We (Israel) are not a superpower that can handle threats on seven fronts at full force. We are not the United States. We don’t have the capabilities, the tools, or the resources.
Avi Dichter, an Israeli Minister in Netanyahu’s governemnt, admitting that Israel has been outwitted by Iran and the Resistance Axis.
Israel has been defeated in the asymmetric war that started on October 7, 2023; but this post discusses how Israel should have handled perception management in a better way. This post is the follow-up to the post titled, How Team Kagirison Would Have Engaged in Narrative Management for Israel. For background information on the theater of conflict that we focuses on now, we recommend the post titled, Information Warfare Against Israel Following Propaganda of the Deed Attacks.
Table of Contents
The human being has no direct interaction with the real world, and all his/her interactions are mediated by the brain and mind i.e there is no immediate perception of reality, only mediated perception.
Antony Kagirison
Failure to include strategic communication during the planning of a campaign leads to poor communications and the broadcasting of bad narratives
Antony Kagirison
An idea with staying power can generate a long war if it is countered by purely kinetic means.
There is no direct perception of reality. Anatomically and physiologically, the nerves serve to perceive reality, and then relay their perception as electrical signals to the human brain that interprets these signals using the neurophysiological law of specific nerve energies and the all-or-none principle.
Reflex Action and the Conditioned Reflex
Interestingly, there exists the somatic reflex which is a product of an anatomical pathway known as the reflex arc that connects a series of nerves in a way that bypasses the human brain. In the reflex arc, the signals are not interpreted by the brain, but instead trigger muscle actions of flexion and extension of opposite muscle pair known as the reflex action e.g gagging, coughing, and flexing of the arm.
The power of the human brain is evident by the fact that it can modify the reflex through a process of learning, and the consequent modified reflex is called the conditioned reflex. For example, one can be trained to suppress a cough when the tracheal walls are irritated, which explains why trained soldiers cannot give out their positions by audible coughs when they inhale irritant gasses – which could be pumped into confined spaces e.g. inside tunnels. However, ordinary people can cough and thus give away their positions e.g. captives in the tunnel can easily cough and thus can be reached by rescue teams.
Terrorism of Fear
Cultures can create reflex actions that are analogous to the somatic reflex. Ideologies – including religious ideologies – can cause a person to develop conditioned reflexes. In other words, ideologies can modify cultures, and this is reflected in the indoctrinated person. For example, an indoctrinated person can develop a physiological conditioned reflex upon hearing or reading specific types of news. This explains why news about the Hamas attack elicited impassioned elation among Islamic extremists, while ordinary people were disgusted by this attack. Disgust is the reflex action, while elation is the conditioned reflex. It is for this reason that the Israeli government started releasing gory images of civilians and innocent people killed by Hamas terrorists.
To sane people, the gory images elicited reflexes of disgust and invalidation of the ideology promoted by Hamas and its backers. Ironically, this action by the Israeli government dovetails with one of Hamas’s objectives which can be aptly designated as terrorism of fear. This objective can be summarized as: terrorize Israeli civilians and communicate fear to the Israeli public.
Cultures can create reflex actions that are analogous to the somatic reflex
Information Operation
Perception management falls under strategic communication. Strategic communication is made up of three components; soft power, public diplomacy, and information operations. Under information operations falls perception management, civil-military cooperative engagements, psychological operations (psyops), and computer network operations (CNO).
Information operations are critical to any significant international conflict as attested to by the fact that the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was the Office of War Information (OWI) and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
OWI reviewed film scripts and censored those films that cast the American military in bad light, and thus engaged in media manipulation and reputation management. The OSS conducted psyops against enemy audiences, and its successor organization – the CIA – continues this task to date.
Normally, strategic communications is part and parcel of the early planning phase of any war campaign. Failure to include strategic communication during the planning of a campaign leads to poor communications and the broadcasting of bad narratives.
Perception Management and the PCI Model
To us, perception management encompasses:
- Audience Analysis. This involves a similar process to audience profiling in narrative management.
- Impression Management.
- Media Intelligence.
- Reputation Management.
- Media Manipulation.
According to Antony Kagirison, perception management involves a set of actions, with each action being tailored toward an audience to either convey or deny a selected piece of information.
In our case, this audience is a mix of foreign and domestic audiences. The goal of our perception management is to influence their objective reasoning (for the educated rational people or Stage Orange [Graves Code E-R] people in the Spiral Dynamics Model [SDM]) or emotions (for the people in Stages Beige, Purple, Red, and Blue in the Spiral Dynamics Model). This is the I (or influence) component in the PCI (Persuade, Change, and Influence) model.
In governments and organizations (including intelligence organizations), influencing the objective reasoning and emotions of their leaders and members shapes how they will assess the threat, as well as how to respond to this threat, and in this way, we influence their threat perception, and in effect change the motives of their subsequent actions. This ultimately changes how they respond to events. This is the C (or Change) component of the PCI model. As expected, we aim to manipulate their perception of reality so that they take actions that align with our mission e.g. fostering internal dissension among Sunni extremists.
