bartolomeo

Israel's PR is called hasbara and can be defined as

Israel's efforts to communicate directly with citizens of other nations to inform and influence their perceptions, with the aim of garnering support or tolerance for the Israeli government's strategic objectives.

and this takes the form of people trying to manipulate the public discourse to suit a political agenda, often done on social media.

In the current western political climate, hasbara is used to minimize and / or justify Israel's occupation and genocide in Palestine, and to excuse or ignore Israel's blatant and egregious violations of human rights and international law.

Some examples from social media platforms:

Twitter notes

Hasbara App

Facebook

Facebook again

Massive (and distasteful) ad campaign on X and YouTube

Hasbara is used not only on the platform level, but also in person-to-person online communication. Hasbara is a form of propaganda, so logical consistency is not required, as you can see in this recent example of someone arguing in the style of hasbara right here on Lemmy:

I would personally reject this deal.

The Palestinian people do not deserve to live under the rule of Hamas. In 19 years of living under Hamas, after all the money given to them by the US, France, the UK, Qatar, Iran, and even Israel, the only thing they built for the Palestinian people has been tunnels to commit terrorism from.

then when people pointed out the complete inaccuracy of the statement, the commenter pivoted to

Building tunnels as the sole piece of infrastructure for your people is the sole response to a 30 year genocide?

I don’t think that is true, and I don’t believe you think that is true either. It sounded good when you said it though, and I’m sure it felt even better.

Here we can see several hasbara strategies- the commenter feigns concern for Palestine (deception), uses bad faith arguments which are completely made up, moves the goalposts, projects, contradicts themselves, and then tries to gaslight the other person when they get called out.

A hasbara agent tries to keep the other commenter(s) busy defending themselves or correcting the hasbara agent's ridiculous statements and accusations, so that the original point is forgotten and the hasbara agent's own dishonest (and often narcissistic) behviour is never addressed.

Some manipulation tactics that are characteristic of hasbara are

• bad faith arguments

• false accusations

• straw man fallacy

• moving goal posts

• deceptive distraction (answering an honest question with a loaded question)

• hypocrisy (especially accusing people of putting words in their mouth, being dishonest, or using any of these listed manipulation tactics while accusing the other party of doing so)

• victimization

• gaslighting

• aggression

• projecting

• astroturfing

• "counter-protesting"

Hasbara in it's current form is a method of psychological manipulation ranging from propaganda to historical denialism to calls to violence against obstacles to the Israeli government's strategic objectives (e.g. "there are no innocents in Gaza").

Fortunately Lemmy users are usually smart enough to downvote hasbara posts and comments to signal their falsehood, but since hasbara comments spread misinformation, aid human rights violations, and attempt to radicalize people, they should be treated as the abuse they are and reported, blocked, downvoted etc.

Aaaand Block is stepping down. Crazy how much behind-the-scenes power the Israel lobby has, and little they regard anyone but themselves.

the proposed settlement against Razer includes a $100,000 civil penalty, plus $1,071,254.33, which the FTC said is equal to the amount of revenue Razer made from the Zephyr

Cool, next do Exxon, OxyContin, Marlboro...

Is Ubuntu enshittifying?

Herzl's Mauschel and Zionist antisemitism

An insane document from the founder of Zionism.

Of course NYT got awarded.

https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/how-to-make-a-genocide-disappear

Israel would strip Americans of their rights and destroy social order for their own political gain. Some ally.

The public vs private argument seems applicable, but a very important aspect is keeping the counter-protesters civil:

Private security guards with bikes separated the pro-Palestinian group from Israel supporters, and UCLA eventually added metal barricades after counter-protesters repeatedly tried to breach the encampment and in at least one case witnessed by The Times entered and shoved a woman to the ground.

Unlike at Northeastern.

Creating fear of losing your job or school place, stifling free speech for political gain, and gaslighting are psychological abuse and are used frequently in hasbara.

The video footage, originally posted on X by Working Mass, a Democratic Socialists of America media outlet covering Massachusetts, reveals two Jewish students holding an Israeli flag shouted the “Kill the Jews” after pro-Palestine demonstrators conducted a “mic check” — a call and response technique used to focus attention on an organizer.

The two pro-Israel counter protesters then asked the pro-Palestinian demonstrators if they agreed, saying “anybody on board; anybody for that?” The crowd of pro-Palestine protesters immediately started shouting and booing over them.

“You just chanted for it,” the pro-Israel counter protesters can be heard saying.

Gaslighting is psychological abuse and is used frequently in hasbara.

Not so fun fact about Ariel Sharon and the massacre at Sabra and Shatila:

As Minister of Defense, he directed the 1982 Lebanon War. An official enquiry found that he bore "personal responsibility" for the Sabra and Shatila massacre of Palestinian refugees, for which he became known as the "Butcher of Beirut" among Arabs.

He later became the 11th prime minister of Israel.

just for being Jewish

I think it was because of Israeli actions in Palestine, not just because of their ethnicity.

Zionists are using Jews as human shields.

':D too soon