– الحرب التي صمّمها الأميركي والإسرائيلي في الثامن من تشرين الأول من العام الماضي غداة عمليّة طوفان الأقصى انتهت بفشل ذريع في تحقيق الأهداف.
وكانت الحرب ثلاثيّة العناوين، حرب برية لإعادة احتلال قطاع غزة، تصفية بنية حماس العسكرية وإدارتها السياسية والمدنية، واسترداد الأسرى من قبضتها بالقوة. وقد ارتكزت حسابات هذه الحرب على ثلاثيّة أخرى هي،
أولاً أن لا نقاش حول قدرة جيش الاحتلال على تحقيق النصر في حرب برية على المقاومة في غزة لمجرد استعداده لتحمل التكلفة البشرية التي كان يتفادى دفعها، وقد تسبب تفاديها بأن دفع الثمن مضاعفاً في الطوفان،
وثانياً أن قوة الردع الأميركية سوف تتكفل بمنع أي محاولة لدخول قوى محور المقاومة على خط إسناد غزة ومقاومتها،
وثالثاً أن السيطرة على وسائل الإعلام العالمية بتعاون أميركي صهيوني سوف يضمن تأييد الشارع الغربي وتالياً ارتياح حكومات الغرب لوضعها رغم فداحة الخسائر المدنية خلال الحرب، وأن الفيتو الأميركي يكفي لمنع استصدار أي قرارات أممية قد يحركها مؤيدو القضية الفلسطينية وخصوم واشنطن وتل أبيب، ما يعني أن الوقت يعمل لصالح أميركا و»إسرائيل».
– عملياً ثبت ان الحسابات الأميركية الإسرائيلية كانت انفعالية وخاطئة، فقد انهارت الركائز الثلاث التي قامت عليها الحرب، فتبين أن جيش الاحتلال يدفع الثمن وأكثر لكنه لا يحقق النصر. وتبين أن أميركا تستحضر قوة الردع ولكنها لا تردع، وأن قوى المقاومة في المنطقة مستعدة للمخاطرة بمواجهة كبرى لقاء عزمها على تقديم الإسناد لغزة ومقاومتها. وتبين أن السيطرة على آلات الإعلام العملاقة عالمياً والإمساك بالفيتو في مجلس الأمن لا يضمنان السيطرة على عامل الوقت الذي تحول الى عامل ضد الحرب الأميركية الإسرائيلية مع شارع غربي صاخب يهتف لفلسطين حرّكته ملايين التغريدات والفيديوهات التي نشرها شباب فلسطينيّ نجح بخوض حرب الرواية وربح هذه الحرب على وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي.
– ترتب على سقوط هذه الركائز، فشل الحرب وسقوط أهدافها. فلا تحقّقت السيطرة المنشودة على غزة رغم التوغّلات البرية المتعددة، ولا المقاومة تمّ سحقها، ولا الأسرى تمّ تحريرهم. ومع دخول قوى محور المقاومة على الخط نشأت مشكلتان كبيرتان لا يمكن تحمّل عامل الوقت وتأثيره فيهما، مشكلة الصورة الأميركيّة المهينة في البحر الأحمر أمام التحدّي الذي فرضته قوة متواضعة مثل أنصار الله ونجحت في الفوز به تحت عنوان حصار غزة مقابل حصار الكيان، ومشكلة الاستقرار الوجودي للكيان أمام تحدي توفير الأمن لمستوطني شمال فلسطين أمام حزب الله العصي على الكسر بمغامرة حرب. والمعادلة هي الأمن لغزة مقابل الأمن لمستوطني الشمال. ومع حرب عاثرة لا يمكن لاستمرارها ان يضمن تحقيق أي أهداف. والأكيد أن استمرارها يتسبب بالمزيد من الأزمات الضاغطة، دخلت الانتخابات الأميركية الرئاسية المنطقة الحرجة حيث الوقت يضغط لصالح إنهاء الحرب كشرط لتحسين ظروف فوز الرئيس جو بايدن.
– بات الخروج من الحرب حتمياً لإعادة ترتيب الأوراق الأميركية في المنطقة، والحدّ من الخسائر المتراكمة. والخروج من الحرب يستدعي توفير إطار يجنب كيان الاحتلال صورة الهزيمة البائنة، ويحول دون ظهور أميركا في موقع الفشل الاستراتيجي، لذلك بدأ التحرك الأميركي على تغيير أهداف الحرب وطبيعتها، ويطرح الأميركي على الإسرائيلي ثلاثية بديلة هي،
أولاً بدلاً من حرب عسكرية صاخبة ومستمرّة حرب أمنية مشتركة ضد قوى المقاومة في غزة، يتمّ استدعاء الشركاء الإقليميين في المنطقة بمن فيهم العرب للمشاركة فيها،
ثانياً بدلاً من هدف القضاء على حماس، والقضاء مستحيل على فكرة عبر الحرب، كما قال الناطق بلسان مجلس الأمن القومي الأميركي جون كيربي، يكون الهدف ضمان عدم قدرة حماس على تكرار طوفان الأقصى، وبدلاً من هدف تحرير الأسرى بالقوة، الاكتفاء باستعادتهم ولو عن طريق التفاوض، ووفقاً لهذه الثلاثية يمكن لـ «إسرائيل» أن تزعم أنها انتصرت في الحرب، خصوصاً اذا تم ربط إنهاء الحرب باستبدال خطر الفشل الاستراتيجي الأميركي بإحداث تحول استراتيجي في المنطقة بقيادة أميركية، عنوانه حل الدولتين مقابل التطبيع السعودي الإسرائيلي، فيكون الحدث الصاخب طاغياً على صورة الهزيمة والفشل في حرب غزة، ويجري نقل الأزمات الى الضفة المقابلة، التي يفترض أن تتشقق تحت ضغط كيفية التعامل مع ثنائية التطبيع السعودي الإسرائيلي من جهة، وحل الدولتين من جهة مقابلة.
