#hasbara

Israel’s global propaganda machine is facing increasing legal pressure after influencers, consultants, and media companies filed lawsuits worth millions of shekels against the government, accusing it of failing to pay for work done in support of its international messaging campaign during Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the Calcalist reported on 5 March

According to Calcalist, many of the individuals involved say they were urgently recruited at the height of the war to promote Israeli narratives abroad, only to later discover that the government had not secured proper payment arrangements.

Investigations have since uncovered serious irregularities inside the Prime Minister’s Office, which took over Israel’s international messaging apparatus after the collapse of the Ministry of Information following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in October 2023.

[...]

Investigations and public filings have shown that Israeli-linked public relations firms paid US social media influencers thousands of dollars per post to promote pro-Israel narratives online.

Documents submitted under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) revealed payments averaging up to $7,000 per post as part of the so-called “Esther Project,” a propaganda campaign aimed at shaping public opinion on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram in favor of Israel, and demonizing its opposition.

Here's the problem:

When we speak, we're accused of propaganda.

When we mourn, we're accused of manipulation.

When we stay silent, we're called complicit.

When we ask questions, we're told we are gaslighting.

When we cite facts, we're told to stop 'doing hasbara.' .

This isn't hyperbole. This is the experience many Jews have today when we speak. Especially if we're defending ourselves. Especially if we're defending Israel's right to exist.

The structure of the trap is pretty familiar to Jews. Every word of defense becomes proof of guilt and even silence gets read as a confession.

It's a Kafka trap.

In a Kafka trap, denial of an accusation is taken as proof of the accusation.

Try to explain? That's exactly what a liar would do!

Don't respond? You must have something to hide!

It's a classic cult maneuver and a common abusive relationship tactic. And now, apparently, it's a feature of daily discourse for most Jews I know on North America.

The Kafka trap doesn't try to prove you're wrong. It starts from the assumption that you're guilty and frames your every move from that assumption.

When it comes to Jews in progressive political spaces, the trap has a favorite word: hasbara.

In Hebrew, hasbara simply means "explanation."

For decades, it referred to Israel’s public diplomacy efforts. These were mostly bureaucratic, sometimes tone-deaf, sometimes deeply flawed, but not some sinister conspiracy. Just a country making its case on the world stage, like every other country does.

The Western Left, as they have so many times, decided to make up it's own definition of our Hebrew word.

Today, the Western far Left uses "hasbara" as a smear. It's used to dismiss anything a Jew says in defense of Israel (or even in defense of themselves) as coordinated propaganda. It doesn't matter if it’s true. It doesn’t matter if it's personal. It doesn’t even matter if it's painful. If it threatens the dominant narrative, it gets rebranded as hasbara, which means it can be ignored or actively condemned as deceptive. (Those tricky, sneaky lying, Jews.)

The word doesn't describe what is being said,it just signals who is saying it...and what they are presumed to be.

It has become shorthand for:

This Jew is lying

This Jew is manipulating

This Jew is not grieving, they're performing

This Jew is not arguing, they're strategizing

This Jew is not human

It's a rhetorical equivalent of "shut up, Jew."

Anything you say is treated as propaganda.

Accurately describe the contents of the Hamas charter? You're fearmongering, you islamophobe.

Quote UN resolutions that contradict "apartheid" claims? You're cherry-picking.

Say anything after October 7? You're using Jewish trauma to justify genocide.

If you stay silent, it’s complicity.

Didn't post a ceasefire square? Complicit.

Not visibly protesting Israel on campus? Proof of indifference.

Grieving your murdered relatives quietly? Suspicious.

And if you cry out in pain or fear, it's performance.

Jewish emotion is rarely granted full humanity anymore. We're accused of centering ourselves, derailing, or manipulating.

Jewish fear? Privilege.

Jewish mourning? PR.

Jewish trauma? Hasbara again.

Mentioning Hamas's use of human shields? Justifying war crimes.

Referring to international law? Legalese in defense of apartheid.

Saying Israel is not a settler colony? Whitewashing colonial violence.

Providing context? Genocide denial.

Every possible Jewish expression, whether fact, feeling, silence, or sorrow...is preemptively framed as evidence of guilt.

This isn't just disagreement, this is dehumanization.

The redefinition of "hasbara" as "Jewish propaganda" discredits Jewish identity itself.

