Author/Observers of the Network
"Countries, including non-governmental organizations and Qatar and China, are using robots, artificial intelligence and advertising to spread the'anti-Israel agenda 'in Western media."
Recently, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu faced a delegation of U.S. parliamentarians, blamed Israel's isolation internationally to the so-called China and Qatar using AI and TikTok to launch "information blockade". this unfounded accusation, not only has been strongly rejected by our side, but more like a mirror, exposed to the sickness of the crisis under its rule, as well as a cyber war veteran thief screaming thieves heart and calculation.
It is a well-planned political performance.Behind it, there is a real need to relinquish domestic diplomatic pressure, but also deep hidden attempts to bind the regional conflict to the U.S. to contain the Chinese military vehicle in exchange for strategic support.We need to lay off the packaging of its discourse and see where Netanyahu is actually singing.
China: Netanyahu’s medical emergency.
At this time, Netanyahu threw out the "China threat theory" at an extremely dangerous moment in his political career. Externalizing internal contradictions is a tried-and-tested technique for politicians to get out of trouble.
First, the unprecedented political pressure from within Israel. The wave of hundreds of thousands of people protesting for the release of hostages and re-election has never ceased, and the tears of the hostage families accusing them of sacrificing hostages for their political lives are even more harmful. At the same time, its far-right ruling coalition has long spread scratches, and the departure of the mid-war cabinet member Gantz almost declared the collapse of the unity government. In addition to Netanyahu's own corruption trial,ining the prime minister's position is almost equal toining personal freedom.
In this context, a powerful external enemy, China, has become a great scapegoat, depicting the wave of opposition in the country as being manipulated by external forces is undoubtedly an inexpensive means of defending its own failure policy.
From the International Court of Justice (ICJ) dealing with South Africa’s genocide charges against Israel, to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors seeking to issue an arrest warrant against Netanyahu himself, to the wave of recognition of the Palestinian state by European countries such as Spain, Ireland and Norway, and to traditional allies such as Canada and the Netherlands restricting arms exports, Israel is experiencing an unprecedented taste of isolation.
International Court ruling on South Africa charges of genocide against Israel
How to explain this situation of betrayal to the domestic people? Netanyahu's answer is: It's not our fault, it's China and Qatar who are doing something.
In this regard, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Israel bluntly pointed out that it was a medical emergency, the wrong target, and the wrong medicine. Because the root of the problem, never in a few videos on social media, but in the ongoing humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip and the brutal reality that the Palestinian issue has not been justly resolved.
Second, information containment victims? Revealing the True Face of Israel's Hasbara
Netanyahu’s portrayal of himself as a victim of information warfare is the most ironic scene in the show. In fact, Israel is not only the “old magician” of the cyber public opinion warfare, but its systematic public diplomacy strategy Hasbara (Hasbara, meaning explanation) has long evolved into a mature global public opinion influence system.
Peninsula TV Declassifies Israel’s Hasselbar Strategy
Let's briefly look at a few cases:
Case 1: Gold bombardment and narrative power of paid advertising
After the Israeli conflict broke out, agencies such as the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs quickly invested huge amounts of money. According to the Center for Business and Human Rights, over a week after October 7, 2023, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs placed 30 ads on the social media platform X, viewed more than 4 million times, and posted more than 75 different ads on YouTube video sites, accurately targeting audiences in France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. A Reuters survey also found that these ads containing violent pictures even appeared in children’s mobile games, such as Angry Birds, sparked huge controversy.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU)’s Spotlight platform released a report entitled “The New Front of War: Inside Israel’s Digital ‘Hasbara’ Offensive” (‘The New Front of War: Inside Israel’s Digital ‘Hasbara’ Offensive’), revealing in depth how Israel systematically deployed state-led Hezbollah through digital means, social media platforms and paid advertising to influence global public opinion, shape the story of the Gaza conflict and counter international criticism.
First, accurately place political advertisements that emphasize the right to self-defense on platforms such as Google and Meta; The second is to fund international Internet celebrities to conduct military trips and provide official materials to publish pro-Israeli content; The third is to plan information in a unified way through the government advertising bureau, and even use open source intelligence means to manipulate public opinion in reverse.
