HE Accurate Information Committee Middle East (CAMERA) is an American lobby group that controls what the media publishes about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Be wary of situations where he appears biased, too pro-Palestinian, or ignores facts that support the Israeli narrative. It claims to have thousands of volunteers identifying negative media articles.
Very few survived: “Washington Post allows anti-Semitic institutions” “NBC [una de las principales televisiones] Ignores Palestinian violence in its reporting on violence in the West Bank”, “AP [la principal agencia estadounidense] Some of the hundreds of posts on the website include the statement: “Osaid Rimawi’s death is whitewashed by ignoring the fact that he was a Hamas member.” He even paid for street ads criticizing the alleged pro-Palestinian bias of America’s leading newspaper, The New York Times. It has a section for auditing English media (including a special section for the BBC), a section for Hebrew, Arabic and Spanish.
A The strategy of this private organization has been in line with that of the Israeli government for decades. try to improve your imageIt suffered due to the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. It combines fists and roses: constant information campaigns, public diplomacy and propaganda, accompanied by diplomatic tensions or paid spokespeople who, from time to time in each country, target specific journalists and try to influence their information.
The latest example is Australian national television ABC, which fired its presenter. Antoinette Lattouf For repeating a report that starvation is being used as a weapon of war in Gaza. According to messages from a WhatsApp group obtained by local media, the dismissal took place due to pressure from the Israeli lobby. The scandal spread to the international arena when the public institution’s journalists’ union threatened to go on strike. The company denies that pressure was behind the dismissal. He took them to court.
Israel’s influence campaigns
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs is sending reports to the international media about the “humanitarian actions” it claims to have carried out to alleviate the suffering of the civilian population during the almost four-month-long war in Gaza. Against criticism from major UN agencies and NGOs About the difficulties in entering humanitarian aid into the Strip.
After the Hamas massacre on October 7, 117 (oneApproximately 1,140 dead; mostly civilians) continue to make constant efforts to show how the tragedy happened. They believe the magnitude of the disaster is underappreciated, especially given allegations that Hamas uses sexual violence as a weapon of war. The government opened a website with images showing the horror of the massacre. And he invited officials and media in the world’s major capitals to watch video footage of the raw footage of this massacre. He organizes international media guided tours of farming communities where hundreds of civilians have died.
But why all these efforts? ¿Why do you attach so much importance to the image? extending thousands of kilometers from its borders?
“The Israelis are well aware that a kind of international ‘court of public opinion’ exists. “They prepared an intensive campaign to try to tell their version of the conflict and to ensure that their narrative prevailed in the allied countries,” he explains to this newspaper. Julien Barnes-DaceyDirector of the Middle East and North Africa program of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). “They have now prioritized their military objectives and don’t really care which way global opinion falls. But they know that they depend on the support of their allies, especially the United States and some European countries, to provide them with military and diplomatic protection. And they don’t want to get to the point where the public questions that support.”
But support is waning. Networks, newspapers and television channels around the world are flooded with images showing the brutality of the attacks on Gaza. There are hundreds of videos of Gaza children shivering, hungry, seriously injured or directly destroyed by bombs. The wave of support following the attacks gives way to outcries from the world’s population over the destruction of the Strip and the humanitarian crisis it has caused.
Support for Israel decreased
Support for Israel fell by 10 points in the following countries: Germany, France or Denmark. On October 7, approximately 38% of Germans declared themselves to side with Israel in the conflict; In December, that figure fell to around 28%, according to YouGov’s Eurotrack. The impact of the Hague Tribunal finding the genocide case in South Africa reasonable is still unknown. While the loyalty rate of respondents to the Palestinian side in countries such as Spain is close to 30 percent, in Israel this rate is less than 20 percent.
But Israel is achieving many of its communications goals. The idea that Hamas is using civilians as human shields has become widespread among the European public. 59% to 69% think so, while 9% to 13% do not believe so. Germans are split on whether Israel is trying to minimize harm to civilians, and 55% of Spaniards think that is not the case.
Gaza, Biden’s nightmare
For the Israeli Government, the problem is more serious than in the United States. Voters generally reject Joe Biden’s handling of the bloody war in Gaza, according to a December New York Times/Siena College poll. Particularly worried is the group of young people in the Democratic Party who are more insistent on rejection and more sensitive to the suffering in Gaza.
HE While 47% of those under the age of 29 sympathize with the Palestinian side, the rate of those who sympathize with the Israeli side is 27%. It is the generation that sees raw images of the massacres on social networks without media filters. In contrast, 63 percent of those over 65 describe themselves as pro-Israel, while only 11 percent consider themselves pro-Palestinian. It is Joe Biden’s generation that still keeps the memory of the Holocaust alive.
“The divide among traditionally Democratic voters over the conflict is an additional challenge Biden faces as he reorganizes 2020’s winning coalition,” the New York newspaper analyzes. There is great uncertainty about whether disgruntled voters will go to the polls. The margin is very narrow and a few votes in key states could tip the balance to one side or the other.
Beyond the polls, protests are seen at universities, town halls or events hosted by Democratic leaders. They oppose sending thousands of bombs and missiles to Israel in the midst of the attack on Gaza. Minister of Foreign Affairs Anthony Blinken has already had many “scratches.” In one of them, dozens of people appeared, their hands stained with red ink; this mimicked the blood their leaders were said to have on their hands.
And then there is Europe with its two souls. On the one hand, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Norway and sometimes France, among others; and the EU’s high representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, are taking an increasingly open stance against Israel. They demand a ceasefire and the introduction of urgent humanitarian aid. the other, Germany, Italy or the UK outside the EU. They are trying to endure domestic criticism with mass demonstrations, especially in the UK, and prefer to give the Israeli prime minister time to put an end to Hamas.
“There are serious differences between those who call for an immediate ceasefire, who prioritize humanitarian imperatives and the centrality of the conflict, regarding what might happen in the region, and those who believe that the military operation must continue and other issues are secondary.” Barnes-Dacey concludes. “And this is very important, not only in the European case, difference in expression”.