Once the label is applied, it doesn't matter what you say or why you say it. Your words are stripped of intent and interpreted only through suspicion. Your grief is strategic. Your arguments are scripted. Your voice is foreign.

You're not a person anymore. You're a function.

A symbol. A proxy. A problem.

This is why the the derisive, disparaging use of "hasbara" hits so hard. It doesn't critique messaging or truth, it refuses to believe you're a real person.

None of this is new.

The same tropes keep resurfacing over the centuries.

The cunning Jew

The manipulative Jew

The powerful Jew behind the curtain

The emotional Jew as threat and a deceptive performance

But there's uodated phrasing for modern libels.

Instead of saying "you control the media," it's "your narrative is hegemonic."

Instead of 'international Jewish conspiracy," it's "coordinated hasbara machine."

Instead of "your tears are fake," it’s "you’re weaponizing trauma."

Same ideas, different words.

You're not heard. You're categorically denied your humanity. You're denied debate, your complexity is flattened, you're denied participation in the discourse. All you get is accusation.

So maybe you withdraw, self-censor, or collapse into shame. Maybe you internalize the message that your speech is poison, and your pain is violence.

You are only allowed to speak if your pain is politically useful to someone else.

When Jewish speech is pre-framed as aggression, when Jewish grief is mistranslated as manipulation, and when every defense is re-coded as offense...what remains?

If everything a Jew says is dismissed as "hasbara," if our facts are propaganda, if our mourning is performative, and if our silence is complicity...what the fuck do you want from us?

What would we have to do to earn the right to speak, to grieve, to disagree, to survive?

What would it take to be believed when we say we're in pain?

This year’s Super Bowl was a weapon of mass distraction. If there’s any justice, future generations will remember the game not for Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, or Taylor Swift but for the US-funded attacks on Palestinian civilians that occurred while so many Americans were glued to their TVs. During the game, watched by well over 100 million people in the United States, Israel launched a bombing raid of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, the most densely populated area on earth. More than 1 million people had fled now-leveled Gaza City to the refugee camps in Rafah and surrounding areas. Palestinians who have survived previous Israeli strikes are now staving off disease, destitution, and fear.

Meanwhile, CBS granted the Israeli government space for an ad about the 130 hostages left in Gaza. This ad, meant to build public support and justify the slaughter of nearly 30,000 civilians in Gaza, spurred 10,000 people to register complaints with the FCC, because the commercial did not disclose that a foreign government had paid for it. Coupled with the Rafah raid, this looks more like military synergy than happenstance. 

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft also spent $7 million on an ad from his organization Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism. It features Clarence Jones, a 93-year-old former speech writer for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Kraft and other pro-war billionaires use the memory of King so much, they should be paying his family indulgences for slandering his name. The ad failed to mention that Kraft has given $1 million to pro-war AIPAC and donated $1 million in 2016 to Donald Trump’s inauguration. Given that Kraft says that the Nazi march in Charlottesville was his motivation to start his foundation (Charlottesville was the one with “good people on both sides,” according to Trump), his hypocrisy is insidious.

Kraft and Israel want the same thing: a blank check to uproot Palestinians from Gaza and build settlements. One can also only imagine if a peace organization tried to buy an ad asking Israel and the United States the question: “How many dead children will be enough?” I suspect it would be denied faster than a public-service announcement about concussions.

Israel Has Bought a Mass Online Influence System to Counter Antisemitism, Hamas Atrocity Denial

Defense, intelligence and civilian bodies realized soon after October 7 they were losing the online battle to what sources call Hamas' 'well-oiled psychological and information warfare machine.' So they quietly purchased digital tools to fight disinformation, despite fears of future political misuse

Israel has responded to its "clear loss" to Hamas on the digital battlefield by making its first-ever purchase of a technological system capable of conducting mass online influence campaigns, according to numerous sources with knowledge of the matter.

The system can, among other things, automatically create content tailored to specific audiences. The technology was purchased as part of a wider attempt by Israeli bodies, both civilian and military, to address what sources termed "Israel's public diplomacy failure" following the Hamas massacre on October 7 and subsequent war.

During the Holocaust, Nazis would paint the Star of David on the homes of Jewish people – marking them for forced eviction.

Zionists do the same to Palestinians. The Star of David marks a Palestinian home for eviction, and then destruction.