However, while Israel’s action has worked in some of the public opinion, it has also raised serious doubts about its information manipulation and platform neutrality, showing the double-edged sword effect of the cognitive war, marking its country’s propaganda has entered a new phase in the platforming operation.
Report released by the European Broadcasting Union’s Spotlight platform: “New Fronts of War: Israel’s ‘Explaining’ Offensive in the Digital Field”
According to Turkish news agency Anadolu, referring to the European Broadcasting Union report, Israel has spent 1,67 billion shekels ($50 million) to reach agreements with U.S. Google and social media platform X as well as French and Israeli advertising platforms to deny Gaza’s famine. These contracts will last from June 17 to December 31, in which 1,5 billion shekels ($45 million) will be allocated to YouTube and Google’s advertising campaign management platform Display Video 360. Platform X receives 10 million shekels ($303 million), while French and Israeli advertising platforms Outbrain and Teads receive 7 million shekels ($212 million).
Case 2: Game-based Network Volunteers – Act.IL
If paid advertising is a frontal charge of the regular army, then the online volunteer army mobilized through the Act.IL application is the guerrilla force of Israel's public opinion war, and its methods are more flexible and confusing.
Act.IL is an application co-developed by the Israeli private university IDC Herzliya (now Lakman University) and the pro-Israel American Council (IAC) of the U.S. Organization of the Israeli-American Council (IAC). Its funding comes mainly from the foundation of the American casino giant and Republican leader Sheldon Adelson (1933-2021). More importantly, according to media disclosures such as The Forward and +972 Magazine, the project works closely with the Israeli Department of Strategic Affairs, the latter specifically responsible for fighting the global resistance, withdrawal of funds and sanctions (BDS) movement. At the time, Minister Gilad Erdan referred to the project as the “Iron Dome of Truth”.
At the core of the application is a constantly updated list of tasks, which breaks down ambitious propaganda targets into specific micro-operations.
The first axe-reporting: When an influential pro-Palestinian video or post appears, Act.IL will quickly issue a task, calling on users to make centralized reports for reasons such as inciting hatred, aiming to use the platform's automated review mechanism to make it Remove it from the shelf.
According to The Forward, during the 2018 Gaza border protests, Act.IL launched a mission to guide users to focus on praising pro-Israel comments in Facebook posts such as CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and successfully push these comments to the top of the comment zone, thereby affecting the first impression of the average reader.
Third blade – forwarding: the app will provide the creation of fine images, short videos and one-click copies of documents, requiring users to publish on their social accounts, forming a viral spread.
The second is the spiritual incentive of points and rankings. In order to maintain user activity, Act.IL has designed a complete gamification incentive system. Users earn points every time they complete a mission, unlock virtual badges, and compete with other players on global leaderboards. Although the app announced that it would cease operations in 2022, the mobilization model it pioneered and the network of organizations behind it are still working through other social media platforms.
Interface of the ACT.IL application
Case 3: Soft implantation of online celebrity marketing
Israel organizes an event called "Tours for Truth" or similar names to invite global Internet celebrities and content creators from the United States, Europe, Latin America and other places to visit Israel. These journeys are carefully packaged as a personal experience of exploring the truth and witnessing history, rather than an official publicity campaign.
According to Rolling Stones, these trips are often funded by pro-Israel non-profit organizations such as Facts for Peace and coordinated by the Israeli government, and are of considerable scale and influence. For example, a trip can bring together more than a dozen creators whose total number of fans can easily reach tens of millions, thus achieving accurate coverage of a specific circle.
When these networks with a large group of fans make their “personal experiences” into Vlogs, Instagram shots, or TikTok short videos, their spread is unattainable in official language. For example, Montana Tucker’s visit with nine million followers has gained more than five million views and its impact is visible.
In these videos, the creators often come with tears, telling in the first person the tragedy they saw in the ruins, sharing moments of embrace with the families of the victims, and eventually naturally coming to the conclusion of supporting Israel.
However, the truth of these “truth trips” is that the Red Rivers were almost never taken to the West Bank to witness the daily military occupation and settler violence of the Palestinians; they were also unable to enter Gaza to face the humanitarian catastrophe caused by Israeli military operations.