The P (or Persuade) component of the PCI model is managed by narrative management, media manipulation, and impression management.
Approach to Perception Management
Perception management (PM) combines the following areas of specialization into a cohesive deployable program: psychological operations, operations security, deception and cover, and truth projection. This allows for perception management to wage a “war” against a selected idea.
How do you fight an idea most efficiently? Do you use weapons and kinetic war? Do you try to win hearts and minds? If this objectionable idea powers a war, what is the best way to win this war?
Let us start by saying that an idea with staying power can generate a long war if it is countered by purely kinetic means. A better approach is to appreciate the fact that the battlespace is made up of two interdependent “spaces” – the physical battlefield and the mental (or ideological) battlefield. This calls for the use of a combined kinetic-PM (Perception Management) approach.
So far, the media supporters of Hamas have tried to use truth projection to gain support among non-Muslims in the Occident, especially academics and liberals in universities. In our opinion, Israeli propagandists who are describing the current generation of teenagers and youth as the “Hamas Generation” are doing a disservice to Israel and its vital interests. Moreover, Israeli officials have exhibited undue hubris in their messaging to young Americans, and in turn, Israel has lost significant support from these cohort of Americans who will eventually be the key decision makers in future when the current boomer generation dies off. At this time, Israel will be in trouble as it will not be assured of considerable American support, even if Israeli officials try to project Israel as the client state of USA.
A better approach is for us to use our narrative deconstruction and narrative amplification strategies to undermine the ability of Hamas supporters to engage in truth projection, narrative consolidation, and media manipulation.
For instance, we can explain how Shia clerics in Iran are using Sunnis as cannon fodder in their conflict with Israel, and so far, Iran has never provided any real on-the-ground support for Hamas despite goading Hamas to waste the lives and property of Sunni Palestinians in a doomed war against Israel.
To Iranians, we will argue that their government is wasting their taxpayers’ money in promoting Sunni terrorism, and one of the main principal targets of Sunni terrorism is the Shia populace. This will allow us to argue that the Iranian government is funding enemies of Shia Iranians despite projecting itself as the God-appointed protectors of the Shia faithful.
In the battlefield, there exists a self-evident kinetic asymmetry between the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas. IDF is better resourced and has better quality soldiers than Hamas; and Hamas and its supporters know this. For this reason, Hamas seeks a different form of victory.
Asymmetric Victory: A Different Form Of Victory
Essentially, this war cannot be won on the physical battlefield alone because Hamas and its supporters aim to score a victory on the mental battlefield. What will this victory look like?
To begin with, there will be an ideological rift between Israel and the Occident thus breaching the fabric that keeps the Western World united against a shared threat. The pronouncements made on February 12, 2024, by the Foreign Policy Chief of the EU, Josep Borrell Fontelles, that USG should stop arming Israel should be interpreted in this light.
Secondly, the foreign policies of the American andEuropean governments, as well as GCC Monarchies (sans Qatar) will be discredited.
Thirdly, there will be calls for the United Nations to be reformed or be done away with in favor of new international blocs such as BRICS+ which is likely to bar Israel from joining. BRICS is an intergovernmental organization that was initially formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa; and has now added UAE, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Iran as member states. It is highly likely that BRICS or its successor multinational organization (MNO) would never admit Israel as one of its member states. One of the reasons for forming BRICS was to attenuate the power that USG and EU exercise on UN. Relatedly, rise of alternative international blocs would weaken the American-led world order. There are already calls for a multipolar world where the Global East and the Global South would have the ability to stand up to the so-called Golden Billion (a euphemism for the Occident).
To date, Hamas has been able to broadcast its ideas to a wide audience by using reporting on the Israeli-Hamas war to engage in information laundering using established global media companies. Likewise, the Israel-Hamas War has given some advantages to Iran and Russia.
On the European front, the Israel-Hamas conflict distracts the attention away from the Ukraine War, while diverting some of the military (and non-military) resources from Ukraine to Israel, thus relieving some pressure on Russia. For Iran and its Shia Expeditionary Force (SEF), they celebrate the fact that they have used their armed Sunni Non-State Actors (NSA) enemies to fight against Israel, and in the process weaken both, while simultaneously forcing both to expend resources and hurt their economies as well as diminish their ability to face off the SEF if need be. To worsen matters, if Israelis are scared and flee Israel, then Iran and other backers of Hamas will achieve a monumental ideological victory by using their armed Sunni rivals to weaken Zionism and defeat the will of Israelis to exist as sovereign citizens of a sovereign Zionist homeland. It is this quest for an ideological victory that explains why Iran hosts anti-Zionist Haredi like Neturei Kartawho are against Israel’s existence.
If Israelis are scared and flee Israel, then Iran and other backers of Hamas will achieve a monumental ideological victory by using their armed Sunni rivals to weaken Zionism and defeat the will of Israelis to exist as sovereign citizens of a sovereign Zionist homeland
Information Space
The battlespace of information warfare, psyops, and perception management is the information space (or info-space) and the soldiers in this battle are called information troops. In fact, the Russian Defense Ministry created a special category of combatant called the information operation troop (IOT) in 2014 to engage in “cyber-confrontations with potential adversaries” as reported by the investigative media, Meduza in 2018. The IOT falls under the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (or GRU or simply Special Forces Division of the Military Intelligence Agency).
