"Revealed: Israel's curriculum for 'influencing public consciousness"

[moniss]

This is the title to an article from "+972 Magazine" dated 06/04/26 with a byline from Illy Pe’ery. It seems that a Defense Ministry document has been leaked that details an aggressive training program for soldiers to busy themselves with propaganda at home and abroad. The article specifically notes:

"Among the offerings are courses on how to use data to discretely shape the attitudes and actions of target audiences, intelligence gathering for such operations, and influencer training. Most of the courses are geared toward “offensive” influence operations — those aimed at actively disrupting or manipulating the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of target audiences rather than simply protecting an existing narrative."

The article also states how the training includes how to get past tech/social media platform safeguards:

"In one course, participants learn to apply “Black Hat” techniques — a term used to describe manipulation methods that circumvent tech platforms’ rules around cybercrime, cyber warfare, or other malicious activity. The army course explicitly states that this module is designed for “the distribution and promotion of illegitimate content using technological tools and solutions — a route that bypasses Facebook and Google."

Also of note is that the leaked document notes that the courses are in Hebrew and English and references "foreign partners" taking part in this training.

Later on in the article there is a description of course material aimed at how to identify and manipulate target groups etc. The IDF spokesperson who gave comment for the article said the courses were for "personal enrichment" and operate within the laws and directives of the "political echelon".

https://www.972mag.com/leaked-idf-propaganda-israel-intelligence/

[Lonestarblue]

1. Not surprising. I trust nothing that anyone in the Trump administration or Israeli government says.

They are consummate liars.

[AloeVera]

2. I've found a new euphemism for Lying and Manipulation to Whitewash War Crimes!"

"Illegitimate Content".

It's short and snappy. Hope to never have to use it on DU....

No doubt we are members of one of the "target groups" though.

Can't wait.

If only Israel would put in a fraction of the effort to find a way to live in peace with Palestinians and its neighbours.

Very interesting article. Thanks for posting!

[harumph]

4. It begs the question, what do (they) mean by the term "illegitimate."

illegitimate:
...

other than (1) bastard...
2
a
: not sanctioned by law : illegal
an illegitimate government
… a retaliatory, harassing, or other illegitimate motive.
—Diamond "D" Const. Corp. v. McGowan, 282 F. 3d 191 (2002)
b
: not authorized by good usage
c
of a taxon : published but not in accordance with the rules of the relevant international code
3
: not reasonable or fair
were fired for illegitimate reasons
4
: not rightly deduced or inferred : illogical
5
: departing from the regular : erratic

I'd love to audit a course like that - to get some idea of their preferred tools of the trade.

[AloeVera]

6. Ha ha. Me too!

But... Don't know about you, I wouldn't pass muster as an IDF soldier!

Besides, I think I already have a pretty good idea of what it's about.

Someone though should organize "anti-illegitimate content" workshops. I'd attend one of those!

[Kid Berwyn]

3. That's where Epstein comes in.

Propaganda, Blackmail, Leverage... Influence.

It works! Ask James Jesus Angleton or Roy Cohn.

[snot]

5. Fwiw,

Cass Sunstein & Adrian Vermeule's 2008 paper recommending that government-organized sock puppets should infiltrate online forums for the purpose of manipulating public beliefs: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1068&context=public_law_and_legal_theory . Cass Sunstein later became Pres. Obama's administrator of White House Office of Information & Affairs.

Before that, under Bush II, we had the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act, which eliminated a law restricting the US gov't from propagandizing its own citizens. Also under Bush II, we had the following, spoken to journalist Ron Suskind by an aide commonly believed to have been Karl Rove:

The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do'.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community ). We are immersed in "perception management" efforts from multiple PTB constituencies.

This is one reason it seems to me so important to consume news/opiniion from as many sides as possible: each constituency points out the faults of the other; the conflicts they obsess over are the things they use to to keep us too distracted and divided to use our power effectively; the things they agree on generally benefit most PTB constituencies, often at the expense of the rest of us; and the problems we notice in our own lives that PTB constituencies rarely mention are often the ones we should be most focussed on.

Any news or opinion we hear/see may or may not have face-value merit, but imho, we should frame it for ourselves in terms of what the speaker/author wants us to believe and/or be preoccupied with, and how that might benefit that speaker/author's constituency for us to believe or be preoccupied with it?

[malaise]

7. This thread needs to be seen

Rec