– محور المقاومة لا يناقش علناً فرضيات احتمالية، لكنه مستعد للتعامل مع كل سيناريو ينتج تحت عنوان كبير اسمه النصر الاستراتيجي الجديد للحرب على غزة، وانتصار الطوفان في إعادة القضية الفلسطينية مفتاحاً للحرب والسياسة في المنطقة، والمحور قادر على التعامل مع صيغ التسويات وقيادتها، وليس لديه حرج في التعامل مع الفرص السياسية التي تنتجها انتصاراته، طالما أنه قرّر ربح الحرب بالنقاط.
The French daily newspaper Liberation has come under fire for publishing a cartoon that mocks fasting Palestinians in Gaza searching for food.
The cartoon by artist Corinne Rey depicts an emaciated Palestinian man chasing after rats and cockroaches amid rubble and destroyed buildings. A woman in the cartoon slaps his hands and admonishes him, stating: “Not before sunset.”
It was shared on X on Monday, with the caption: “Ramadan in Gaza,” referring to the Muslim holy month during which worshippers abstain from all forms of food and drink during the daylight hours.
Social media users slammed the illustration as “racist”, “dehumanising” and a “nauseating” example of public expression as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians face starvation due to Israel’s prevention of aid into the war-battered enclave.
“A prime example of how western and French media dehumanise Palestinians and disregard the current process of genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” stated one user on social media.
Another critic of the cartoon wrote that the centre-left paper satirised “the fastest, most catastrophic, deliberate starvation of a population ever… mocking 2.3 million famished Palestinians under US-UK-EU-armed Israeli bombardment, half of which are children”.
The editor-in-chief of Libération is Dov Alfon, formerly of Israeli military intelligence Unit 8200.
Israel cut off all fuel, food, water, aid and electricity to Gaza on 9 October. Its relentless bombing of hospitals bakeries, supermarkets and pharmacies in the besieged strip has led to the complete collapse of the medical sector and forced people to find scraps of food in order to survive.
The UN and several aid agencies have repeatedly warned that Gaza is on the brink of famine, calling for Israel to allow in aid immediately.
At least 27 people have died from malnutrition and dehydration since the start of the war, including a 10-year-old child with cerebral palsy.
‘Repugnant example’
Rey took to X on Tuesday to defend her work, asserting that her drawing aimed to shed light on the despair experienced by Palestinians, “denounce the famine in Gaza”, and also offer a critique of religion.
Petit florilège (tout petit hein) de conneries, menaces et messages antisémites reçus suite à ce dessin publié hier dans Libé. Un dessin (que j’assume parfaitement!) qui souligne le désespoir des palestiniens, dénonce la famine à Gaza et moque aussi l’absurdité de la religion. pic.twitter.com/b3fRwQxyJj
Translation: Small anthology (very small eh) of bullshit, threats and antisemitic messages received following this drawing published yesterday in Libé. A drawing (which I fully take responsibilty for!) which highlights the despair of the Palestinians, denounces the famine in Gaza and also mocks the absurdity of religion.
While some users defended Rey’s cartoon as freedom of expression, others expressed dissatisfaction with what they called a misplaced priority amid the ongoing war.
“A population has been massacred for 4 months and those who are still alive are starving and this bourgeoisie finds it urgent to ‘criticise religion,'” said one user.
Several users also said the illustration was merely another example of systemic discrimation against Muslims and Arabs in French society, which many Muslims say has only increased with start of the war in Gaza.
The cartoon is a “repugnant example of how anti-Palestinian racism and anti-Muslim bigotry has infested large swathes of the left in French society,” one user said.
In February 2023, controversial French satire magazine Charlie Hebdofaced criticism for mocking victims of the Turkey-Syria earthquake, which claimed the lives of over 55,000 people and left tens of thousands injured.
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Named by Gizmodo as the most influential source of news on Israel/Palestine on Twitter/X, Visegrád 24 has shot to prominence, amassing more than one million followers across social media platforms. Yet it has consistently shared blatantly false information in an attempt to ramp up support for the state of Israel’s crimes in Gaza. Worse still, the semi-anonymous account pushing a far-right agenda worldwide is known to be funded by the deeply conservative Polish government.
A VIRAL SENSATION
If you have spent any amount of time on social media following the Israeli attack on Gaza, you are sure to have come across Visegrád 24 and its ultra-viral content. The Polish news aggregator is perhaps an unlikely candidate to become a key player in the information war. But in just a few short weeks, it has gained hundreds of thousands of followers across its platforms, especially Twitter/ and TikTok (currently at 843,000 and 183,000 followers, respectively).
