Israeli Hits Palestine with Airstrikes and Targets
US Lawmakers with Disinformation Campaigns
Win Without War
(June 9, 2024) — Another Israeli military airstrike has killed dozens of refugees in Gaza sheltering at a UN school. It follows a strike that killed at least 45 last week — that time, it was people getting ready for bed in an encampment designated as a humanitarian zone.
The US government should be using every ounce of influence possible to stop the bombs from falling, bring the remaining hostages home, and end violence across Israel, Palestine, and beyond. So why is congressional leadership offering Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who has overseen the devastating war in Gaza — a powerful and prestigious platform to speak before a joint session of Congress?
It’s a baffling move, even more so in the face of concerning reports that under his watch, the Israeli government has covertly targeted US lawmakers with a social media campaign meant to influence public opinion — and interfere with US policy. [Read article below — EAW]
Addressing Congress is a privilege, not a right. It should be reserved for those who uphold democratic values and respect human dignity. PM Netanyahu does not meet the mark. That’s why we’re leading a crucial effort to push back on the pro-war politicking with messages urging diplomacy, peace, and a ceasefire.
In March 2015, Democrats boycotted Netanyahu’s Congressional speech.
It’ll look like urging every member of Congress — particularly Democrats — to skip the speech, flying in impacted individuals from Israel and Palestine to share their stories from on the ground, and covering DC in posters and running mobile billboards. With your help, we’ll remind DC decision-makers, and the whole world, that no one is made safer by Netanyahu’s brand of leadership.
An invitation to speak before Congress sends a troubling signal the US government approves of PM Netanyahu’s most egregious actions — which include domestic corruption charges as well as a growing list of alleged international war crimes.
His address is likely to be little more than a cynical bit of pro-war politicking. How do we know? He’s done it before. In 2002, he assured a congressional committee that “tak[ing] out Saddam…will have enormous positive reverberations on the region.” In 2015, he spoke to a joint session of Congress in a blatant attempt to undermine support for a crucial diplomatic achievement: the Iran nuclear deal.
This track record is part of why just months ago, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer himself called PM Netanyahu an “obstacle to peace” and echoed the call of the vast majority of people in Israel that he be removed from office.
Reporting, videos, and stories coming out of Gaza all confirm the dire and heartrending conditions, We can — and must — reject the false choice between doing nothing or dropping bombs.
We need to act now to ensure that the voices of war hawks don’t become the loudest, or worse, the only voices heard by decision-makers in DC this summer. The US government can hold our allies accountable without abandoning them, but the status quo isn’t delivering peace for anyone. That’s why we’re leading a growing movement focused on turning the page — and rebuffing any calls for more war with a resounding message of peace.
Thank you for working for peace,
The Win Without War team
Israel Secretly Targets US Lawmakers
With Influence Campaign on Gaza War
Sheera Frenkel / The New York Times
TEL AVIV (June 5, 2024) — Israel organized and paid for an influence campaign last year targeting US lawmakers and the American public with pro-Israel messaging, as it aimed to foster support for its actions in the war in Gaza, according to officials involved in the effort and documents related to the operation.
The covert campaign was commissioned by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, a government body that connects Jews around the world with the State of Israel, four Israeli officials said. The ministry allocated about $2 million to the operation and hired Stoic, a political marketing firm in Tel Aviv, to carry it out, according to the officials and the documents.
The campaign began in October and remains active on the platform X. At its peak, it used hundreds of fake accounts that posed as real Americans on X, Facebook and Instagram to post pro-Israel comments. The accounts focused on US lawmakers, particularly ones who are Black and Democrats, such as Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader from New York, and Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, with posts urging them to continue funding Israel’s military.
ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, was used to generate many of the posts. The campaign also created three fake English-language news sites featuring pro-Israel articles.
The Israeli government’s connection to the influence operation, which The New York Times verified with four current and former members of the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and documents about the campaign, has not previously been reported. FakeReporter, an Israeli misinformation watchdog, identified the effort in March. Last week, Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, said they had also found and disrupted the operation.
The secretive campaign signals the lengths Israel was willing to go to sway American opinion on the war in Gaza. The United States has long been one of Israel’s staunchest allies, with President Biden recently signing a $15 billion military aid package for the country. But the conflict has been unpopular with many Americans, who have called for Mr. Biden to withdraw support for Israel in the face of mounting civilian deaths in Gaza.
The operation is the first documented case of the Israeli government’s organizing a campaign to influence the US government, social media experts said. While coordinated government-backed campaigns are not uncommon, they are typically difficult to prove. Iran, North Korea, China, Russia and the United States are widely believed to back similar efforts around the world, but often mask their involvement by outsourcing the work to private companies or running them through a third country.
“Israel’s role in this is reckless and probably ineffective,” said Achiya Schatz, the executive director of FakeReporter. That Israel “ran an operation that interferes in US politics is extremely irresponsible.”
Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs denied involvement in the campaign and said it had no connection to Stoic. Stoic didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
