Israel good at conventional warfare; Hamas better at information war

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Palestine, Inc.

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That’s what Guy Goldstein calls the hidden hand — and the not-so-hidden hand — that makes up those  many who are now agitating and propagandizing against Israel and, often, Western democracy.  It’s an unholy alliance of sorts, a new web of hate, he suggests, of “institutions and players,” ranging from international legal and academic institutions, to human rights organizations, to social media platforms, to non-state actors like Hamas and Hezbollah, to NGOs and non-profits and charities, to diplomats and politicians, to individuals in the West and — now — even what Goldstein calls “press freedom organizations.”

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On Sept. 1, Goldstein says, the world would see an example of the latter at work. On Sept. 1, more than 150 media outlets in more than 50 countries launched a simultaneous multi-lingual campaign ostensibly designed to protect journalists reporting in and around the war zone in Gaza. Goldstein, an Australian now living in Israel with his family, saw it coming before it happened: Reporters Without Borders and the online activism portal Avaaz, Goldstein wrote in August on his Substack platform, were planning it. It would go on to include PBS in the United States and the Independent newspaper in the U.K.

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“The coordination involves detailed tactical instructions for print, digital, and broadcast platforms using the exact operational methods we identified in the Hamas [propaganda] warfare campaign,” he wrote, days earlier. “The messaging is designed for maximum emotional impact.”

In their materials, Avaaz and the journalist group did not hold back: “At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, there will soon be no one left to keep you informed,” they proclaimed. It was all designed to saturate global media in the same month that multiple states formally recognize Palestinian statehood at United Nations General Assembly, Goldstein observed. Was it linked? “The timing could be coincidental,” Goldstein acknowledged. “[But] it could also represent strategic coordination for maximum delegitimizing effect against Israel.”

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And, on Sept. 1,  that is indeed what happened: Headlines were seen around the world about journalists being murdered by Israel, just as representatives of dozens of nations were gathering in New York. Gathering to recognize a state run by a terror group, as defined by those very states. The timing, Goldstein says, was perfect.

What Reporters Without Borders and Avaaz and others were doing wasn’t actually about journalism, he says. “It’s systematic information warfare using press badges as camouflage,” Goldstein observed. “[Their] planning document reads like a military operations manual with unified messaging protocols, multi-language asset distribution, and synchronized hashtag deployment. These organizations function as coordination hubs for influence campaigns while masquerading as neutral advocates … The strategic implications are catastrophic. Every international proceeding now faces identical manipulation through coordinated influence campaigns disguised as human rights advocacy. Democratic societies are being systematically exploited by organizations that masquerade as neutral advocates while executing anti-democratic objectives.”

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“Hamas (isn’t just) winning a single campaign. They have tapped in to a template for systematic institutional exploitation that operates autonomously across multiple conflicts and diplomatic cycles.”

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Goldstein — who is a consultant by day, and what he calls “a passionate Zionist by night” — points to the research he has been doing since around 2018. In an interview from his home in Israel, he says all of the data, all of the facts, amount to a validation of “the muqawama doctrine.” That is a concept coined in 2006 by Israeli analyst Ehud Yaari. In Arabic, “muqawama” mostly means resistance — but, for Hamas and the rest, it really refers to an unrelenting battle to erode the enemy’s resolve. The enemy, of course, being Israel and other democracies throughout the West.

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In this new type of war, writes Goldstein, “every dead Palestinian child becomes ammunition. Every destroyed building becomes evidence. Every civilian casualty becomes a weapon in cognitive warfare.” Hamas, he says, knew Israel would respond to the horrors of Oct. 7, 2023 with overwhelming force. They were, in fact, counting on it. “They needed casualties to feed their (propaganda) warfare machine,” he notes.

And there have been many, many losses. Even if Israel’s calculations are wrong, there have been far too many deaths, and Israel is accountable for at least some of that. Thousands of innocent lives, lost, to a war that Hamas itself started on Oct. 7, 2023. Deliberately, Goldstein says, to “lure Israel in” — and to seize control of the global narrative about Jews and the Jewish state. “Hamas doesn’t care about its people. It has never cared about its people,” he says.

“They know they’ll either be given their tokens back at the end of the game —  or they’re sacrificing pawns that they don’t care about. And, meanwhile, Israel is losing high, high value pieces on the chessboard, like their key strategic allies.”

Because, while Israel is good at traditional war, Palestine Inc. is far better at the information war.

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