds of innocent children.
Like they have driven the palastinian people into desperation and violence.
Like thier regime of murder (like hammas's reigime of murder) is entirely UNHOLY and HYPOCRITICAL.
People always see something sinister about efforts to organise public opinion in favour of something they disagree with.
Neither side has mastered Propaganda 2.0. Just wait till the Mac version comes out.
I remember this tactic backfiring on a CIF thread during the Israel/Lebanon War. The first two comments on the thread by two different pro-Israel posters were completely identical, the lazy buggers had just cut'n'pasted the talking points without bothering to individualise them.
Much to the amusement of the other CIFers. :)
Is that to counter the pro Hamas bias of the media here in the UK? As well as letters from so called "moderate" Muslims threatening our government unless they condemn Israeli action?
With the equally horrendous appearance of fully armed riot police to guard the Israeli embassy on Saturday, ordered no doubt by our glorious leader Comrade Brown, I am taking no sides in this.
Both sides are to blame, there is one organisation responsible for it all (used to be the CIA, don't know what they would be called now). Someone wants that region to be in a permanent state of war for a reason.
What we are witnessing in Gaza since Dec 27 is the viciousness and brutality of U.S. imperialism manifested by its most powerful client state ever.
A caged and starved 1.5 million people are being subjected to a barbaric military assault.
War crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed daily.
Will those responsible be indicted by the ICC?
Any honest observer will answer, No.
Richard
Thank you Richard... for some time ..to use the word Giyus was to invite ridicule and accusations of anti Semitism. The mobbing of writers is also a feature on CIF and whether or not it is some organised campaign.. it is still highly effective to goad writers into mistakes.
The sorely missed Souraya ..writing in her third language and lacking subtlety in English ..was so goaded and should be reinstated as a writer for balance ...as some pro Israelis are egging to conront Iran.
Peace now. This is sore watching..imagine being there.
B
Richard Silverstein:
PRECISELY my sentiments!
The obfuscation of facts leads to the perpetual conflict. People can adn should make informed decisions based on the truth.
Rgrds,
P.
"Fight the Propaganda--Spread the Truth"
That would explain many of the posts here on CIF!
I'm only suprised that the Israeli Foreign Ministry is asking for volunteers instead of conscripting them like the IDF.
But of course, no other group of people with clear opinions and views would ever behave in such a way? You really believe that?
Surely any political part or interest group will brief its supporters on useful things to say in the press and on websites. Next week will you expose the RSPB?
It's just the type of stuff an Al Capone would do get the media to print a supportive piece.
It's the internet response to a rent-a-crowd for a demonstration.
Israel is obviously getting desperate and fearing that its 60 years of untrammelled power in the ME might be trimmed and maybe that Obama might fluff his role.
Like the credit bubble once Israel's stack of lies - land without people- no partner for peace- etc begin to unravel and funded alliances shrink, Israel will look like the 'nasty State' it really is.
'Dorian Gray' comes to mind............
Palestinans are Semites
Just so that we can get that out of the way before the deluge begins
This has nothing to do with antisemitism. Innocent children have been murdered in UN-marked buildings by the Israeli army. That stain will not go away.
I initially understood and supported the Israeli incursion. But not now - they have lost the propaganda war becasue their heavy-handed crimes are on open display to the world.
I am sure there are many Jews who do not support the Israeli camapign. This situation is all too reminiscent of the Holocaust. Sickening. Vile. Inhuman.
There is, simply, no defending the continuing murder of innocents.
Its odd that some people still see this as a war between Jews and Muslims around the world.
It smacks of Racism to lump together ALL muslims or ALL jews as both these mad religions are equally diverse in cultural influences and location.
Isreal could do itself a huge propoganda favour by being 'the bigger man' here... it could litterally be the saviour of the world by stopping its violence and finding a peacefull resolution: Hammas doesn't have the power to do this so until Isreal does this is going to go on and on and on...
Hold on a minute there Richard, aren't you being ANTISEMITIC? That's the usual beating stick for anyone who dares criticize murderous Israeli foriegn policy isn't it? Good luck - the Truth will out.
"you can Google a few phrases of the comment and if you find it appears elsewhere on the web you know you either have a hasbaranik or someone who has repetition compulsion."
Like RogerIntheUSA?
Thanks Richard. It's hard to believe anyone would be swayed by the arguments put forward by these clowns. You either agree with ethnic cleansing or you don't .
Many thanks for this. We must surely be greatly encouraged by hasbara's desperate tactics of crude propaganda, as they clearly reveal Israel's alarm at the steady unravelling of the Israeli and Western governments' false narrative of this conflict that has been taking place since the internet made it possible for the truth to escape their stranglehold over its coverage.
SachTheJuggler
There is an immense difference between organising public opinion through education, and spreading propaganda and lies...one is acceptable, the other is not.
@MJTValfather
Your post is too confused to entertain a discussion, but it is worth pointing out that there is a difference between "jewish people" and the actions of the Israeli military. Confusing the two leads to errors of judgement.
@westcoaster
This sort of thing happens all the time. The mainstream media is living proof of the power of lobbyists to influence and alter the "news" in favour of minority agendas.
But so what? Does this make propaganda, lobbying, strong-man tactics or any other method of trying to bias opinion and alter perception from fact to fiction fair and acceptable. Of course it doesn't.
AverageJoesph
.
## two different pro-Israel posters .. identical, the lazy buggers had just cut'n'pasted Much to the amusement of the other CIFers. :) ##
.
Summers were longer.. girls were prettier but its the Pro Israelis from July 06 that I miss most . :) To be fair I think this only happened once but I do remember much amusement during the horror of Beirut. It wasn't a lot of fun otherwise.
B
Well said, you can only spin so much and only for so long. People are not that stupid.