embarking on a psychological war

Psychological warfare is designed to cultivate the willingness of the home audience to fight, to convince the enemy audience that it is not worth it to fight and to convince the neutral audience to support you. on psychological warfare

Dr. Ron Schleifer | Magazine "News - Science and Knowledge"

The conventional thinking is thatPsychological warfare/Advertisement/Election propaganda is a nice thing, but it doesn't affect me.'' However, the people of psychological warfare have already taken this position into account and they know how to overcome it.

Who said propaganda?

Over the years, the word "propaganda", or by its foreign name "propaganda", has been removed, and the use of the term "information warfare" has also been perceived as politically incorrect, so some parties prefer to call the field "Perception Management". No one will oppose the administration and no one will prevent it from allocating budgets, standards, etc., and above all, no one will prevent the army from using psychological warfare with arguments of liberality and a desire to preserve democracy. "Propaganda is a tool of the bad guys, while we deal with perception management." This is part of the inherent problematic in psychological warfare and our attitude towards it.

Therefore, when talking about psychological warfare, it means only to use the methods of clients from the world of public relations during wartime. Quarrels between spouses in divorce proceedings or a struggle between commercial companies for market control, even if it includes the same elements, is not considered for this purpose as psychological warfare.

The commander of the American Air Force spoke about a decade ago about the need to separate "information warfare" from "information age warfare". The information age warrior is the warrior we are familiar with, plus our technological know-how perfecting it. If once we handled a stone, today we do it with a laser-guided missile. Information warfare is the same war where information is the target.

Even during war we want to pass on information to the enemy. The essence of psychological warfare during war is the ability to convey a message through a certain channel for a certain purpose to a pre-defined target audience, in order to support the goals of the war.

Psychological warfare in history

The use of psychology for military purposes is as old as the human race, and the evidence for this is already found in the descriptions of wars in the Bible. Nations and individuals - and especially the inferior side in conflicts - have used it very effectively throughout history, both in large-scale wars such as World War II and in wars of low intensity.

The use of psychology was of great significance in political life in the 20th century, and especially in its second half, and experts predict that due to the influence of the psychological component on the spirit of the people and its representatives - the soldiers taking part in the war - its influence will increase even more in the wars of the 21st century.

The First World War is the first and fascinating model for learning and extracting lessons. It had a huge scope of psychological warfare operations and the use of original techniques - mainly by the British - during the four years during which it was conducted. These operations greatly influenced the development of psychological warfare in all fields to this day.

Transferring the message to different destinations

At the end of World War II, the goal of all armies is to avoid killing the enemy as much as possible and to try to harm only enemy soldiers and not civilians. Therefore, a transition was made to smart and accurate weapons (HMM - target-oriented armament). Psychological warfare fits well into this trend because it is a non-violent, inexpensive war that saves human lives, and also calls people to surrender and thus saves resources.

Since war is the ugliest thing on earth - it allows the animal nature to take over man and do ugly things - it is possible to use psychological warfare messages that emphasize this sense of disgust, and achieve political goals by preventing war. However, it should be known that psychological warfare is not the be-all and end-all, it is not a substitute for physical warfare but only complements it.

The marketing revolution began after World War II, largely thanks to the released psychological warfare units in the United States Army who were involved in research, the development of the scientific aspects and their application in the field of public relations. If advertising, for example, in the past was mainly the transmission of a uniform message to everyone, then these experts segmented society into different audiences and formulated targeted messages for them to convince each of them separately.

The main problem is how to convey a message to the enemy, since every message is filtered. The perfect solution in the past (and still today) is paper flyers.

The knowledge accumulated over 60 years about the integration of contemporary tools and knowledge of the advertising and marketing system outlines one of the future directions of psychological warfare, based on the division of the target audience into three sub-audiences, to each of which a different message must be directed: the home audience, whose readiness must be cultivated to fight; the audience of the enemy, who must be convinced that it is not worth fighting; and the neutral audience, who must be persuaded to support you or at least not to support your opponent. In Israel, addressing the home audience is called "communication"; Towards the enemy they conduct "psychological warfare" while the neutral audience is addressed with "information".

The main problem is how to convey a message to the enemy, since every message is filtered. It is impossible to trust the news editors in the enemy's media not to misrepresent things, and it is not possible to purchase advertising space in his newspapers. The perfect solution in the past (and still today) is paper flyers. The IDF uses it against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Americans and the British use it in Afghanistan and Iraq.

About four years ago, a leaflet was distributed in Afghanistan with a picture of bin Laden's deputy. Next to the photo, the license plates of the man's car as taken from a satellite and the inscription "We see you" were shown. Such a proclamation may cause the man and his supporters to go underground and make their actions more difficult.

The media as a means of psychological warfare

The information age puts at our disposal means that Goebbels, the architect of Nazi propaganda, could not have dreamed of. What the psychological warfare officer must do today is to use the new tools available to many citizens - e-mail, text messages, etc.

However, their use is conditional on the fact that the target audience or the society in which they are fighting has the same technology at their disposal. In World War II, Goebbels developed a popular radio that was tuned to the right stations, so the audience could be exposed to messages. The United States Army dropped tens of thousands of transistor devices that were aimed exclusively at a certain station during the Vietnam War. This was a simple workaround technique.
Tags
60 to Israel Europe Personalities America Archeology Land of Israel History Trips Trips in Israel Independence Day Children Curious Children Israel Science Nostalgia Design Polyester Psychology

Today it is possible to broadcast messages on the phone in recorded messages to a large group of subscribers. The system is cheap and simple to operate. The fax was used as a weapon against Israel in the first intifada, and today the computer is replacing it. The Internet is at an advanced stage. The Internet is a completely civilian system, but all these applications: chats, forums and mailing lists can also be exploited for psychological warfare purposes.

