Live data from Hacker News

Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

haaretz.com

171–180 of 807 posts

Re: Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

"Getting stuff wrong" by not corroborating facts using reliable sources is not acceptable for a news organization.

You're right, but just want to dispute the claim that NYTimes is somehow Israeli propaganda - I think it's clearly not.

Re: Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best part is when it comes from our own "newspaper of record" i.e. with the extraordinarily dubious "mass rape" article the NYT published. They finally dismissed the one Israel-connected reporter who had liked tweets calling for a brutal response against Gaza, but that of course has seen about one billionth the attention that her original claims continue to receive. You also get stuff like the POTUS repeating lie…

I have struggled to even look at my News app anymore. Next to articles about the protests or other things, there are the articles about the hostages or something else that just feels like a propaganda piece aimed at one thing. And that is just the headlines.

[flagged]

Re: Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

#174

I find it quite concerning just how much propaganda the US seems to get from Israel. Where I live there are big billboards around, I regularly see ads on YouTube. I know propaganda is a thing, but it feels like we are getting more about a foreign government than our own. I feel like before what is going on now I was aware of some of the groups responsible for this being a thing, but was not fully aware just how much…

On the other side of town where I live, billboards appeared with slogans like "Be pro-Semitic." This happened almost immediately after the latest conflict involving Israel began. So I can't just be against anti-Semites, but I have to be pro Jewish ethnicity? Interesting. There was also one stating that anti-zionism is anti-Semitic; I guess my Jewish friends and family who are not Zionists didn't get the memo.

I can't prove that these are somehow connected to funding from Israel, but it seemed like these billboards were ready to go at a moment's notice.

As far as why we deem foreign propaganda as acceptable, I like to think that we play dumb about it in part so we can strategically point it out when it is in the favor of politicians and/or elites. Remember how Russian propaganda supposedly got Trump elected even though it was going on during prior years when the establishment insisted on the integrity of the elections? On the other hand, maybe we are just dumb.

Re: Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

#175
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best part is when it comes from our own "newspaper of record" i.e. with the extraordinarily dubious "mass rape" article the NYT published. They finally dismissed the one Israel-connected reporter who had liked tweets calling for a brutal response against Gaza, but that of course has seen about one billionth the attention that her original claims continue to receive. You also get stuff like the POTUS repeating lie…

[flagged]

> The real problem here isn't the POTUS repeating some rumour that was going around.

It wasn't “a rumor going around”, it was Israeli state propaganda which both started and continued for a long timw to be pushed by Israeli state organs (official sources like the Foreign Ministry, not just proxies.)

Re: Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

#176

I find it quite concerning just how much propaganda the US seems to get from Israel. Where I live there are big billboards around, I regularly see ads on YouTube. I know propaganda is a thing, but it feels like we are getting more about a foreign government than our own. I feel like before what is going on now I was aware of some of the groups responsible for this being a thing, but was not fully aware just how much…

Wait until you read up on NUMEC and Rafael Eitan.

Re: Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best part is when it comes from our own "newspaper of record" i.e. with the extraordinarily dubious "mass rape" article the NYT published. They finally dismissed the one Israel-connected reporter who had liked tweets calling for a brutal response against Gaza, but that of course has seen about one billionth the attention that her original claims continue to receive. You also get stuff like the POTUS repeating lie…

[flagged]

This line of propaganda is kind of infuriating. Separate from this incident, Israel bombed afaik every hospital in Gaza. They claimed Hamas was operating inside them or under them and produced absolutely zero credible evidence of it. They killed a lot of doctors and patients. But if they start out polluting minds with the claim that one time at the Al Ahli parking lot, there was an Islamic Jihad rocket once, they then by extension use that to imply that Hamas is somehow responsible for all the deaths in hospitals that happen by Israeli hands on every other day.

Re: Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

#179

Not a comment about who's right or wrong in this war, but it is fascinating that we have entered the age of the Internet being a place where warfare is fought. There have always been people posting web content about conflicts but now with Gaza and Ukraine, it seems that the nations fighting are actively looking at the internet as the fourth field of battle. Just waiting for a random US future president to create an "…

Eglin Air Force Base and their involvement with Reddit...

Re: Israel reportedly used fake social accounts to garner support from US lawmakers

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

I am so sick of the claim that if you criticize Israel you must have something against Jews.

Jews are a loosely-defined, globally-distributed cultural group. Israel is a specific, concrete sovereign country. It is a bit like saying if you criticize Venezuela then you must hate "Latinos".

I know for sure that my reasons for criticizing Israel have nothing to do with dislike of Jews. Why? Because I'm inside my own mind, so I would know if I had anything against Jews or not, and I don't.

There are plenty of reasons people care more about Israel's actions than those of any random country that have nothing to do with the fact that Israel is populated mostly by Jews, including:

1. It has historical and cultural ties to Western countries, so Westerners feel naturally interested in what goes on there (see also: why people care more about what's happening in Ukraine than in other armed conflicts around the globe),

2. Israel has a much higher degree of influence over American politics than any other foreign country, which bothers people,

3. It is largely propped up by U.S. aid, so Americans feel responsible for it,

4. Because of point 3., it is one of the only global problems that Americans have a realistic chance of solving by protesting.

Post reply on HN