A study published by the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington, titled “The New Elites of X,” identified Visegrád 24 as the most influential account engaged in Israel/Palestine discourse. One measure of its reach is that, in the first three days following Hamas’ surprise attack, the six traditional media outlets with the most followers on Twitter/X (CNN Breaking News, CNN, the New York Times, BBC Breaking News, BBC World News and Reuters) who collectively have nearly 300 million followers, received 112 million views on Israel/Palestine related content. Visegrád 24, by comparison, received 370 million views over the same period. Since then, its influence has only grown.
Its massive reach has led many to equate it with reliability, and the account is regularly cited in establishment media such as Newsweek or Fox News. But this is far from the case. Indeed, its accounts appear to exist to lionize Israel and its supporters, demonize Palestine and its supporters, fearmonger about refugees, and promote ultra-conservative politics in general.
FAKE NEWS FACTORY
Part of what makes Visegrád 24’s rise problematic is its propensity to publish blatantly fake news. Earlier this month, for example, it posted footage of Israeli satirist Yoni Sharon playing a character mocking Palestinians, telling its audience he was a real Palestinian.
“A Palestinian man thanks Hamas for making sure that all the Palestinian people who used to commute into Israel to work will now be unemployed. He also thanks Hamas for making sure Palestinian kids will no longer receive surgeries in Israel Great job!” it wrote.
A Palestinian man thanks Hamas for making sure that all the Palestinian people who used to commute into Israel to work will now be unemployed.
He also thanks Hamas for making sure Palestinian kids will no longer receive surgeries in Israel
Perhaps most shamelessly, however, Visegrád 24 has, on multiple occasions, taken footage from Motaz Azaiza, a Palestinian photographer who has worked with MintPress News and twisted the images of Israeli crimes to present the apartheid state in a good light. Azaiza’s video showing Israeli forces shooting at a large caravan of fleeing refugees was repackaged with the caption, “Hamas terrorists shooting at a large group of Palestinians trying to flee south along the humanitarian corridors set up by Israel.”
Spooky propaganda accounts @TheMossadIL and @visegrad24 lied and claimed a video of Israeli soldiers opening fire on Palestinian civilians fleeing south actually showed Hamas militants shooting at them. But @azaizamotaz9, the journalist who filmed the shooting, called them out.… pic.twitter.com/erygCVcZSf
Another time, Visegrád 24 reposted an Azaiza video claiming that it showed a merciful Israeli Air Force dropping leaflets urging Gazans that the area was not safe and asking them to move southwards for their own well-being. “Stop the lies,” Azaiza replied, “I’m the one who filmed this. The leaflets [were] saying if you have any information about the kidnapped [Israelis], call us.”
In addition to this, it has repeated and amplified the beheaded babies hoax, called to defund the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, described climate activist Greta Thunberg as a “Hamas propagandist,” and labeled pro-Palestine demonstrators as “thugs” and “mobs.”
It has also not been above sharing racially insensitive content depicting Palestine supporters as clueless liberals who would be executed in a second if they set foot in Gaza or asking highly-charged questions such as “Without Googling, name something that was invented, discovered or created by Muslims over the centuries.” The clear implication in the question is that Muslims have never contributed anything to society, which can perhaps explain why Visegrád 24 spends so much of its energy fearmongering about a wave of Muslim immigrants to Europe.
Visegrád 24 began as a Twitter account in early 2020. But for the longest time, its funding and the identities of its key staff remained shrouded in mystery. The news aggregator does not even have a website; instead, it directs readers to a crowdfunding platform that shows they have received only 723 donations.
For an operation believed to be around 12 people, this is clearly not sufficient to be financially viable. There is another source of confirmed funding, however: the ultra-conservative government of Poland. Last October, the Polish chancellery gave 1.4 million PLN (roughly U.S.$350,000) to Visegrád 24, a decision approved by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. It is not known whether Visegrád 24 has received any subsequent government funding.
Around the same time it was receiving government money, Polish media identified some of the key figures running the operation. One is Adam Starzynski, a Swedish-born Polish journalist who formerly worked at the English-language program Poland Daily, produced by TV Republika. Starzynski has experience in running conservative social media, as he operated the ultra-conservative @BasedPoland Twitter account. @BasedPoland spread nationalistic propaganda and anti-Muslim content, gaining more than 150,000 followers before it was banned.
Starzynski is a key figure in the resurgent Eastern European conservative movement. This “Make Europe Great Again” movement supports far-right populists like Donald Trump, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro.
A second key figure in what Visegrád 24 calls its group of conservative friends is Stefan Tompson, a Polish-South African PR strategist. Tompson grew up in London and cut his teeth working for the “Leave” campaign during the Brexit referendum, a vote marred by widespread fake news and disinformation. He has his own YouTube channel about Polish history and is a contributor to the Polish government-owned TV channel Telewizja Polska. He is reportedly preparing to launch a brand new media company to capitalize on Visegrád 24’s success.