Just as the physical battlespace exists in the geosphere (or Earth), the info-space exists in the information sphere (or info-sphere).
In the info-space, anyone with the right communication skills and cognitive abilities can be an information troop (IfT), and the barrier of entry is low because one needs cheap internet connection, a smartphone or a personal computer, and a social media presence to become an active IfT. An IfT can engage in truth projection, misinformation, and disinformation depending on the target audience. Therefore, an IfT is a potential information warrior (or info warrioror simply IfW) if (s)he engages in reporting or truth projection, or a disinformation warrior (or disinfo warrior or DfW) if (s)he engages in spreading disinformation. An information troop becomes a misinformation warrior (misinfo warrior or MfW) if (s)he engages in spreading misinformation.
New Media and Strategic Citizen Journalism
If the information warrior creates media-grade content e.g video reports recorded using Smartphone cameras, then (s)he becomes a citizen journalist. To us, there is no clear demarcation between a citizen journalist and an information warrior, and we can use the label citizen journalist to describe any information warrior who creates media-grade content. Because a citizen journalist engages in citizen journalism, then this information warrior will be engaging in a special form of citizen journalism that we will simply call Strategic Citizen Journalism (SCJ). Strategic Citizen Journalism is a form of new media.
To appreciate the importance of new media, consider the fact that the new media is credited with creating the niche of citizen journalism. Equally, consider the uptake of new media by al-Qaeda and its offshoot – the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria/al-Sham (ISIS).
Al-Qaeda and ISIS have used new media to broadcast their messages (for ideological indoctrination and justification of actions), combat footages (to strike terror in enemies and proof to their audience that they engage in successful kinetic operations), and (broadcast) gory executions of rivals e.g recorded beheadings, burning of captives, and execution at point-blank range of surrendered soldiers.
As mentioned, new media has a low barrier of entry and this is proved by the combat cameraman that accompanies al-Qaeda, ISIS, and even Hamas fighters in attacks against military targets.
At times, the fighter doubles as the cameraman as evidenced by infantrymen and snipers who have recorded their actions. Also, some suicide bombers livestream themselves as they undertake their attack with their streams ending when their vehicles detonate. Likewise, survivors of such attacks record the resulting carnage using their smartphones and then share them online, thereby becoming citizen conflict reporters. Then enters the legacy broadcasters who use the footage of survivors (or citizen conflict reporters) to broadcast the attack thus giving the terrorists the publicity that they desire.
Relatedly, al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Hamas have dedicated media departments that use new media to issue reports and statements (including statements from the leadership as we have witnessed from al-Shabaab which releases annual text statements and video essays from its leadership). This means that they have a dedicated studio e.g. al-Shabaab (an al-Qaeda affiliate) has Al-Kataib Institute for Media Productions (AKIMP) – also called Al-Kataib Foundation for Media Productions (AKFMP) – which was initially modeled after al-Qaeda’s Al-Sahab Institute for Media Productions (ASIMP). These media departments are responsible for deciding when to release their reports, videos, and audio recordings, and they usually time their releases to coincide with major events in the targeted nation(s).
Our webzine section in Kagirison.com will focus on exposing and/or discrediting these nefarious media departments. Equally, our SM accounts will discredit media reports that engage in lethal journalism via the medium of new media.
Partisan War Journalism and Lethal Journalism
On the media front, perception management utilizes partisan war journalism.
Partisan war journalism is conflict reporting and commentary that favors one of the parties in the conflict. There are 3 types of partisan war journalism as identified by Richard Landes: patriotic war journalism, lethal war journalism, and own-goal journalism.
In patriotic war journalism, the reporting favors the nation of the reporter e.g. an Israeli reporter reporting the Hamas attack from the angle of the Israeli public or government. We use patriotic war journalism in narrative generation to promote a narrative that favors Israeli interests, while at the same time using narrative deconstruction to invalidate competing narratives. We consider this as white psyops.
In lethal war journalism, the reporting is done by a third-party that favors the rival party e.g. Chinese media reporting the October 7 Hamas attack in a way that casts a better impression on Hamas than Israel. Basically, it is reporting – by a third party – that disfavors the side we support in a conflict.
In own-goal journalism, the reporting disfavors the nation of the reporter e.g. an Israeli reporter reporting the Hamas attack in favor of Hamas.
Lethal war journalism and own-goal journalism form what is known as lethal journalism as it harms the interests of the nation or party that we support in a conflict – in this case, Israel.
DISCLAIMER
The above should be considered as scenario that would have happened had the Israeli government engaged Team Kagirison for perception management. We hold no ill-will against any party involved in the Israel-Hamas war. We respect and value Russians, Iranians, and Chinese and cherish their contribution to human civilizations and the creation of the global noosphere that we live in.
To contact us for any of the services that we offer, or to request for a proposal related to either narrative management or perception management, get in touch using the contact form that we have provided on the Homepage of Kagirison.com.
