Israel War Effort Extends Even To Hezbollah TV

HAIFA, Israel — Viewers of Hezbollah TV are getting some unexpected interruptions — courtesy of their enemy.In the middle of newscasts and programming from Hezbollah’s Al-Manar station, Israeli technicians are hacking the signal and replacing it with a 90-second spot that begins with a gun site superimposed on a crude drawing of Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, looking at the ground.The image is punctuated by the sound of three gunshots and framed on the top with the words, “Your day is coming, coming, coming.” On the bottom of the image of Sheik Nasrallah are the words: “The state of Israel.” For the next 90 seconds, the message is clear: Give up. Resistance is futile.The special broadcast to Al-Manar’s audience from Israel is the latest salvo in the Jewish state’s propaganda war against the Iranian-backed terror militia after Israel’s military managed to hack into the satellite feed of the station over the weekend.The spot goes on to show Sheik Nasrallah giving a speech in which a voice says: “There is no doubt that this is the strongest air force in the area. And we can’t stand up against it.” It features the view from Israeli bombers striking targets in Lebanon and ends with an announcer saying, “Nasrallah knows the truth, but he continues, as is his way, to drag Lebanon into destruction, to throw sand in your eyes.”Israeli officials yesterday would not speak on the record about the psychological warfare operation on Al-Manar, whose main headquarters was bombed on the first day of the air campaign on July 13. The station, which has aired docudramas reviving the Jewish blood libel, has managed to stay on the air through broadcasting from alternate studios, carrying a defiant speech from Sheik Nasrallah over the weekend. Israeli television first interrupted the Al-Manar signal over the weekend.Speaking on background, one former senior Israel Defense Force official familiar with the operation said,”The aim of this is to disassociate the innocent civilian from the terrorist, who is using them and abusing them, by operating in the midst of a heavily populated area.“When they are masquerading as civilians, they are putting every other person at risk. The aim of the psychological warfare is to get the Lebanese to see the terrorists are actually terrorists who are endangering you, to understand that Nasrallah is masquerading as the liberator of Lebanon.”Since the beginning of the war, Israel has engaged in a number of propaganda missions referred to as psy-ops, short for psychological warfare. These include dropping leaflets on Lebanese civilians, urging them to abandon Hezbollah. The leaflets feature a snake, which is a symbol in the Arab world for treachery.Israel also has hacked Lebanese phone lines with recorded messages urging listeners to turn in Hezbollah fighters and operatives. Israeli radio stations are broadcasting in Lebanon with similar messages.Psy-ops are increasingly a critical part of how advanced countries fight asymmetrical war. While Israeli commanders insist that the sorties of bombs that they have dropped on Lebanon are aimed at Hezbollah infrastructure, part of the war campaign is aimed at sanctioning the Lebanese people to the point where they understand the terrible price that the country will pay for allowing Hezbollah to work in its midst.This is one way that Israel’s information warfare in Lebanon is distinguished from America’s efforts in Iraq and the broader Middle East. While the Pentagon and State Department stressed their aim of winning hearts and minds, the Israelis for now are content with terrifying the friends of their enemy.“Part of this is to instill fear,” the former senior Israel Defense Force official said. “This is mostly aimed at the Hezbollah operative. This is instilling fear.” The official added, however, that the most effective part of the message was that it proved Israel could take over Hezbollah’s primary instrument of propaganda. “If you could destroy Al-Manar, which we all know is a platform for destroying psychological order, it is one thing. But better than destroying it is using it against them,” the official said.One Israeli military spokesman pointed out that Hezbollah also uses psychological operations against Israelis.“Hezbollah has a special unit dealing only with communication and psychological warfare,” Olivier Rafowicz said. “This unit is dealing with Al-Manar in the promotion of the image of Hezbollah. For many years, they have been strong, using television to try to demolish the morale of the soldiers and the population of Israel. They were filming their terror operations, for example. One team … specialized in filming the operations. When they were successful, the film was given to everyone in the world.”Mr. Rafowicz added that Sheik Nasrallah’s recent threats to strike Tel Aviv and a petrochemical facility in Haifa was a form of psychological warfare.

Israel War Effort Extends Even To Hezbollah TV

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