UKRAINE BRAIN
Visegrád 24 established its brand and built a following, posting content strongly supportive of the Ukrainian military and their attempts to repel the Russian invasion. Poland and the other Eastern European NATO states have been particularly vocal opponents of Russia. While it now focuses on Israel/Palestine content, it continues to post content calling for greater European involvement in the war. For example, last week, it shared a video of a dying Ukrainian soldier and demanded to know “why the West is holding back crucial weapon systems from Ukraine?” and “Why they aren’t allowed to strike Russia?”
19-y-old Ukrainian soldier records a video after his unit is surrounded
He says they won’t make it out alive. He was right
Can somebody explain why the West is holding back crucial weapon systems from Ukraine?
Unfortunately, the news aggregator displayed the same propensity to publish incorrect information on Ukraine as it does with Israel. Among the fake stories it has promoted include:
Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio donating $10 million to Ukraine
Polish politicians supporting a Polish-Ukrainian union
PornHub being blocked in Russia.
In their haste to drum up support for the Ukrainian cause, media in the West often overlooked or whitewashed the fascist or Neo-Nazi elements active within the Ukrainian armed forces. Chief among these is the Azov Battalion, a group whose insignia was directly lifted from the 2nd Waffen-SS Panzer Division, a unit responsible for carrying out some of the worst crimes of Hitler’s holocaust. Andriy Biletsky, the Azov Battalion’s founder, said in 2010 that he believes Ukraine’s mission is to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against Semite-led Untermenschen” – the word Hitler used to describe Jews, Poles, Ukrainians and other peoples he designated for extermination.
“It’s possible to both support Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression and be critical of neo-Nazis elements in Ukraine’s army,” Visegrád 24 once posted on Twitter. Yet analyzing all Visegrád 24 content containing the word “Azov”, it is difficult to find any posts that even take a neutral tone, let alone a critical one.
As such, they often appeared to act like an unofficial press agency for the group. Manypostshumanize the soldiers, showing their mothers and wives or presenting them as brave defenders of the motherland. Others are glowing obituaries of heroic Azov fighters who lost their lives.
Heartbreaking messages from the mothers and wives of the 53 Azov soldiers killed in the prison camp at Olenivka. pic.twitter.com/TeZvCVtj8N
“Every year, the soldiers of the Azov Regiment gather on the shortest night of the year to honor their fallen brothers-in-arms. This year, especially after [the battle of] Azovstal, they had more men to honor than ever. Through new recruits, the group has grown significantly in size since Azovstal,” they wrote in December.
While the European far-right is consistently and often virulently anti-Semitic, they regularly display strong support for the State of Israel and its policies, seeing the ethnostate Israel is creating as a blueprint for their own designs. Thus, an unlikely alliance now exists between fascist movements in Europe and the state where the descendants of the people those groups failed to kill just 80 years ago now live.
“Israel is losing the information war,” lamented Visegrád 24’s Stefan Tompson on Twitter. “Social media is dominated by pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli, if not overtly pro-Hamas and/or antisemitic content. If things are not turned around, the Hamas lobby will successfully not only appropriate but also redefine the ‘Holocaust,’” he added.
Putting aside the dramatic prediction, Tompson is correct that Israel is experiencing difficulty influencing worldwide public opinion. The genocidal destruction has brought millions of people around the world out into the streets to attend marches, lectures, protests and demonstrations. An estimated one million people filled the streets of London on November 11, despite direct instructions from the government not to do so.
In the United States, too, the situation in Gaza has ignited a massive reaction, with hundreds of large demonstrations taking place across virtually every major city. Pro-Israel demonstrations, meanwhile, have been comparatively poorly attended. President Biden’s support for Israel is a significant reason for his dwindling polling numbers.
The Biden administration continues to back Israel at the United Nations. But it is increasingly isolated. In October, the U.S. voted against a UN resolution calling for a cessation of the violence, one of only a handful of countries to do so.
Israel’s once rock-solid support among Americans is also floundering. A recent Quinnipiac University poll found that overall sympathy for Israel has dropped seven points since October to 54% of Americans, with 24% saying they sympathized more with Palestine.
Most concerning for Israel supporters is that they appear to be losing the next generation. The same Quinnipiac poll found a huge generational gap in understanding of the conflict. While older voters stood solidly behind Israel, a majority of Americans aged between 18-34 said their sympathies lay with the Palestinians, while only 29% said they supported Israel.
Much of this chasm can be explained as a result of how the different generations get their news. Older Americans continue to rely on established legacy media, such as cable news and print, which continue to display extraordinary bias in favor of Israel. Younger generations, however, primarily use social media. While hardly free of restrictions, platforms like Twitter or TikTok allow a far more comprehensive range of news and views to circulate, including opinions from ordinary people.
Israel has attempted to game this system, spending heavily on ads targeted at Western audiences. Between October 7 and October 19, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spent more than $7 million on YouTube advertisements, equating to nearly one billion pairs of eyeballs. The top five countries targeted were France, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom and the United States. The MOFA also ran ad campaigns on Instagram, Facebook, mobile games and apps like language trainer Duolingo.
