Courtesy of Mr. Dry Bones
The primary theater of the Arab war against Israel has moved to the information war. Israel has consistently lost battles in this theater. For example, the second Lebanon war was not a military defeat for Israel despite what Nasrallah says; however it was a rout in the information arena. The Qassam rocket blitz, also spun as the ‘siege of Gaza’ has been another defeat.
Now Hamas is preparing the mother of all information offensives, the Women and Children’s Crusade against the Gaza/Israel border.
The Russians would probably respond with live fire, but almost anything Israel does is going to be a loss in the information theater, in part because the world is predisposed to accept the Arab story. The information war is cumulative; unlike traditional war, a sudden reversal cannot be brought about by a brilliant change in strategy.
What’s needed is a campaign to get the truth out in response to Palestinian lies, to respond quickly and effectively to incidents (the Mohammed Dura libel, the various ‘massacres’ in Lebanon), and to tell the overall story to the world in a clear way.
That means that Israel will have to devote an amount of money, personnel and effort to this project that is proportionally equivalent to that expended by her enemies. The process will be long and hard, before it will begin to reverse the present strategic disadvantage.
Also, Israelis have to understand that there is an information war, and that their words have consequences. Giving physical aid or comfort to an enemy in wartime is treason, and carries the highest penalties. In a democracy, anyone can say almost anything. When the editor of Ha’aretz, for example, does the information equivalent of smuggling explosives to Hamas, he is not arrested or placed in a mental institution.
Technorati Tags: Israel, information war, Hamas
This great attack has come and gone as if it were nothing. The Gazans were by and large no- shows.