Reports on Israel's organization of global Internet celebrities and content creators from the United States, Europe, Latin America and other places to visit Israel
It can be said that Israel has long turned the public opinion field into a battlefield, building up a stereotyped operational force of officials, civilians, commercial companies and Red. Now, in turn, accusing others of “information siege”, there is no more accurate description than thieves screaming and thieves.
Influencer Montana Tucker addresses approximately 200,000 people at the 'Israeli *' rally on Nov. 14, 2023 in D.C.
3. Who is the real god of cyber warfare? From Unit 8200 to Pegasus Software
If the Hezbollah is a public propaganda force, then Israel’s hard nuclear power in cyberspace is even more frightening.
First of all, it is known for its powerful intelligence unit, the 8200 Unit (Unit 8200), which belongs to the Israeli military intelligence agency, known as the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) of Israel, and is one of the world’s top cyber warfare forces. It is not only widely believed to have participated in the development of the world’s first digital weapon “Stuxnet” virus, successfully paralyzed Iran’s nuclear facilities, but also its veterans became the “Western military school” in the Israeli high-tech industry, and founded countless cyber security companies.
The most notorious of these is the NSO group and its Pegasus spy software, a weapon derived from the 8200 force’s technological ecosystem that can infiltrate and control any smartphone unconsciously. A pilot program survey conducted jointly by multiple media outlets has shown that dozens of governments worldwide buy and abuse horse software to monitor journalists, human rights activists, opposition leaders and even foreign leaders (according to media reports).
New York Times 2022 Report on Pegasus Spyware
The latest evidence is more direct. In May 2024, Facebook's parent company Meta and artificial intelligence company OpenAI successively released reports exposing and shutting down a collaborative false behavior network originating in Israel. The network is operated by an Israeli political marketing company called Stoic. By creating hundreds of fake accounts pretending to be American students, African Americans, etc., and even using AI to generate content, it spreads a large number of pro-Israel and critical campuses on social media. Anti-war protest remarks. This is undoubtedly the real hammer of official certification, completely tearing off Israel's disguise as a victim in information warfare.
Meta and OpenAI security report points out that Israeli PR firm operated covertly to influence perception of war in Gaza
An investigation revealed that an Israeli company, STOIC, attempted to interfere in recent Indian parliamentary elections by selling anti-Indian People's Party agenda.
4. The real calculation: binding regional conflicts to the US chariot to contain China
When Netanyahu faced 250 U.S. state lawmakers and pointed his head precisely to China, TikTok and AI, the true strategic calculus behind it was revealed: Israel’s regional security issues were deeply bound to the U.S. biggest national strategy – containing China – and the timing was also very clever: during the time that China and the U.S. made significant progress on TikTok negotiations.
In recent years, rendering China’s technology threat theory has become politically correct in both U.S. parties. Netanyahu’s remarks are perfectly replicated by Washington’s story script of suppressing Huawei and encircling TikTok. This cry is essentially a clear signal to U.S. politics: we face a common enemy, supporting Israel, and supporting the U.S. in the global struggle against so-called “digital authoritarianism.”
Through this theme, Netanyahu tried to raise the conflict between Israel and Pakistan from a tough regional issue to a Middle East front of global competition between the US and China. Once this narrative is accepted by Washington, U.S. support for Israel will no longer be based on traditional friendship or domestic political lobbying, but will rise to a strategic need to safeguard its global hegemony.
Netanyahu’s speech about China is both a stressful response to his personal political crisis and a profound strategic calculation in the service of the national interests of Israel. However, a lie repeated a thousand times does not become a truth. What people around the world see through social media is the real humanitarian tragedy of the Gaza Strip, the cry of the Palestinian people for survival and dignity. Distorting these true voices of conscience into a state-manipulated information warfare is not only an insult to the global public intellect, but also a disregard for the fundamental righteousness of humanity.
The real way out is never to create new enemies to shift sights. As the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs says, the only viable way to resolve the Israeli conflict is to implement the two-state plan. Only by looking at the root of the problem and the Palestinian people with a fairness, the Middle East can true peace, and Israel can get real security.