Meanwhile, on Twitter, pro-Israel trolls attempted to hijack the Community Notes function, attaching argumentative notes and warning labels undermining any post showing Israel in a negative light. And several prominent TikTok creators revealed they were offered large sums of money to record simple videos endorsing Israeli actions.
Despite this, there has been an unprecedented outpouring of sympathy for the people of Palestine. On TikTok, for example, between October 23 and October 30, 87,000 posts were using the #StandWithPalestine hashtag, garnering 285 million views. The equivalent pro-Israel #StandWithIsrael hashtag, meanwhile, generated only 9,000 posts and 64 million views.
In response to the news that their citizens are not receiving the preferred message on Israel/Palestine, U.S. government officials are pushing to simply ban TikTok altogether as a solution to the problem. GOP presidential candidates Chris Christie and Nikki Haley have repeatedly called for the total prohibition of the popular app. Senator Marco Rubio (R—FL) demanded that it was “time for TikTok to go,” accusing the company of “downplaying Hamas terrorism.”
Democrats have proven that censorship is a bipartisan issue. Senator Chris Murphy (D—NJ), for example, described TikTok as a Chinese-controlled platform that is “turning America against each other” through its promotion of “virulent pro-Hamas and anti-Semitic material.”
These calls were echoed by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who complained that users were being “brainwashed” by pro-Palestine content. TikTok has defended itself, claiming that its algorithms do not take sides and that young people are simply more sympathetic to Palestine.
Unlike TikTok, there have been no official calls to ban Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or other social media sites, perhaps because they are cooperating with authorities to censor dissenting voices. Twitter recently announced it had deleted more than 325,000 tweets relating to the violence and had removed more than 3,000 accounts, many linked to Hamas. It has not deleted any accounts affiliated with the Israeli government. Instagram locked a number of the most prominent pro-Palestine accounts, including Eye On Palestine (with 9.2 million followers).
Meanwhile, the Israeli Attorney General’s Office revealed that approximately 94% of the 9,500 requests it has made to Meta (the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram) to delete content had been granted.
Just as important as the troops on the ground is the information war playing out in cyberspace. Israel could not carry out its actions without support from the Western public. On this front, it has found a key ally in Visegrád 24, a news aggregator that has exploded in popularity and influence of late. Unfortunately, the shadowy, Polish government-funded organization not only reports facts from a pro-Israel perspective but also consistently publishes blatantly false or misleading content. This, however, is far from unusual. In war, truth is always the first casualty. Visegrád 24’s rapid rise to prominence is a testament to this.
Let’s imagine that the Sabra and Shatila massacre took place today, in the era of endless social media platforms and apps. Would things have turned out any different?
Scroll – a scream. Scroll again – a cry for help. Swipe – blood everywhere, piles of lifeless bodies, and countless people walking with bodies weighed down by sorrow and tears streaming from their eyes. Will you choose to look away, to shut off your phone, and pretend to not see? Or will you share, like, or ask for help?
What is the Sabra and Shatila massacre?
On September 16-18, 1982, militias of the Lebanese Forces (LF) carried out the brutal killings of thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese citizens in Beirut’s Sabra neighborhood and the nearby Shatila refugee camp.
The Palestinian refugees were originally victims of the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe), forced to flee from the violent crimes that Zionist gangs committed in their attempt to create “Israel.”
In June 1982, “Israel” invaded Lebanon with the aim of eradicating the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), based in Beirut. By September 1, 1982, the PLO had withdrawn from Lebanon, and assurances were given by the United States and other forces that remaining Palestinian refugees and civilians would be protected.
However, two weeks later, the Israeli military surrounded Sabra and Shatila, allowing their allies, the LF, to enter the camp and carry out the mass killings. This brutality lasted for 43 hours, resulting in over 3,000 civilian deaths.
After the horrific massacre, survivors started to describe the scenes, the endless acts of slaughter, mutilation, rape, and the existence of mass graves. The images, when broadcasted, shook the whole world.
From Thursday 6 pm till Saturday 1 pm, not a single sound was heard. From Thursday 6 pm till Saturday 1 pm, not one picture was seen. From Thursday 6 pm till Saturday 1 pm, not a single condemnation. How would the world know that such a massacre is taking place? There were no bombs heard, only the scattered sounds of weapons fired every now and then.
When the massacre took place, the world of livestreaming did not exist. The world of different social media platforms did not exist. Unfortunately, some victims of the massacre are still missing, and their families do not know their destiny.
Wherever you are, on your bed, in a café, or at your desk finishing your shift for the day, how do you imagine yourself receiving such news? Would you talk about it over lunch with some colleagues? Or do you see yourself doing something to help the victims, to spread the word for the whole world to know? Would things turn out to be different? Would the international community hold “Israel” and its allies accountable for such a crime, or would a few words of condemnation have been enough?
As we scroll through our feeds today, we are bombarded with a countless number of posts, from the mundane to the extraordinary. But imagine logging on to witness live updates from Sabra and Shatila, stories told by those on the ground, desperate for the world to hear their cries. Their words would not be confined to history books, but echoed through our screens, demanding our attention and compelling us to act.
Into the world of social media
Social media platforms would have been filled with live updates from the ground. Ordinary people, journalists, and activists would have used platforms such as Twitter to share real-time updates about what’s happening in Sabra and Shatila from photos and videos.
