Israel targeted more than 120 US lawmakers in disinformation campaign
At least 128 members of Congress were targeted by an Israeli-linked operation to spread pro-Israel military content amid the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, according to data shared with POLITICO from an Israeli disinformation watchdog group.
The existence of an influence campaign targeted at lawmakers was first made public in March. In it, around 600 fake profiles unleashed more than 2,000 coordinated comments per week backing Israel’s military actions, slamming Palestinian rights groups and dismissing claims of human rights abuses.
According to The New York Times, Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs spent $2 million on the campaign and hired Israeli political marketing group STOIC to carry it out.
This is the kind of thing that Russia and North Korea and China have been exposed as doing, but those countries have adversarial relationships with the United States. Israel is supposed to be an ally.
How can the United States continue to militarily prop up a country that does this?
Factually, probably because Israel has done enough to protect us against terrorist threats, helped us to negotiate certain things, and done enough other favors to have bought themselves a bit of slack.
In a less real-politik sense, though, we should have left them to defend themselves a long time ago, when they started invading Islamic territory and creating settlements, there. At this point, we’re already well-past the point that we should have started to consider the wisdom of supporting criminality.
Seriously, supporting Israel has exposed us to terrorist threats. I’m not saying we shouldn’t support Israel, but saying Israel has protected us from terrorist threats is delusional.
The USS Liberty was repeatedly scouted the morning prior to the attack by Israeli Air Force spotters low enough that crew reported they “rattled the deck plating”. The attacks occurred in mid-afternoon in mostly clear conditions, first by Mirages with cannon and rocket fire, followed by ground attack craft dropping naplam, and then a subsequent sea attack by torpedo boats. Despite claims that the vessel had no visible identifying marks it can be clearly seen to be well marked, flying multiple US flags (a large one was hoisted on the radar tower after the initial attack) and equipped with radar and antenna systems that were clearly not Egyptian or Soviet equipment. Secretary of State Dean Rusk repeatedly expressed disbelief in the official Israeli account to explain the multi-prong attack and failure to identify the vessel by the bow markings and hardware, including writing about it in his memoirs.
As for your second statement, labeling any criticism of the Israeli government or military as “antisemitism” is prejudicial and unpersuasive rhetoric, and if you want to levy an accusation of promulgating “a conspiracy theory spun by cranks” you know where The Pit is.
While I think the friendly fire theory is far more likely than Israel trying to stop the United States NSA from doing its job, I also think that there would be similar conspiracy stories if the Liberty had been attacked by any other country.
And how much of that detail do you think was visible to fighter pilots travelling at the speed of sound who can’t actually see what they’re firing at?
And yer multiple US inquiries have determined that the cause was friendly fire.
Given that the Liberty wasn’t even near the site of the supposed atrocities Israel was trying to cover up (which there is also no evidence for) and the US failed to notify Israel they were in theater, the idea that Israel would deliberately attack its only ally, during a war where losing would have meant a second Holocaust, and just barely hit it with harassing fire, then stop midway through the attack and immediately told the US Embassy what happened while it returned to port under its own power to tell the entire world they’d been attacked is downright ludicrous.
All of the highlighted statements are materially incorrect. 34 US sailors were killed and 171 wounded in the attack, which left a hole in the side of the ship large enough to drive two semitrucks through side by side. Many of the sailors were wounded or killed during strafing attacks by the torpedo boats which were obviously close enough to see markings and flags, and reports from the crew indicate that they fired upon crews doing damage control and deploying liferafts.
All of the highlighted statements are also from an older version of the post which I have since edited. The Israelis fired five torpedoes at the ship, four of which missed and the fifth of which didn’t cause enough damage to sink the ship, then called off the attack and immediately informed the US Embassy. Are those the actions of a country launching a deliberate attack on a ship they knew to be American?
I want to point out that the OP is poisoning the well here- Israel targeted more than 120 US lawmakers in disinformation campaign However, the evidence that it is actually Israel is not solid-
The New York Times reported Wednesday that the operation was backed by the Israeli government, citing multiple unnamed Israeli officials,
Thus, it is not backed in fact.
Next the basic for Politico- according to data shared with POLITICO from an Israeli disinformation watchdog group. and POLITICO was not able to independently confirm that the Israeli government was behind the campaign.
and A spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington declined comment on the report and pointed instead towards a statement denying involvement from the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs, which notes that the ministry “categorically” denies involvement.
“We would like to clarify that neither the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs nor the Voices of Israel have any connection or collaborative activities with the company STOIC,” the statement reads. “Any claims suggesting otherwise are completely unfounded and inaccurate.”
Note that all of this info was right there in the cite but the Op cut and pasted all the info that shows this *isn’t a fact- but instead- a supposition out of his quotes. *
Mind you I am not denying it occured, but it has not be proven and the evidence is scant that the Government of Israel is behind it.
So we are saying Israel is terrible and horrible- but without solid facts. “…citing multiple unnamed Israeli officials,…” is more or less bullshit.
If the claims are true, then my ire is directed at the idiot politicians who can so easily baited into falling for social media propaganda, and the even bigger idiots who voted for them.