Occupied Jerusalem – A document from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed the failure of the propaganda system to promote Israel’s narrative in everything related to the war on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, which has been a continuing failure since the beginning of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle, with the advance of the Palestinian narrative at the level of international opinion.
The document, the contents of which were revealed by the Shomrim website, says: “The damage is clear and gets worse every day.” According to her, one year after the war that broke out following the sudden attack launched by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on the “Gaza envelope” settlements, the Israeli information system is still suffering from problems in working, as it has not had a president since last May. .
The document reveals that there is no head of the propaganda team, contracts with promoters, analysts and English speakers are not regulated, and there is no official who edits and represents the Israeli narrative and the government’s policy and actions through a unified, clear and consistent message in Israel and abroad, as well as supervising the formulation of the information strategy and presenting it to decision makers.
Misinformation and falsification
With the prolongation of the war, the Israeli propaganda failure took other aspects by continuing to target journalists and media outlets inside the Palestinian territories, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, which was addressed in a research entitled “Journalists in the crosshairs” prepared by Dr. Afnan Kanaana and issued by “Ilam – Arab Center for Media Freedoms, Development and Research.” In Nazareth.
The research reviewed Israeli propaganda in the war on the Gaza Strip, and the formula created by the occupation army in its coverage by imposing a media blackout and censorship of the nature of battles and military operations, with deliberate targeting of the press and the media, as 176 journalists in the Gaza Strip were martyred by the occupation’s fire, which sought, by targeting the media, “to control Awareness and the obliteration of the Palestinian narrative.”
Director of the Media Center, Kholoud Masalha, attributed the reasons for the failure to the fact that Israeli propaganda had resorted, since the beginning of the war, to lies, deception, and falsification, at a time when there were many parties and entities that had all the capabilities to expose this approach.
In an interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net, she reviewed the mechanisms and means that made it possible to expose the falsity of the Israeli narrative, most notably social media networks, which are no less influential than traditional media, and are considered “an authority no less important than the media, which is viewed globally as a fourth authority.”
It believes that the alternative media was able to reveal the facts through special investigations that revealed the occupation’s use of artificial intelligence in the genocidal war on Gaza, and exposed its practices against the Palestinian prisoners in the “Sde Teman” detention center, while the Israeli narrative contradicted what was being published in the foreign media.
Failure and contradiction
Masalha pointed out that the Israeli media – unlike foreign and alternative media – did not focus in their coverage and did not prioritize war crimes, civilian victims, and the occupation army’s use of internationally prohibited military means, considering that they are “recruited and part of the official security establishment, and constitute a mouthpiece for the military establishment throughout.” “Conduct of war.”
Also, the strict military control that accompanied the conduct of the war was directing the Israeli narrative towards systematic paths that were being talked about, so this narrative did not succeed in withstanding these new challenges that were not present in previous wars, according to Masalha.
Regarding the repercussions of the failure of the Israeli propaganda system, the director of the Media Center believes that this was evident in the influence on world public opinion, which has become – the vast majority – defending the Palestinian narrative and opposing Israel, and “these are important transformations, even if they have not reached at this stage a level of influence at the top of the pyramid.” and decisions of states.
In turn, journalist and political analyst Taha Agbariya believes that the failure of the Israeli narrative to market its narrative to the world about the war after the “Al-Aqsa Flood” is mainly due to the superiority and progress of the Palestinian narrative in light of the war of extermination in Gaza.
Agbaria suggested – to Tel Aviv Tribune Net – that the Israeli narrative, which relied on Netanyahu’s person and statements, showed its decline and failure in light of the international isolation at the level of peoples in the world that was imposed on Israel due to the massacres committed by the occupation army against Palestinian and Lebanese civilians.
repercussions
Despite this failure, the Israeli narrative – according to analyst Agbaria – is still present at the level of many of the ruling systems in Europe and the American administration that still identifies with it, despite the counter-shift in the level of public opinion of the peoples of the world.
He estimated that these peoples began to understand the Palestinian narrative more and show more sympathy for the Palestinian people who are being subjected to massacres and extermination in the Gaza Strip. Thus, after October 7, 2023, the Palestinian issue returned to the conscience of the peoples of the world, and “this is failure from the Israeli point of view.” .
The political analyst suggested that the Palestinian narrative will advance and its Israeli counterpart will review its global failure, which will reflect negatively on Tel Aviv, which at this stage is still doing what it wants on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon fronts.
He attributed the failure to bring about a change in the positions of the major powers to the inability of world public opinion to put pressure on Western governments and the American administration, and force them to change their behavior and approach in support of the Israeli government in the war on Gaza and Lebanon.
In reading the repercussions of the failure of its narrative, Igbaria says that Israel, which expected the world to stand in solidarity with it despite the massacres it committed in Gaza and Lebanon, is facing more international isolation at the people-level, and may even encounter opposition from some foreign governments if the escalation expands into war. Comprehensive in the Middle East.