Survivors and witnesses could have shared their testimonies in real-time, making it harder for the perpetrators to deny their involvement in the massacre or their horrific actions.
People would start to create and spread hashtags related to the horrific massacre to raise awareness. The hashtags might have trended globally, putting pressure on governments and international organizations to respond.
Protests could have erupted around the globe, with solidarity movements taking place to support the victims by providing aid and support.
In our hypothetical digital world, some influencers and activists would use their platforms to amplify the voices of those who had been silenced. They would lend their reach to organizations working on the ground, shedding light on the urgent need for aid, support, and intervention.
The real question here is whether the algorithms of the big social media platforms would have allowed such content to spread. Would Meta censor some posts related to the horrific massacre?
Unwavering global indifference?
The real question in this hypothetical scenario is whether the international community’s stance regarding any Israeli-related massacre would have changed. Reports will be published, soft words of condemnation would have been issued, and ambassadors would have been summoned, but holding “Israel” directly accountable? Never.
After the massacre, the United Nations General Assembly classified the massacre as an “act of genocide.” In a non-shocking response, none of the responsible individuals from either the Lebanese or Israeli sides faced punishment. An Israeli investigation held the Lebanese Forces militia primarily accountable, but also held Ariel Sharon, who at the time was Security Minister and was in close contact with the Phalangists and Lebanese Forces, personally responsible for “neglecting the risk of bloodshed and revenge.” Although Sharon resigned in 1983, he was later elected as prime minister in 2001.
Although the presence of social media during the Sabra and Shatila massacre would have accelerated the spread of information and news, is there any chance that it would have influenced the international response? There are books and survivors who have talked about the massacre, and described it in detail even; did this change anything?
Not by a long shot.
It’s your choice now. You scroll and you see an Instagram reel that shows the story of Ahmad Manasra, the Palestinian prisoner who was arrested, interrogated, and sentenced to nine years in prison at the age of 13. You watch a video of an Israeli officer interrogating him in the most brutal way possible.
Today, #Palestinian prisoner #AhmadManasra turns 21 years old. Since Ahmad got to spend most of his childhood behind prison bars and all alone, here is what turning 21 would look like were Ahmad free and not living under a brutal #occupation. pic.twitter.com/7OcXQjrgV1
While Israeli occupation forces kill, bomb, assault, and arrest innocent Palestinians, their social media platforms seem to be turning such heinous acts into jokes in search of desperate likes.
Young dancing soldiers, jumping on TikTok trends, memes, and jokes… it all sounds “fun” doesn’t it?
However, if there would ever be a backstage of the Israeli occupation forces’ social media platforms, it would be a room full of blood, murderous weapons, and the bodies of thousands of murdered Palestinians.
What happens backstage is a pure whitewashing of Israeli crimes for the sake of some desperate interaction and affection. Attacking Gaza? Let’s make an infographic about how many “terrorists” there are in the Strip. Palestinians defending themselves against Israeli attacks? Let’s film a short clip about our soldiers crying to get some emotions out of our audience.
And this is how it works… for them…
Know your audience: Who are they targeting?
In 2012, Fast Company conducted an interview with IOF Spokesperson at the time, Eytan Buchman, in which he spoke about certain insights on how Israeli forces get things done regarding their social media platforms.
During the interview, the spokesperson said the Israeli army is “a very young army” and that’s where “the innovation comes from.”
“… most people come in when they’re 18. Males serve for three years and women serve for two years. This forms a parity where people find themselves between 18 and 21 and inside military operations. The idea of flexibility and innovation is always encouraged.”
The Israeli spokesperson went on and talked about how “innovation” usually makes it to the world and how it “opens up new horizons.” He even recalled one of the soldiers who had to pay for the IOF WordPress account “using her own credit card… instead of dealing with the military bureaucracy.”
He said, during the interview, that there are “two primary interactions with social media. The first is the interactive media branch, which is responsible for outreach to different audiences online. The second is desk offices from traditional media, such as Leibovitch… In some cases, we also maintain Facebook pages and websites in specific languages in order to reach out to certain regions.”
Ironically, the spokesperson bragged about how the IOF is operating on different social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, Google+, and even Pinterest in order to increase the occupation’s “legitimacy, to be transparent… to combat misinformation that being flooded out from inside Gaza.”
Legitimacy and transparency by ‘Israel’? Think again.
Whether it’s jumping on trends, trending music, or even memes, the IOF’s strategy on TikTok does the job of completely victimizing the occupier while criminalizing the occupied.
For example, in one of the TikTok videos, during New Year’s Eve, the IOF account posted a wrap-up about the year 2022, as part of the relevant TikTok trends where one would recall moments that took place during the year with background music playing A Sky Full of Stars, asong by Coldplay.
Zooming out, the video had no sight of Israeli occupation forces committing any massacres, murders, bombings, arrests, or assaults on Palestinians. The short video completely altered reality, failing to mention Israeli crimes and showcase Israeli weapons, its soldiers ‘in action’, and its warplanes.
Playing innocent, the IOF captions the video with: “This year was filled with highs and lows, but we pushed through every challenge. How was your 2022?”
