1) At the INSS, Nitsan Yasur and Danny Citrinowicz analyse ‘Iranian Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference During the Swords of Iron War’.
“Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, the Iranian influence operations have focused on issues related to the war and the attempt to sow distrust and demoralization, incite violence against Arab citizens, and deeply penetrate the discourse surrounding the issue of the return of the hostages. These operations have been conducted on a variety of social media platforms, have used artificial intelligence tools, and have simultaneously attempted to influence both the general public and individuals to advance the operations’ objectives.”
2) At the Alma Center, Boaz Shapira reports on the ‘Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force (IRGC-ASF)’.
“The escalating direct confrontation between Israel and Iran, marked by a series of retaliatory strikes, has brought the IRGC’s Aerospace Force into the spotlight. This force is responsible for deploying drones, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, air defense systems, and radar technologies, and its personnel are the primary operators behind both attacks on Israel.”
3) PMW explains why the headline to a recent BBC report is misleading.
“Nowhere, however, does the BBC mention that the fatwa author does not have any criticism of the October 7 atrocities against Israelis, which was the overt message of its headline and opening sentence: “Gaza’s top Islamic scholar issues fatwa criticizing 7 October attack. The most prominent Islamic scholar in Gaza has issued a rare, powerful fatwa condemning Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel…”
Much has been written and publicized accusing the BBC of significant misrepresentation and anti-Israel bias. Headlining an article to give the readers the impression that the Oct. 7 atrocities were criticized by a leading Gazan religious figure can now be added to that list.”
4) At the JCFA, Tirza Shorr discusses ‘UNRWA’s “Palestine Refugee” Hoax’.
“In normal circumstances, a person ceases to be defined as a “refugee” once he or she receives permanent residency in a foreign country and certainly when they receive citizenship in their country of residence or other citizenship. UNRWA’s population dashboard, not only ignores natural or even forced migration, but it also ignores the question of whether the “refugee” has either permanently settled in a foreign country or even received citizenship. Thus, potentially, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of the so-called “Palestine refugees” could potentially hold foreign citizenship and would not be considered in any other circumstances to still be “refugees.””
5) The ITIC reports on ‘Antisemitism in the Arab-Muslim World during the Gaza Strip War’.
“The Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, and the outbreak of the Gaza Strip War ignited the largest wave of antisemitism and hatred of Jews worldwide since the end of World War Two. That hatred is reflected in the Arab-Muslim world, from the Iranian-led resistance axis, with terrorist organizations like Hamas and the Houthis, to the so-called “moderate” Sunni countries such as Turkey and Qatar.
In the Arab-Muslim world, antisemitism inundates newspaper articles and cartoons, statements by influential religious and political leaders, and the social media, where posters explicitly call for attacks on Jews. They use a combination of anti-Jewish themes from traditional Islamic texts and classic European antisemitic motifs, such as those in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
6) At the Fathom Journal, Alan Johnson sits down with Balázs Berkovits to discuss ‘“Critical Whiteness Studies” and the Demonisation of Israel’.
“…the inclusion of Israel among the ‘settler colonial’ states is conceptually (and much less empirically) directed, first, by the manipulation of the usual binary oppositions: native—settler, indigenous—European colonists, oppressor—oppressed; second, by the conceptual association of settler colonialism (or the act of settlement) with a so-called fundamental intention of the ‘elimination of the native’ comprising ethnic cleansing, murder, and even genocide; and, third, by seemingly empirical comparisons to other settler colonies—which are at best superficial and far-fetched, and at worst totally factitious.”
