At a time when the battles were raging on the Gaza front, and tension was rising on the border with Lebanon, Israel launched the “Awareness Front” via virtual space, launching what is known as the “Israel Electronic Army” a battle across various social media networks, to fight what the occupation called “the narrative.” "Palestinian" and promoting his story with the aim of influencing world public opinion.

According to the newspaper "Yedioth Ahronoth", the "Awareness Front" is no less important than the battlefields, and described it as the "battle over awareness" for its role in penetrating the virtual space and conveying its echo to the whole world.

Analysts and journalists admitted that in light of the war on Gaza, Israel and civil initiatives for Jews in Israel and around the world - behind the scenes - are waging a war on the narrative, on propaganda and shaping awareness through hundreds of members of the electronic army.

Yedioth Ahronoth: The awareness front is no less important than the battlefields (Al Jazeera)

Yedioth Ahronoth: The awareness front is no less important than the battlefields (Al Jazeera)

Mobilization and recruitment

According to analysts, Israel has been prepared for years by mobilizing and recruiting hundreds of cadres who were trained in Israeli centers and universities, and they fought many hypothetical maneuvers and hidden wars to spread the Israeli narrative, even through fabrication and falsification of content and implications.

Reichmann University, at the Center for National Security Research - Herzliya, specializes in qualifying these cadres through study courses in the subjects of international media, content production, electronic media, law and governance, political science, and sociology.

Hundreds of students participate in these courses annually, who are provided with the mechanisms to join the Israeli Electronic Army or any Israeli security and military institution, and in various government ministries, including the diplomatic corps and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Herzliya Center also provides training courses for hundreds of employees from various Israeli government ministries and officers and workers in security, military and intelligence institutions, including the Mossad and Shin Bet.

forgery

The training courses aim to provide those concerned with the skills that will help them address local and international public opinion, promote the Israeli narrative, or confront the Palestinian, Arab, or any anti-Israel narrative. It also aims to enable them to specialize in falsifying facts and creating new narratives that have no connection to reality.

In the first week of the war on Gaza, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ diplomatic staff conducted briefings for 250 foreign correspondents and more than 640 interviews with international media in various languages to distort and combat the Palestinian narrative.

About a thousand posts and tweets were also published in English, Spanish, Arabic, Persian, and Russian, which received more than 320 million views, through the activity of the digital department of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. More than 80 official statements were issued condemning Hamas and supporting Israel from various countries, according to the Israeli newspaper "Globes".

Israeli Foreign Ministry teams conducted more than 640 interviews with international media in various languages to distort the Palestinian narrative.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs conducted more than 640 media interviews in various languages to distort the Palestinian narrative (Getty)

Virtual battle

Israeli citizens and Jewish volunteers around the world are active in creating dozens of groups and projects to help with international outreach, one of which is known as the “Civil Propaganda Headquarters,” which was established by former journalist Eliav Patito, which recruits volunteers to distribute content.

Commenting on the “Awareness Front,” journalist Navo Tribelsi, technology and Internet affairs correspondent for the “Globes” newspaper, said, “This is the second war of independence, and this is how the battle for world public opinion is conducted.”

He added that Israel has been waging a war for several days on several fronts, the most important of which is the battle to influence global public opinion, as it is considered an essential arena for broadcasting messages, content, and content in line with the Israeli narrative.

Tribelsi stressed the importance of controlling and controlling the “Awareness Front” because “awareness and understanding of the difficult situation that Israel has been experiencing since Black Saturday has a clear impact in providing cover and international legitimacy for Israeli military operations, in addition to being important for exerting pressure on various parties in the world and ensuring their alignment with Israel builds its narrative on war.”

He believes that public opinion today is influenced by "the serious work undertaken by various state institutions, frameworks and civil authorities," noting that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs is active in transmitting information and content and recruiting all its diplomatic staff around the world to interact within the arenas of the "Awareness Front."

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According to the Globes newspaper, Eliav Patito has so far managed to recruit more than 400 active volunteers to translate, visually edit, and plan the content, with hundreds of other volunteers to publish the content on social media networks.

According to messages sent within the “Civil Propaganda Headquarters” communication groups, the content produced by the headquarters reaches millions of people around the world.

One of the contents that Patito distributed in cooperation with the Civil Propaganda Headquarters at the beginning of the war on the Gaza front, and which helped set the tone in favor of the Israeli narrative, was a video that the newspaper described as “successful,” which was produced in the advertising office in Uman Bar Rivnai.

The newspaper adds that everyone in the civilian propaganda headquarters felt the need to mobilize in favor of the propaganda information war that Israel is waging, as the video recorded millions of views thanks to its participation by famous and familiar scientific figures, such as the singer Madonna.

In Ruvini Friedan's office, they collected information materials for stories and correspondence of what they described as the "hell" that the residents of the "Gaza envelope" experienced during the "Al-Aqsa Flood" battle, which were translated into many languages by dozens of volunteer translators.

In addition, the "Israelite" Association focuses on providing tools and knowledge to young Jews, so that they can help and positively influence the "image of Israel" globally and regionally by establishing a virtual emergency room that is active around the clock.

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The association holds webinars in which it provides guidance, practical tools, and sources of information that can be relied upon when providing information to users of digital media and social networks.

According to Professor Moran Yerahai, head of the Department of Digital Awareness and Influence at the College of Communications and head of the Public Diplomacy Program at Reichmann University, “In previous combat rounds, it was difficult for Israel to present itself as a natural victim, because we are the strong side.”

In the war on images, Yerhai says, “Whoever has the strongest and most famous story has the upper hand. In the current situation, it was easy for the world to sympathize with the events and armed operations to which children, youth, the elderly, and women were exposed in the Gaza Strip, as well as the armed operations that targeted Music festival too.

Yerahai considered that the narrative of empathy has a very strong resonance, “Even the comparisons made with ISIS or the September 11 attacks are something that the public can understand. In this war, our ability to present the victims at the most shocking level makes people understand the political and security context of the conflict.” .