TEL AVIV — As Israel wages its defensive war against an array of Iranian-backed terror networks, another theater of conflict operates in parallel: an intense information war waged across Telegram, social media, and encrypted digital platforms. A recent example—a Telegram message reading ‘אתם באמת קונים את ההצגה הזו 👇’ (“Do you really buy this act?”)—serves as a case study in how psychological operations seek to manipulate public perception, undermine Israel’s legitimacy, and challenge the resilience of both Israeli citizens and international supporters.
This article investigates the origins, mechanisms, and broader context of this psychological warfare, tracing its strategic aims and operational methods. Against the backdrop of the unprecedented terror unleashed on October 7, 2023, by Hamas—resulting in the deadliest anti-Jewish atrocity since the Holocaust—Israel’s information front demands rigorous scrutiny, coordinated defense, and informed public vigilance.
Background: The War Imposed on Israel
On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists, directed and supported by Iran, infiltrated Jewish communities near Gaza, perpetrating massacres that claimed over 1,200 lives. In this single day, men, women, and children were deliberately murdered, many subjected to unspeakable cruelty including sexual violence, mutilation, and abduction. Over 250 innocent hostages were seized, initiating a human crisis with profound political, military, and moral ramifications. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), led by Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, have since undertaken a campaign to dismantle Hamas’s military infrastructure and rescue hostages, facing relentless rocket fire from Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria, as well as intensified malign activities by Iranian proxies across the region.
The Propaganda Battlefield
Alongside kinetic warfare, a digital onslaught targets Israel’s credibility and public cohesion. The cited Telegram message typifies a coordinated campaign that employs ambiguity, insinuation, and emotionally-driven skepticism to challenge official narratives, especially during moments of military engagement in Gaza and beyond. These messages circulate rapidly, often originating from channels run by Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Iranian-backed operatives. Their objective: erode faith in the IDF, weaken Israeli resolve, and delegitimize the nation’s right to self-defense.
Israeli intelligence agencies and cyber defense units have intensively documented these psychological operations. The campaigns typically utilize a mix of inauthentic social media accounts, manipulated media, fabricated witness testimonies, and distortion of genuine wartime footage. Automated bots and well-resourced digital networks further amplify the reach, muting Israeli voices by overwhelming online discourse with hostile messaging.
Iran’s Regional Strategy and Digital Offensive
These disinformation efforts are rooted in the strategic doctrine of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) oversees a complex ecosystem of online operatives across multiple countries, aiming to destabilize Israel and its allies by manipulating both local and international audiences. In practical terms, this means weaponizing the internet through thousands of coordinated digital assets—Telegram, Twitter, TikTok, and dark web forums—to inject confusion and propagate anti-Israel narratives in near real-time.
Hamas, with technical and logistical backing from Iran and Hezbollah, aggressively leverages digital channels to counteract Israeli military successes. The movement’s communications apparatus produces fake casualty figures, deceptive battlefield imagery, and orchestrated interviews, seeking to mold perceptions in the Arab world and among Western sympathizers. Evidence regularly shows these efforts dovetailing with scheduled rocket barrages or hostage negotiations, providing Hamas with crucial leverage on the international stage.
Moral and Legal Clarity
A foundational distinction sets Israel apart from its adversaries: the meticulous documentation and public transparency characterizing its military operations and responses to accusations. The IDF provides near-daily briefings, declassifies battlefield footage to verify incidents, and opens investigations into allegations including civilian harm—a practice absent among terror groups, who routinely employ civilian infrastructure as shields and manipulate images for propaganda. Independent monitors and international journalists, including those critical of Israeli policy, have confirmed the systematic nature of terror tactics by Hamas and affiliated militias, clarifying the evidentiary gap between verifiable Israeli action and unsubstantiated hostile allegations.
The Social Media Nexus: Telegram as a Digital Battleground
The virality of the “Do you really buy this act?” message exemplifies how Telegram channels operated by Iranian-aligned assets manufacture doubt at scale. The timing of such messages typically coincides with major Israeli counter-terrorism successes or the release of exculpatory evidence exposing Hamas’s use of human shields. Analysts at Israeli research institutions—including the Institute for National Security Studies—trace these posts to bot-driven amplification campaigns, designed to flood the feeds of Hebrew-speaking users and international observers alike.
These digital assaults synchronize with broader attempts to undermine Israeli morale and heighten distrust between Israel and its diaspora supporters abroad. Digital forensic teams, working alongside the National Cyber Directorate and NGOs such as FakeReporter, have successfully identified and neutralized networks behind several major misinformation outbreaks, including false claims about IDF casualties and fabricated appeals from supposed Israeli defectors.
Real-World Consequences: From Social Platforms to Policy
The repercussions extend far beyond mere online chatter. Misinformation can and does filter into mainstream news coverage, sometimes repeated uncritically by Western media outlets and international organizations. This dynamic facilitates the cycle whereby hostile actors frame Israeli self-defense as aggression, weaponize fabricated stories for diplomatic pressure, and embolden global antisemitic movements. When unsubstantiated claims of Israeli misconduct enter international legal bodies—such as United Nations commissions or the International Criminal Court—they risk codifying narrative warfare as diplomatic fact.
Israeli officials continue pressing social media platforms to enforce anti-misinformation policies, with some limited success. Yet enforcement remains patchy, especially on encrypted or regionally-operated services. The Israeli government also invests in educational campaigns and fact-checking resources, empowering ordinary citizens to identify and report suspicious content. The efforts are part of a wider, evolving doctrine recognizing that cyber and cognitive resilience are indispensable to national security.
Societal and Strategic Response
While Israel faces immense digital challenges, it also benefits from a highly engaged and digitally literate populace. Volunteers and professional watchdogs—many with backgrounds in intelligence or journalism—collaborate in monitoring, exposing, and countering malicious online activity. Efforts focus on amplifying verified news, supporting victims of cyber harassment (a rising problem seen targeting the families of hostages), and providing digital literacy training to vulnerable communities.
Moreover, survivor testimony and the open publication of atrocity documentation help anchor public discourse to reality. Families of hostages abducted by Hamas maintain a persistent online and media presence, sharing direct appeals and advocating for the recognition of the uniquely innocent status of these abductees—emphasizing the moral gulf between civilians unlawfully taken by terrorists and convicted terrorists sometimes released in prisoner exchanges. This moral and legal distinction remains a cornerstone of Israeli and international law and should not be obscured by digital propaganda.
The Fight for Historical Truth and Democratic Values
Israeli society, supported by democratic allies, understands that the stakes of psychological and propaganda warfare are nothing less than the preservation of historical truth and the integrity of democratic self-defense. As Israel pursues justice for its citizens, continues efforts to free innocent hostages, and repels Iranian-backed assaults, it must also persistently defend the factual record—rejecting both relativism and false equivalence.
The battle for information dominance is not merely tactical but existential; it shapes international responses, societal resilience, and, ultimately, the ability of Israel’s democracy to withstand a war imposed by an axis of state and non-state actors committed to its eradication.
Conclusion
As cyber and information warfare escalate, encounters with manipulative messages—such as ‘Do you really buy this act?’—will become ever more frequent and sophisticated. The Israeli approach, combining transparency, vigilance, and unwavering commitment to democratic norms, constitutes an essential line of defense. Upholding factual clarity, distinguishing between legitimate self-defense and terror, and exposing those who exploit global uncertainty for hostile ends is now a central mission for Israel’s government, military, and civil society.
In a world inundated with digital deception, truth itself has become a strategic asset. Israel, confronting physical and psychological threats alike, continues to defend both its existence and the principles that underpin free societies.
