{"id":190801,"date":"2019-06-30T10:28:34","date_gmt":"2019-06-30T10:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=190801"},"modified":"2019-07-03T05:26:12","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T05:26:12","slug":"how-israeli-spies-are-flooding-facebook-and-twitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=190801","title":{"rendered":"How Israeli spies are flooding Facebook and Twitter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asa Winstanley \u2013 The Electronic Intifada June 25, 2019<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Act.IL\u2019s Yarden Ben Yosef appearing at a 2018 AIPAC panel with funder of The Israel Project Adam Milstein, and Jacob Baime, another US Israel lobby operative who has privately admitted to coordinating with Israel\u2019s anti-BDS ministry. (Facebook). Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

Israel secretly operates<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span> a troll army of thousands, partly funded by a government department.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ministry of Strategic Affairs is dedicated to a global \u201cwar\u201d against BDS<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement for Palestinian rights.<\/span><\/p>\n

To conceal its involvement, the ministry has admitted<\/a><\/strong><\/span> to working through front groups that \u201cdo not want to expose their connection with the state.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The troll army Act.IL<\/a><\/strong><\/span> is one of many such groups. It focuses on spreading Israeli propaganda online.<\/span><\/p>\n

What does it do with its million dollar budget?<\/span><\/p>\n

Act.IL is run by a former Israeli spy who has argued<\/strong><\/span><\/a> that his outfit is involved in \u201ca new kind of war.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While Act.IL publicly denies<\/strong><\/span><\/a> being supported by the Israeli government, the group\u2019s chief executive has admitted in Hebrew to working closely with Israeli ministries, and in English that his staff are mostly former Israeli spies.<\/span><\/p>\n

His name is Yarden Ben Yosef. Last year, he explained<\/strong><\/span><\/a> his group\u2019s methods in an article for a journal<\/strong><\/span><\/a> aimed at Israeli diplomats. He lamented that \u2013 in Gaza that May \u2013 \u201cthe Palestinian narrative prevailed in world media over the Israeli one.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Israeli snipers had massacred more than 60 unarmed Palestinian protesters<\/strong><\/span><\/a> on a single day during the Great March of Return<\/a> protests, injuring thousands more.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben Yosef advocated for \u201cinserting ourselves\u201d into online discussions, because readers nowadays see the comments section under articles published by websites as part of the story.<\/span><\/p>\n

Operational links<\/h2>\n

Using sophisticated \u201cmonitoring software,\u201d he wrote, Act.IL closely watched news and social media the week before the opening of the new US embassy in Jerusalem \u2013 one of the triggers for the Palestinian protests.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben Yosef explained that \u201ccontrolling the online media discussion became our top priority.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He claimed victory in these efforts, successfully \u201cbumping the pro-Israeli comments to the top of the list in 85 percent of the cases.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He wrote that this strategy allows Israel to circumvent its \u201climited ability to influence world public opinion during crises\u201d due to the \u201cofficial identity\u201d of government agencies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Supposedly \u201cgrassroots\u201d groups like Act.IL work as convenient fronts for Israel to do just that.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a Hebrew-only interview<\/a><\/strong><\/span> with Forbes Israel<\/em> last year, Ben Yosef made Act.IL\u2019s ongoing operational links with the state even more explicit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with the Ministry of Strategic Affairs,\u201d he admitted. Ben Yosef added that Act.IL seeks the advice of these ministries and undertakes \u201cjoint projects\u201d with them.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said this was done \u201cwithout remuneration\u201d \u2013 a claim undermined by funding disclosures made by the Ministry of Strategic Affairs in 2017<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are these \u201cjoint projects\u201d and how exactly do they work?<\/span><\/p>\n

Messaging<\/h2>\n

The front page of Act.IL\u2019s website<\/strong><\/span><\/a> lays out some of its main propaganda themes: Hamas is evil, while Israel is diverse, Israel \u201cis NOT an apartheid state,\u201d and Palestine solidarity activists are against \u201cfreedom of speech.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, the aim is to smear Palestinians and their supporters, while simultaneously changing the subject and distracting from Israel\u2019s human rights abuses.<\/span><\/p>\n

