Fifty to one: Hamas vs. Israel in the information war

Fifty to one.

Fifty to one: that is the estimated ratio of “pro-Palestinian” to “pro-Israel” online content. If you think you are seeing far more material favouring the Palestinian side – and, too often, the Hamas side – rest assured: you are. Online, Israel is getting its proverbial ass kicked.

There can be two reasons for this. One, a majority in the West now suddenly harbour anti-Israel and/or antisemitic attitudes. But that’s not what public opinion shows. Among older cohorts, in North America and Europe, the majority clearly support Israel’s right to exist within safe and secure borders. The majority support Israel’s right to defend itself.

The other, most realistic, reason: Hamas and its axis – Hezbollah, Houthis, its parent Iran, and its echo chambers in Russia and China – have developed a formidable propaganda machine. One that has out-performed Israel’s pitiful communications efforts, for years. One that has utterly dominated the communications landscape since the horrors of October 7.

That, more than anything else, is why Hamas et al. are dominating online.

Last Summer, the IDF uncovered a cache of Hamas documents in Gaza. The previously-secret Hamas documents showing the extent of their online propaganda effort.  Hamas’ web strategy, the documents revealed, was first to guide and direct “Hamas operatives” in the West Bank, in Arabic. They did that by “controlling the narrative being pushed out about issues in Gaza,” Hamas wrote. Initially, they were also very focused on influencing and controlling “specific activities in the European arena,” the documents read, where there is a higher concentration of migrants of Arab or Muslim descent.

To do this, Hamas describes targeting anti-Hamas activists by “neutralizing them” and “damaging their reputation.” Their more-moderate political rivals in Fatah, too, were targets: the documents describe reputational attacks online that were “aimed at damaging their public image[s].”

In all, Hamas had a 160 Gaza-based member “electronic team,” as they called it.  The team could boast as many as 1.2 million immediate followers on social media, and they regularly posted in groups and forums with an additional 25 million followers.  The strategy was to use “advanced technologies [which are] designed to flood social media in a very short time,” Hamas declared.

A year later, the IDF discovered yet more documents detailing Hamas’ online communications strategy. A summary of what they found:

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