Everything that is said here is true for a technological company that has a common use of these means. In a society that is not like this, the old methods are still effective, but while drawing conclusions from anthropological and marketing research, which is capable of segmenting the billions of the world's citizens down to the resolution of the individual person by completely mechanized means.

Those who are not intended to receive a targeted message are approached by the old methods such as television, radio, newspaper, the paper announcement or by means of newer technologies: loudspeakers that broadcast over great distances, laser presentations, such as those that glorify festive events, and through which messages can be conveyed that will be clearly seen in the enemy's skies. The final step will be the integration of all these tools into one methodology and one combat theory.

Psychological warfare in Israel

The topic of psychological warfare came to the public's attention in Israel about 20 years ago due to two factors: the first - the severe criticism that the countries of the world leveled at Israel in the early XNUMXs following the Galilee Peace War. The second - the effective psychological warfare system conducted by Hezbollah and the PLO at the end of that decade, which took advantage of the dual military struggle - in southern Lebanon against the IDF and SDF and in the territories (the Intifada) - to generate an impressive image gain in the world and in Israel.

A second wave of interest in the subject in Israel and among various elements in the IDF was created due to the outbreak of the events of the Second Intifada, known in the IDF as "Ebb and Flow" and by the Palestinians as "Intafidad al-Aqsa" (2005-2000), and the American moves in the Second Gulf War (2003 to Today).
The Zionist movement used propaganda effectively to promote the idea of ​​establishing an independent state for the Jews, but at the end of the War of Independence, psychological warfare was relegated to a corner.

The question often arises in the public and in the media, how a country with an international reputation for conducting wars and operating effective intelligence organizations, which is perceived as having nuclear potential and which stands at the pinnacle of science and technology in the world, stands helpless in the face of its image in the world. There were and are many answers and excuses, and they included explanations about "budgets" and "anti-Semitism", but these do not provide an adequate answer to the question.

The discussion of this question in the media includes many concepts such as advocacy, communication, propaganda, public relations, psychological warfare and recently, in the Palestinian context - "consciousness burning". Bringing up all these concepts is intended to explain Israel's difficulty in presenting its policy to the world.

Must know Arabic

A historical examination reveals that the Zionist movement used propaganda effectively to promote the idea of ​​establishing an independent state for Jews, and also during the struggle against the British Mandate government, and especially after World War II, the underground and the Yishuv leadership made great and effective use of it.

However, at the end of the War of Independence, psychological warfare was relegated to a corner and was no longer given the importance it deserved, and it is to be regretted that no real successors to the Hagana and Etzal men, who mastered the Arabic language and were well acquainted with Arab culture, arose in Israel. This causes a real failure in the relations between Israelis and Palestinians in particular, and in Israel's relations with the Arab world in general.

The field of Orientalism in Israel is currently in the hands of a handful of academics, and most of those fluent in the Arabic language belong to the various intelligence agencies (mainly the Shin Bet and Amman). The state of Arabic studies in the Israeli education system is dismal, and parents prefer that their children learn Danish as a foreign language but not Arabic. This also has serious consequences for Israel's capabilities in the field of psychological warfare.

The problem: lack of budget

Since the XNUMXs there have been warning signs that Israel's deteriorating image in the world is reflected in the hostile attitude of the countries of the world towards it. However, the officials in charge of the issue missed every opportunity to take the necessary steps to make a fundamental change in the order of priorities and in the allocation of resources to the field of propaganda.
The opinion that anti-Semitism is the main cause of Israel's difficulty in the field of information in the world causes passivity among the decision makers in Israel and the general public

The low position of advocacy in the order of priorities and its meager budgets resulting from this position can be learned from the government meeting on advocacy issues held on November 30, 2003. At the time of the "Tide and Ebb" events, the Foreign Ministry's Deputy Director for Public Affairs reported that Israel's budget for public information in the world was equal to that year for only NIS 9 million (for comparison, the advertising budget of large commercial companies in the country is double that).

Therefore, Israel's embassies in the world are suffering from a severe shortage of personnel handling information matters. Thus, for example, in Germany - a country of 80 million people - two Israeli public information workers work, and in Russia - which has 154 million people - one Israeli public information worker works.
Antisemitism is not an excuse

The use of psychological warfare in Israel causes discomfort for three main reasons: first, in an active liberal-democratic society like Israeli society there is an aversion to the use of propaganda, as it is identified with lies and immorality. It is therefore no wonder that the word "information" usually brings up an embarrassed smile and a movement of cancellation among a large part of Israeli citizens.

The second, it is not easy to digest a new set of concepts after many years of solid concepts about good and bad. Third, it is difficult to read about Israel's long chain of failures in this area, which has been going on since the establishment of the state.

It is particularly difficult to accept the superiority of the Palestinians over the Israelis in the last three decades in regards to the intelligent use of psychological warfare to achieve political goals. Even those few people who are involved in this field are not enthusiastic, to say the least, about the criticism leveled at the activities of their organizations, but they can be defended on the grounds that the resources made available to them over the years were always few, and did not meet the demands.

There is a widespread opinion among the Israeli public that anti-Semitism is the main cause of Israel's difficulty in the field of information in the world. In my opinion, this perception is baseless because anti-Semitism does not actually have much influence on the shaping of policy towards Israel. Furthermore, this approach must be rejected as it causes passivity among the decision makers in Israel and the general public, who claim that there is nothing to be done against anti-Semitism.

Courtesy of Bar Ilan University's "Innovations - Science and Knowledge" magazine