In its whitewashing, Act.IL seems to have a weakness for the cringeworthy \u2013 a trait fairly typical of such state-backed fake grassroots groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

One slogan is titled \u201cIsrael Extreme Yourself,\u201d which Act.IL describes as \u201ca cool and fresh way\u201d to promote Israel through \u201cextreme sports.\u201d The video shows young Israelis surfing, snowboarding and skydiving.<\/span><\/p>\n

Act.IL claims \u201cthe video reached more than 250K views and over 2,000 shares\u201d within its first 36 hours of being posted. But the video<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>that the website links to in fact had less than 2,000 views on YouTube as of this writing<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Another of its campaigns is more sinister. It involves using the common right-wing slur<\/a><\/strong><\/span> \u201cPallywood\u201d to smear Palestinians as inherent liars.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such racist conspiracy theories seem to inform much of Act.IL\u2019s propaganda \u2013 its chief executive Yarden Ben Yosef has also retweeted<\/strong><\/span><\/a> notorious Islamophobe Daniel Pipes<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Origins<\/h2>\n

Act.IL\u2019s roots lay in the Interdisciplinary Center, or IDC<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, in Herzliya, an Israeli university with close links to the state\u2019s intelligence agencies<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Act.IL also has close ties to the Israeli American Council<\/strong><\/span><\/a> \u2013 a right-wing lobby group funded<\/a><\/strong><\/span> by Sheldon Adelson<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, a billionaire casino magnate who was the top donor<\/a><\/strong><\/span> to Donald Trump\u2019s presidential election campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Israeli American Council is led by<\/strong><\/span><\/a> Adam Milstein<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, a real estate mogul once imprisoned<\/strong><\/span><\/a> for tax fraud.<\/span><\/p>\n

Supplementing the funding from Israel\u2019s anti-BDS ministry, Adelson has also donated<\/a><\/strong><\/span> to Act.IL.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the Act.IL website states<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, the idea for the app came from short term \u201csituation rooms\u201d that operated in Herzliya during the major Israeli attacks on Gaza in 2012<\/a><\/strong><\/span> and 2014<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each of these \u201csituation rooms\u201d was titled \u201chasbara war room\u201d in Hebrew. Literally translated as \u201cexplanation,\u201d hasbara<\/em> is a common Hebrew word for \u201cpropaganda.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As The Electronic Intifada reported<\/a><\/strong><\/span> at the time, the 2014 \u201cwar room\u201d was established by Yarden Ben Yosef \u2013 then chair of the IDC student union.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was Ben Yosef who founded Act.IL, and still works as the organization\u2019s chief executive.<\/span><\/p>\n

A leaked Act.IL report<\/a><\/strong><\/span> dates the group\u2019s founding to 2015 \u2013 although the app was not formally launched until 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to his online profile<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, Ben Yosef was a captain in Israeli military intelligence \u2013 \u201cin a special combat intelligence unit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Forward<\/em> reported in 2017<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>that Ben Yosef spent eight years in that role, and admitted that \u201cAct.IL\u2019s staff is largely made up of former Israeli intelligence officers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With such ties, it\u2019s no wonder that Israel\u2019s Ministry of Strategic Affairs felt comfortable plowing large sums into Ben Yosef\u2019s project.<\/span><\/p>\n

As The Electronic Intifada has reported<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, this anti-BDS ministry is staffed<\/strong><\/span><\/a> by \u201cformer\u201d Israeli spies, mostly from Aman<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, Israel\u2019s military intelligence agency.<\/span><\/p>\n

Led by Gilad Erdan \u2013 a prominent figure in the Likud party \u2013 the ministry is responsible for a campaign of \u201cblack ops\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/span> with a global reach.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Israel\u2019s app: \u201ckeep politics separate from music.\u201d<\/p>\n

also Israel\u2019s app: \u201cWe need YOU to spread messages of positivity to prevent the Eurovision participants from being bullied by anti-Israel organizations\u201d #MusicFirst<\/a> #Eurovision<\/a> #BoycottEurovision2019<\/a> #DareToDream<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/3XyBGRjoxw<\/a><\/p>\n

— Behind Israel's Troll Army (@AntiBDSApp) May 14, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n