By Ilan Pomeranc
Asymmetric kinetic attacks, psychological and economic warfare, cyber-attacks, the manipulation of the media and public opinion, disinformation and misinformation, embedment in, and leveraging of, the civilian population- these are all the fundamental hallmarks of what has been labeled by militaries and intelligence agencies worldwide as "hybrid warfare."
This, whether we realize it or not, is the type of conflict that the Islamist terrorist group Hamas, as well as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, mounted against Israel, not only in May of 2021 but on a number of occasions over the past few years, since initially taking over the Strip in 2006.
Hybrid warfare was designed to allow for an inferior enemy – whether in size, capabilities, or otherwise – or one with no just cause or clear casus belli, to make significant gains or even achieve victories against a far more superior, legitimate, and moral opponent. In Israel's case, these tactics, as deployed by Hamas and the PIJ, also create consequences far beyond our borders, namely a flood of semi-legitimized, excused, or ignored antisemitism on top of an already existing surge.
The State of Israel, in Operation Guardian of the Walls, as in past operations and conflicts involving Gaza's terrorist groups, has effectively countered or neutralized almost all the elements of hybrid warfare deployed by the enemy except one.
That element is the manipulation and weaponization of the international media and in more recent years social media. Part of the problem in effectively neutralizing this facet of hybrid warfare, which is exploited and leveraged to create a public opinion maelstrom against Israel – and by extension diplomatic tensions between Israel and her friends and foes alike – is that the platforms themselves are many times critical or hostile to the State of Israel. Furthermore counter-intuitively since the Oslo process and so-called "two-state solution" it has become more and more legitimate and even polite conversation for many to question Israel's very right to exist.
This exacerbates the problem of how Israel is portrayed and dealt with in the global public discourse. That point blank antisemitic position of denying Israel's natural and historic rights has filtered into and been magnified, by both the western mainstream media and in even more disturbing ways on social media platforms. The Arabs of Gaza and Judea and Samaria, as well as many Arab Israelis, unfortunately, now promote the delegitimization of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people to an amenable international audience of billions.
We see the violent manifestations of this online and 'on air' wholesale delegitimization and "canceling" of the State of Israel on the streets of New York, London, Paris, Toronto and beyond. When psychological, informational, and cyber borne attacks translate into real-world violence and destruction, hybrid warfare has been highly effective.
While Israel Advocacy NGO's and Zionist organizations both at home and in the diaspora truly put a up the best fight they can against the media and public consciousness campaign waged against Israel, they can no longer maintain it on their own let alone win it.
At the same time as Israeli government bodies and the IDF's Spokesperson's Unit produce quality content and information that can be used in this effort, there is a lack of effective overall command and control which could bring to bear not only the parties mentioned above but also new non-traditional Israel advocates and activists, such as the huge Christian Zionist communities across North and South America.
Just a few days ago the Israeli public was made aware of the size and impact of this sector of the Christian world, as well as the challenges posed by social media platforms themselves to Israel advocacy, with the blocking by Facebook of the 'Jerusalem Prayer Team' page. Dr. Mike Evans, the head of the Jerusalem Prayer Team organization, as well as the founder of the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem, is an old tried and trusted friend of the State and Nation of Israel, and has a following of seventy-seven million people on the blocked Facebook page.
The potency of integrated and organized cooperation with such groups and organizations cannot be overstated. Having a point-person to head the national public diplomacy effort, an unfilled position that has been spoken about by many in the last few days, is important, yes, but it's not enough.
Israel must allocate time, budgets, and resources to build a body modeled on IDF Intelligence or Israel Security Agency operational units with dedicated staff and a full-time operational command center, to fight the information\multimedia war. The enemy knows disinformation and media\public opinion manipulation are an essential facet of its plans and strategy as part of hybrid warfare, the great world power that is the State of Israel must respond in kind and beyond.
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