The pro-Israeli influence network
Speaking of Israel’s self-interest…This is something that I found around the same time as the other post but I never got around to sharing it then. So here it is, because it’s intriguing. This was originally published under the title, “Israeli Influence Operation Targets U.S. Lawmakers on Hamas-UNRWA”, by Haaretz on March 19.
The operation began a few weeks after the war broke out and is still active today. The campaign, researchers found, tried to inflate the exposure of its content and to artificially boost the popularity of online materials deemed to be pro-Israel or advancing Israeli interests.
A review of its content reveals that it began by focusing on Zionism and Jewish history, in what seemed like an attempt to address rising antisemitism in the West, especially among young Jewish and African American progressives in the U.S. The campaign’s content also attempted to address widespread denialism of rape and sexual violence during the Hamas massacre. Later, it shifted to more aggressive tactics and more political content, amplifying claims also being pushed out by the Israeli government, the Foreign Ministry and Israel’s official hasbara (public diplomacy) channels – namely, claims against the UN aid agency and its ties to Hamas.
I edited the faces out of this graphic from the article that gives a straightforward rundown of how the bot farm operates:
