There have been warnings and woes about fake social media accounts, and different countries, notably Russia and China, accused of using disinformation to sow discord in America and influence U.S. politics.
Some have lost their minds claiming Black folk and young people are falling for an orchestrated, digital flimflam pushing them to drop out of the political process.
But you haven’t heard about Israel spending millions of dollars on fake news, fake accounts, fake images and fake stories to pressure Black lawmakers, in particular, and others to back the Zionist nation’s genocide in Gaza, while telling lies about anti-Semitism at campus protests, crushing criticism and keeping U.S. aid dollars flowing.
“The Israeli government spent millions of dollars to fund a covert, ongoing social media campaign to create an illusion of stronger pro-Israel sentiment in order to push U.S. politicians to send more military funding to bankroll the Gaza genocide and other Israeli atrocities, a new bombshell report finds,” wrote Sharon Zhang for TruthOut.org June 5.
She added that “Haaretz and The New York Times detail how, in October, the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs allocated $2 million to an astroturf campaign to create hundreds of fake accounts across X, Facebook and Instagram. The reporting is based in part on reports of fake accounts uncovered by research group FakeReporter that began documenting the campaign shortly after it began last year.”
“The posts were aimed at placing blame for Israel’s slaughter on Hamas, accusing college pro-Palestine protesters of being anti-Semitic (without evidence), vilifying the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and urging lawmakers to approve packages like the U.S.’s recent $15 billion influx of military assistance to Israel. Fake English news websites touting pro-Israel and extreme Islamophobic material were also created as part of the campaign.
The accounts were disguised as concerned American students and constituents and cited articles by fake websites called Non-Agenda or UnFold Magazine, for instance, that copied and reprinted articles with a pro-Israel bent from news websites like The Wall Street Journal or The Jerusalem Post. Many posts were written by ChatGPT, as owner OpenAI confirmed, and Meta has claimed to have worked to disrupt the campaign,” writer Zhang continued.
“Still, the revelations are a stunning show of an attempt at foreign influence on U.S. politics and lawmaking by an ally of the U.S., perhaps echoing Russia’s attempt to interfere in the 2016 elections—an act that spurred a political flurry that lasted for years, prompting droves of hearings and investigations in Congress,” observed writer Zhang.
OpenAI, whose “ChatGPT has gained more than 100 million users” since 2022, reported the covert Israeli activity along with secret Russian and Chinese operations, according to NPR.
Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, issued similar findings in a quarterly report, the news outlet added.
OpenAI and Meta reported disrupting activity “traced back to a political marketing firm in Tel Aviv called Stoic. Fake accounts posed as Jewish students, African-Americans, and concerned citizens. They posted about the war in Gaza, praised Israel’s military, and criticized college anti-Semitism and the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, according to Meta.
The posts were aimed at audiences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. Meta banned Stoic from its platforms and sent the company a cease and desist letter,” NPR reported May 31.
“OpenAI said the Israeli operation used AI to generate and edit articles and comments posted across Instagram, Facebook, and X, as well as to create fictitious personas and bios for fake accounts.”
With rivalries between the U.S., China and Russia, it’s expected that these nations would use virtually every tool available to inflict some damage on one another. But Israel is supposed to be America’s billion-dollar, ironclad ally and a democracy, so why is she meddling in U.S. affairs again?
This isn’t the first time Israel has been engaged in anti-American operations inside of America. There are reports of cases going back to the 1950s.
The Jonathan Pollard spying scandal is the most notorious case: The American citizen and civilian defense analyst was caught selling classified secrets to Israel. He was given life in prison in 1987. His release was lobbied for by Israel, which gave him citizenship, and he was paroled in 2015.
He had worked for the U.S. Navy’s Anti-Terrorist Alert Center and contacted the Israeli embassy about secret information from the State Dept., Defense Dept., Justice Dept., CIA, and the National Security Agency. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger said Mr. Pollard did serious damage to national security. The traitor moved to Israel in 2020 after his parole conditions had eased.
Given the hatred, heated rhetoric and hot-blooded emotions driving much of American politics, an “ally” stoking internal enmity, manipulating lawmakers and U.S. citizens is a threat to the country.
That fact that Blacks, Black politicians and anti-Zionist congressional representatives are targets should alarm us. Why the constant interference, lies, political bribes and going after our community and elected officials? If the intentions are noble and rooted in truth, why the Israeli government’s million-dollar secret operations?
Are we still seen as their slaves? Are we still tools to be used by Zionists as they see fit? Or do powerful Jewish groups and the Israeli government see us rising in knowledge and growing to determine what positions to take, which “friends” to embrace and which sides to choose? It’s time that we act as an independent people choosing our friends, identifying our enemies and pursuing our interests. Isn’t that what Israel is doing?
Naba’a Muhammad is editor-in-chief of The Final Call newspaper. He can be reached via www.finalcall.com and [email protected]. Find him on Facebook. Follow @Rmfinalcall on X, formerly Twitter.
