Hezbollah and the Battle for Consciousness: ’Israel’ Is Targeting the People of Resistance

The task was entrusted to the ‘Israeli’ military due to the failures of the political and media institutions and the demolished credibility of ‘Israeli’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It took the army about 70 hours to develop and publish a video whose background and compensatory goals were clear. It appeared to be an implicit admission that what Netanyahu had propagated was not true. But it also seemed that the army’s attempt failed to correct the picture that was formed in the wake of Sayyed Nasrallah’s response, which came less than an hour after Netanyahu announced an alleged Hezbollah missile depot in the Jnah area [the southern suburb of Beirut]. It took Hezbollah no more than an hour to implement Sayyed Nasrallah’s assertion. It’s safe to assume that the army’s move came as a result of pressure exerted by the political leadership, and therefore it was lackluster and limited in influence. If the inference is correct, it is an additional indication of Hezbollah's victory in the battle for consciousness. It’s also a signal of the enemy’s deepening defeat in the moral, political, and media spheres in this round of open and continuous conflict in which it doesn’t spare any effort or fail to employ any means to target the cognizance and feelings of the resistance’s supporters. Hezbollah succeeded in thwarting the objectives of ‘Israel’s’ propaganda campaign, which the enemy's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the United Nations platform to promote. It was a slap handed out to the ‘Israeli’ entity and all its political, security, and media institutions. It also inverted the equation Netanyahu attempted to stabilize by spreading false information about a Hezbollah missile depot threatening the residents of the Jnah area. The enemy's insistence on continuing the media battle stems from the fact that Netanyahu’s announcement wasn’t just a stance on a global occasion that should be exploited, but rather a translation of a broader plan pursued by the ‘Israeli’ entity against Hezbollah. This is specifically related to challenging the latter’s qualitative military and missile capabilities. According to ‘Israeli’ Maariv newspaper, "what ‘Israel’ is doing, whether through Netanyahu or the ‘Israeli’ army, is part of the propaganda campaign that aims to distort the image of Hezbollah and present it as endangering the lives of civilians in Lebanon because it stores explosive materials in densely populated residential neighborhoods.” The paper went on to offer a justification for this option and its position regarding the enemy’s general strategy in confronting Hezbollah. "This type of action is carried out by ‘Israel’ because it is aware that the offensive operations may lead to an escalation in the region," the Maariv piece reads. From here, it becomes clear that the propaganda campaign carried out by ‘Israel’, supported by local, regional, and international forces, is among several courses that seek to incite the Lebanese people in general and the supporters of the resistance in particular against Hezbollah. The hope is that this will contribute to undermining the party’s popular base and intensify pressure on Hezbollah in order to force it to make concessions that are compatible with the priorities and interests of the ‘Israeli’ entity. Based on the aforementioned details, it becomes clear that isn’t the first time the enemy attempted to implement such schemes. Also using the United Nations as a platform, Netanyahu previously made similar statements, and the ‘Israeli’ army had previously shown alleged maps with similar assertions. Based on the same logic and wager, this course of action will carry on into future stages. All these steps fall within the framework of what is known as the “battle for consciousness”, which has become an essential part of ‘Israel’s’ strategy against its enemies. According to a study conducted by the Institute for National Security Studies [INSS] in Tel Aviv, “the army’s strategy, published in 2018, sought to produce an ability to affect the cognizance of its enemies as well as the popular and political forces in order to influence their positions and options. To this end, it was devoted to developing tools for a broad and focused influence.” The study notes that the so-called “battle for consciousness" occupies a basic space as "an independent effort that accompanies and complements various other efforts" – the offensive, defensive, and logistical efforts, as stipulated by the army's strategy. But it is also remarkable that the clause related to the “battle for consciousness” was included in the chapter on the use of force [in the strategy of the occupation army] along with multi-dimensional maneuvers. It also had its place in relation to soft capabilities at the level of the [war of] information, awareness, legitimacy, and the law. Regarding the direct objectives of this strategy [the battle for consciousness], the study’s aim is to change the perceptions of ‘Israel's’ enemies by addressing selected audiences, whether it be a local audience or the international community. The hope is that this will contribute to changing the attitudes and behavior of the target audience against the enemy [Hezbollah]. The activities that fall within the framework of this battle vary between fully secret activities, fully public ones, and activities that fall somewhere in the middle. Nevertheless, the "battle for consciousness" waged by ‘Israel’ along with all the international, regional, and local forces against Hezbollah is of an exceptional nature. In conventional cases, this type of battle constitutes a catalyst and a complementary agent to the military effort, as noted above. However for ‘Israel’, in the context of the confrontation with Hezbollah, it became a parallel option to the military confrontation. At this stage, it also became an alternative option as a result of the success of the power of deterrence that Hezbollah established throughout the last 14 years [since the 2006 war] in response to ‘Israel’s’ aggression. This force provided an umbrella of protection for Lebanon and the resistance to build and develop its deterrence and defense capabilities. On the other hand, it seems that the enemy studied its alternatives and counter options and conceded that its choices are narrow. This prompted it to adopt a set of alternative options, one of which is the "battle for consciousness" that targets the resistance’s supporters. With an overall assessment of the rounds witnessed in this arena, it is clear that Hezbollah achieved a victory – thwarting the enemy's endeavors and wagers that the supporters of the resistance will move away from it. Throughout these rounds, the supporters showed their awareness of the reality of the position and role of the resistance in its present and future, as it played a decisive role in facing the imminent threats on Lebanon and the region.

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