Resource on Israeli psyops in 33-day war

Sgt.Major Herbert A. Friedman (Retd.) has pulled together some very useful resources on Israeli psyops during the assault against Lebanon. He has a good collection of the leaflets the IAF dropped in various parts of the country, and refers to other psyops operations including the cellphone text messages, their efforts at hacking into Manar broadcasts, etc.
Halfway down that web-page he refers to the “All4lebanon” website the Israelis put up in the early days of the war. Originally, it had Arabic, French, and English-language editions, but they seem to have taken the English-language one down for now.
I actually first saw reference to “All4Lebanon” on Imshin’s blog, on July 22nd, when she wrote: “This site is where you go if you are Lebanese and you want to actively help in ridding Lebanon of Hizballah.” This and a few other things she has written recently make me think maybe she or her spouse works for the Israeli security services in some capacity?
Anyway, if you go to the All4Lebanon site, they give potential Lebanese collaborators two numbers to call– one in Switzerland, one someplace in Asia– and they promise you that “Confidentiality and financial recompense are assured to you.”
When I first saw that, I was going to blog about it. I thought it showed how truly desperate the Israelis were for informants/collaborators, that they would have to trawl for them in that way. Unlike in the 1982 assault , when they had networks of Phalangists, SLA, etc, working for them in Lebanon– and even then, they weren’t able to impose their will on the country…
Anyway, their whole “psyops” operation this time round looks just as Keystone Cops-ish (i.e. amateur-ish) as the military parts of the war. Except of course the Keystone Cops never killed anyone.

10 thoughts on “Resource on Israeli psyops in 33-day war”

  2. Did you find any Beirut photoshoped pictures like the Reuters fakes? Worthy of the 1970s KGB. Maybe even Siniora’s tears on TV were staged just like the ambulances behind the TV shots.

  3. That’s very impressive JES. Your police nabbed a Beduin drug dealer and tortured him into confessing that he was really a spy for Hezbollah. “Round up the usual suspects!”

  4. In the comments above we see“Sgt.Major Herbert A. Friedman (Retd.) has pulled together some very useful resources on Israeli psyops” during the assault was replied to with “I guess that if Israel operates like the Keystone Cops”. The whole of Isreal is a psyops operation? 1970s Keystone KGB Corleones? And the Lebanese used Photoshop to murder their own countries children and put the blame on the innocent IAF by adding extra smoke to a photo of ruins? Then they blew up their own ambulances with their own invisible airforce using the red crosses as targets as they drive around in circles? And then they pretend to be upset! Damn the smoke is even getting thick in here, check it out with these mirrors!
    Surely you guys are joking, right? I can see why pro-war Israelies and fellow travellers might currently appear a bit incoherent to people who aren’t. Lets not be blind to how the IDF commanders are feeling. “We didn’t really blow their whole country back 20 years, that was just enemy propoganda about our forces being able to carry out orders, so lets go back and finish the job!” If you want Israel to survive then negotiate permanent borders for her. Sure killing and terrorising civilians is easier; but it will never give you a nation at peace with permanent borders, any more than it works for the rest of the ME. Quit the clowning around about war crimes. Foolishness is neither an excuse for them, nor does it achieve anything else but make more of the world community scorn your arrogant and grossly disingenous foreign policy.

  6. Nice speech Roland, but Israel surely wasn’t alone in using “psyops”, and I don’t see why you refuse to believe or understand this. Even the author, in his introduction, says that the “article is about the psychological operations conducted by the Israeli Defense Forces and the Hezbollah Party,” and he does point out some instances.
    There have been numerous reports by journalists of having been led around on a short leash by Hizballah “handlers”, and the use of threats of violence by militias, including Hizballah, against journalists not toeing the line has been common over the past three decades (just ask Philip Caputo). The evidence is that numerous photographs were either staged or doctored, and even more evidence of victims used, after their deaths, in a cynical way to increase the propaganda value of their deaths.
    As it stands, this article mainly points out the extensive use of airial drops of leaflets by Israel – hardly playing dirty, unless, of course, you want to give us a ticket for littering.
    And BTW, from this posting and other things she has said, I’m beginning to ask myself if perhaps Helena or her spouse are working for Hizballah intelligence.

  7. What on earth leads Helena to believe that Imshin or Bish are working for Israeli intelligence?
    That type of rhetoric is just a cheap shot. One of the last resorts of the Palestine-Uber-Alles crowd is to accuse anyone who speaks out in favor of Israel of being a Mossad agent or part of some elaborate hasbara scheme by the Israeli government.

  8. And Roland, if you don’t believe in Hizballah “psyops”, perhaps you should ask their director of media relations, Muhamad Afif. You can reach him at: +961 3 725 539. I’m sure he’d be happy to discuss it with you.

  9. Ok where to start! I didn’t say Hizbullah didn’t attempt some level of psyops. Did I imply it? Would some Lebanese people at least play up for TV cameras? More importantly, how can I be sure none did? What I said was, there actually was an invasion, in which amublances were straffed, cities were levelled, and hundreds of civilians, ferquently children were killed, and that wasn’t just “photoshoped”. Pretending these things didnt happen, saying this:“Did you find any Beirut photoshoped pictures like the Reuters fakes? Worthy of the 1970s KGB. Maybe even Siniora’s tears on TV were staged just like the ambulances behind the TV shots.” is gross disinformation, hence my reply. And yes I’ve seen an Israeli site, with the Reuters “extra smoke” pic, a couple of other obscure and possibly staged scenes that never made my TV, and A REAL PICTURE FROM QANA 2. Disgusting. One tragicly funny thing, a photo I saw used on a pro-war site as “proof” Hizbullah is dug in amongst civilians, here is “proof” of a fraudulent photo of an HZA fighter overlooking a shot down IAF plane. Make your own points as you wish but don’t confuse everyone by addressing me when you are not replying to my posts. And I won’t be distracted. Either Israel wants peaceful borders or she doesn’t. If you do, negotiate them! I’m happy to keep reminding you!

Comments are closed.