The videos are endless.
In 2021, on TikTok, the IOF jumped on the “She’s Gonna Be A Victoria’s Secret Supermodel” trend where they filmed one of their tanks, with the caption: “We’re serving looks since 1948.”
Of course, the IOF will make no mention of the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe) during which Zionist gangs committed horrific massacres in Palestine against Palestinians, killing and forcefully expelling them from their motherland. This date is marked by “Israel” as its “independence”.
The only thing that “Israel” has been “serving” since 1948 is aggression, occupation, and colonization of an entire population.
In another instance, the IOF posted a video on TikTok on Easter with an Israeli soldier running with the writing on the video “POV: Us on easter morning looking for chocolate eggs [chocolate emoji].”
There was no context for the footage. Was it an Israeli soldier running toward a Palestinian to beat him as what always happens? If so, why chasing a Palestinian would be turned into a joke on social media? One comment said he was probably “hunting the Christians celebrating Easter.”
Palestinian Orthodox Christians in occupied #AlQuds are celebrating the #HolyFire ceremony under occupation and siege imposed by the Israeli occupation forces at a time when "Israel" hopes to excise the Arab identity of Al-Quds, comprised of both Christian and Muslim rituals,… pic.twitter.com/T4xv8tWOeS
On International Women’s Day, the IOF account on TikTok posted “Women get the job done,” with a video of a girl being trained in the IOF as she is filmed going on missions while holding weapons and on a tank. At the end of the video, the girl is seen having this “dreamy” look on her face after the end of her shift, making the military occupation of Palestine look “dreamy” to the audience.
Of course, there was no mention of the following. In January this year, the Israeli occupation launched a large-scale campaign of brutal repression against Palestinian prisoners, most notably female prisoners as they were subjected to brutal practices by Israeli authorities.
Israeli occupation forces usually brutally assault Palestinian women stationed at Al-Aqsa Mosque while harassing, expelling, and arresting many others.
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) May 5, 2022
If this is their definition of women empowerment, the IOF needs a whole new dictionary.
‘Is this a parody account?’
Not a single Ramadan has passed without the Israeli occupation forces, along with the illegal settlers, attacking Palestinian worshippers.
This Ramadan alone and for three nights in a row, the Israeli occupation forces stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque and attacked Palestinian worshippers practicing Itikaf.
During these attacks, Israeli occupation forces use rubber bullets and smoke and stun grenades against the unarmed worshippers.
On March 2023, the IOF page wished Muslims “a meaningful and peaceful holiday” with audacity. This prompted one Twitter user to question whether the account was a parody account.
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) May 5, 2022
Memes to defeat the ‘enemy’: Social media 101?
On a Twitter post on Valentine’s Day, the IOF posted three photos about “Hamas’ love language” where they mentioned quotes and previous news about Hamas. One of the pictures hinted that Hamas fires rockets “without any occasion” as part of its “gift giving” while completely disregarding the Israeli attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque, in Gaza Strip, and in the West Bank.
Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas seem to be the IOF’s favorite opponents on their social media platforms. In one of their posts on Halloween, the IOF posted a costume for the occasion named “Hamas terrorist”, while describing what the costume includes.
The caption that was posted was: “If you see this walking down the street, it’s not a costume…” The comments on the post varied, with some people saying this was an IOF costume and others writing “FREE PALESTINE”.
“Do YOU know what the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization in Gaza is? Watch to find out.” With this caption, the IOF decided to describe a video they posted about the Islamic Jihad Movement. The video said the Palestinian faction is focused on the “destruction of the state of Israel.”
The video received a backlash. People in the comments slammed the video with some saying, “Since when defending and dying for the liberation of your own country is terrorism?” Others stated the fact that “Israel” is an occupation by saying, “Why don’t u tell the people how u came into power? Did u not steal their land and harm Palestinian citizens?”
The IOF social media team also got on the “Little Miss” trend where people make comedic characters that sum up their personality and are called Little Miss “something”.
This was also slammed by social media users. When the IOF posted a picture that says “little miss combats terrorism in the Middle East,” people started to reply “Little Miss Terrorism in the Middle East” and “Little Miss War criminals.” In another picture of the same trend, people started commenting “Little miss makes me sick to my stomach…” and “Ethnic cleansing but make it quirky,” hinting at using memes to hide Israeli crimes against Palestinians.
While the obsession seems to grow against whoever resists the Israeli occupation and defends the Palestinian lands, the Palestinian narrative has always triumphed and excelled over the Israeli one.
During Seif Al-Quds Battle, many pro-Palestine accounts started to publish videos and infographics about the Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip in 2021.
Even Israeli media admitted that the most popular posts that were made then were in support of the Palestinians.
“…The most viral example had nearly 2 million likes on Bella Hadid’s Instagram page… Another popular infographic from @paliroots had over 500,000 likes. In comparison, most of the IDF’s videos and photos had likes in the tens of thousands, and only occasionally topping 100,000.”
– The Forward
At one point, during the Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip, the IOF social media team seemed desperate enough to copy the same format of a Pro-Palestine post while changing the whole narrative to become pure Israeli propaganda.
