By Dr. İdris Kardaş
“What happened in Beirut’s Dahiya neighborhood in 2006 will happen in every village Israel fires on. We will use disproportionate force and cause massive damage and destruction there. From our perspective, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases. This is not a recommendation. This is a plan. And it has been approved.”
Israeli General Gadi Eisenkot, who made these statements in 2008 and carried out a major massacre in Beirut, became the chief of staff of the Israeli army before retiring in 2019.
The approved plan he referred to later became known in Israeli military literature as the “Dahiya Doctrine.”
During this attack, carried out as a plan in Beirut in 2006, approximately 1,000 civilians were killed. One-third of them were children, and significant damage was inflicted on the country’s civilian infrastructure, including power plants, wastewater treatment facilities, bridges, and port facilities.
The ongoing genocide in Gaza today is based on this doctrine, established years ago, rather than being a wave of violence driven by Israel’s short-term decisions.
The bombing of hospitals, the destruction of the city’s infrastructure, the wholesale killing of civilians…
These are actually the most violent examples of the Dahiya Doctrine that Israel has been implementing for years.
This doctrine is known as Israel’s asymmetric warfare strategy. To ensure deterrence, they mercilessly and unflinchingly destroy those who support their enemies and the populations that host them.
They use disproportionate force, deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. In this way, they aim to terrorize the civilian population and punish the command structure, i.e., the military elements, through this means.
In other words, the destruction of civilian life and cities is not an unfortunate byproduct of Israeli attacks.
Behind the genocide and destruction Israel is carrying out in Gaza lies this doctrine, a premeditated and cold-blooded plan.
This is important for the following reason. A systematic, deliberate, and planned strategy of extermination targeting civilians is contrary to all generations of international law. Therefore, this doctrine will play an important role in terms of the Israeli officials who will be tried in the future being charged on this point.
These planned attacks on civilians and civilian settlements in Gaza are in clear violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law.
In January 2024, the International Court of Justice and a US federal court issued separate rulings concluding that Israel could be guilty of genocide in Gaza.
In May 2024, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court requested arrest warrants for genocidal Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including “starving civilians as a method of warfare,” “deliberately attacking the civilian population,” and “extermination and/or murder.”
So even though international law is not working right now, it is trying to condemn the result of Israel’s application of the Dahiya Doctrine.
Of course, while this plan is being implemented on the ground, another Israeli doctrine is coming into play in people’s minds: Hasbara.
Hasbara literally means “explanation,” but in practice, it is applied as a justification strategy from Israel’s perspective.
Hasbara’s mark is present in all of the victimhood efforts, such as those in Hollywood, that I mentioned in my previous article, based on the Holocaust.
This strategy, which has been advancing through conventional and diplomatic means since 1967, is also deepening its activities in the virtual realm with digitalization. Therefore, social media and other digital tools are Hasbara’s most valuable tools today.
For years, Hasbara has been attempting to frame every step Israel takes, every attack, every act of barbarism as a defensive reflex.
For example, when they rain bombs down on civilians in Gaza, press releases, social media messages, and diaspora accounts prepared within minutes always kick in.
They spread their pre-designed rhetoric in different languages and using the exact same templates.
They try to legitimize their genocide with formulas such as “Hamas is using civilians as shields,” “Israel is defending itself,” and “fighting terrorism.”
Of course, it’s not just human power that comes into play here, but algorithms as well. Because in the age we live in today, it’s not enough to just say something; you also have to make that statement visible.
In my article titled “Killer Algorithms,” I described in detail how Muslims in Arakan were subjected to genocide through social media. The parallels between Israel’s Hasbara model and the wave of disinformation in Arakan are very clear.
The algorithmic systems of social media platforms that target engagement highlight content that elicits emotional responses. Hasbara’s power comes from its deep understanding of this mechanism.
Striking visuals, dramatic headlines, and organized hashtag campaigns are making pro-Israel narratives go viral. Content presented by the opposing side, however, is either labeled as fake news or discredited by bot armies launching comment attacks.
To give concrete examples. Most of the videos circulating after the Israeli attacks on October 7 were either old or taken out of context. Israel’s Hasbara accounts took advantage of this information pollution to accuse the other side of lying. While bombs were exploding on the ground, the question of who was right clouded the entire atmosphere on social media.
Netanyahu’s recent statement that “social media is a battlefield” should be read in this context. This statement is less of a warning about the future and more of an announcement of the current strategy.
The TikTok debates are particularly relevant here. The move to control TikTok in the US via Oracle is a clear indication that Israel will place greater emphasis on this area. It means that in a genocide process that has been going on for months, the battle has now moved to the realm of minds. By saying that X is next after TikTok, Netanyahu is actually pointing to a new front.
It is not difficult to predict the strategy Israel will employ in this digital propaganda front in the coming days.
It is certain that they will intensify AI-supported content production. They will bombard us with fake but convincing texts, videos, audio clips, and face synthesis. Unfortunately, this content will both create psychological impact and complicate verification processes.
At the same time, they will deploy separate message packages for each country and each social segment. They have done this many times before. They will serve different content to different audiences: Jewish lobbies in the US, security concerns in Europe, and the “Iran threat” rhetoric in Arab countries. They will try to create new artificial agendas in each region and seek to overwhelm countries with internal debates.
Of course, as they have done before, they will try to create confusion about what the truth is through disinformation attacks. They will try to normalize Israel’s genocide process through identities such as independent journalist, young TikTok phenomenon, and sensible Arab analyst.
While Israel implements the Dahiya Doctrine on the ground, it attempts to operate the Hasbara doctrine digitally. In one, villages are framed as military bases; in the other, civilian deaths are attempted to be legitimized under the label of counterterrorism.
However, the global public has so far given Israel’s propaganda wars a major test. No one has been convinced by Hasbara techniques. Millions of people are taking to the streets around the world, states are deciding to recognize Palestine, and heads of state are shouting more about Gaza from the UN podium.
President Erdoğan’s words yesterday also show that we are fighting against Israel’s Hasbara techniques.
“Yesterday, the head of the genocide network found no one to listen to his lies and threats at the UN General Assembly; he spoke to an empty hall. Those who reduce the issue in Gaza to Hamas are slowly realizing that the situation is not at all what it seems.”
We must remain steadfast against the propaganda wars declared by the genocidal Netanyahu. Because there is a clear genocide taking place, and Gazans are being slaughtered before our very eyes in a way that cannot be covered up with lies or manipulation. It is our duty to resist and fight to the end against this war Israel is waging in the digital realm.