While the IOF’s social media account may look “glorious” and “fun” to some from the outside, there is no mention of the brutal Israeli administrative detention policy, there is no mention of killing children, there is no mention of uprooting Palestinian olive trees, there is no mention of ethnically cleansing a whole indigenous population, just as there is no mention of Israeli illegal checkpoints and settlements. There is not even any mention of “Israel” being the OCCUPATION it is!
Alastair Crooke is a sage whose thoughtful writings pack vast breadth and depth of understanding of history and geopolitics. His analysis is free of the slightest hint of bias or narrow partisanship – a fact which seems almost incredible given that he worked for the UK Government for a couple of decades. In fact, the sage and his writings testify to a constant and priceless element of western tradition – namely, independent thought.
It was therefore as a surprising and rare slip of the pen, that one read the following paragraph in an article written very recently by him:
But … can the West, which has been so deep in denial about both the incredible economic and military transformation that has occurred in Russia since 1998, and in such vehement denial too, of the capacities of the Russian military, simply slide effortlessly into another narrative? Yes, easily. The neocons never look back; they never apologise. They move to the next project …
Reference in the first sentence is made to “the West”. One has to assume that the reference is to the ruling dispensation – or shall we say regime? – in certain countries, because clearly not every human being in these countries has been in denial about events in Russia since 1998.
Later in the paragraph, however, the phrase used in place of “the West” – rather unconsciously, one must assume – is “the neocons”. Is that substitution not hugely surprising? The two phrases do not – cannot! – represent the same slice of human life! Equation of the two was surely unintentional.
William Shakespeare, James Clerk Maxwell, Mark Twain, William James – these are just a few illustrious references from the English speaking regions of “the West”. These and many others – including of course Alastair Crooke himself – have not the remotest connection to “the neocons” view of life.
Possibly, “the neocons” are the newest version of the crazies who have always attempted to lord it over “the West” – as indeed over much of the world. Such people are always at the game of deceptively and cruelly acquiring raw power; but surely such wannabe power grabbers do not equate to “the West”.
Indeed, that the two were thus equated – even if unintentionally – also proves that “the West” is no longer a meaningful phrase, if indeed it ever was. Of course “the East” and “the South” have already figured that out – as we sense clearly in the winds of change blowing through global political alignments.
Crooke also writes that the neocons do not look back or apologize. No power hungry crazies ever do that. Never. It is as if they drive a vehicle with faulty brakes, no reverse gear and a cracked and dirty windshield. Their judgement clouded by limitless greed for power, they lack understanding of the progress which in fact happens not only in Russia, but all over the world. Their every “next project” is therefore doomed to end worse than the one before.
A crash is therefore inevitable, even though it will be denied by ideologues during – and even after – it occurs. What the rest of mankind see clearly as a crash will be written up as a victory, or a major engineered paradigm shift, or some such nonsense. Words are cheap. Narratives may attempt to displace reality, but they cannot fool the world for long. The rest of us need to remain alert and be able to see through empty words.
The internet is a major revolution in world affairs, and its full impact on our lives is yet to unfold. Social media cannot be controlled – not that crazies will not try to do that! Exchange of honest, truthful assessments among people around the world – for the first time in human history – is invaluable.
One ventures therefore to guess that many of the older models of “lording it over the masses” will rapidly lose their effectiveness. Based on what we have seen so far, there is no shortage of clear-sighted people around the world, and their viewpoints are available for all to share.
There will be life after the crash – not only in “the West”, but also in the rest of the world. Perhaps older labels such “the West”, “the East”, “the South” etcetera will disappear, and “the world” will be the only meaningful label. Since there will no longer be one salient “pole” dominating the scene, the world will by default, and naturally, be “multipolar” – with poles which shift over time. One is reminded of football leagues, in which teams keep rising and falling depending on performance.
When we speak about “the world”, we need to also recognize that migrants from the all over the world are today living and working legally in the US – which we may dub the sanctumsanctotum of “the West”. By all accounts, these migrants constitute law-abiding, hard-working and successful segments of the US population. They have learned how to come wisely to terms with – and participate in – relevant aspects of US domestic politics.
But the scene back in their respective home countries is different. These countries need to look after their own well-being amidst major changes in geo-political environment. Relationships of the home countries with “the West” do not mimic the domestic political relationships of their ex-citizens living in the US. This is a point which so-called “ruling elites” in the US miss when they send a US-based migrant to his or her home country to “set things right”.
In any case, after one generation, children of the migrants will have far, far weaker links with their parents’ home countries. One only wishes that the proverbial melting pot works out well for them in the coming years.
Regarding “the neocons” – the present wannabe “lords of the West” – it is worth noting that, not too long ago, the phrase “crazies in the basement” was used by an American president for their ilk.
A beautiful, famous song by Jimmy Cliff goes: The harder they come, the harder they fall … One and all.
The wheels of karma grind on, inexorably. But the thing about crazies is that they remain in denial even after they fall. Maybe it is time for us to laugh at their self-serving ideologies and their crazy antics – after ensuring that we are not harmed too badly by the consequences of their ill-conceived projects.
As someone said, the tragedy is so huge that laughter is needed to deal with it.
UPROOTED PALESTINIANS: SALAM ALQUDS ALAYKUM 