I’m a news enthusiast, constantly seeking headlines worldwide to stay informed about crucial matters. However, in the past six months, the influx of information concerning Ukraine, the Middle East, and our domestic affairs in preparation for the upcoming election cycle has been overwhelming. It’s important that we learn to discern the information we digest. Personally, I find the situation in Ukraine somewhat more manageable because one can analyze current events and draw parallels with historical events like World War I and II. However, the Middle East poses a different challenge, requiring an understanding dating back thousands of years. While delving into numerous books and data analysis isn’t feasible for most of us, our government and global organizations could aid in providing clarity if they chose to do so.

On a previous post, I quoted the following from the book, “Battlegrounds”, “A public informed about challenges to national security and issues that adversaries use to sow dissension, such as race, gun control, and immigration, will prove less vulnerable to manipulation. Education inoculates society against efforts to foment hatred and incite violence based on race, religion, politics, sexual orientation, or any other sub-identity. Finally, education combined with the restoration of civility in public discourse can reduce the vitriol that widens the fissures in society that Russia and others exploit”. Our government and international organizations ought to serve as our most trusted sources of information, benefiting both parties through educated discourse on pertinent issues. However, it seems that political agendas, financial interests, and the pursuit of influence often take precedence over factual information. Citizens, too, share responsibility as we tend to hastily form conclusions without fostering civil dialogues.

With all that said I wanted to provide my opinion about what is happening in the news and social media. I’m going to call this, Information Operations, which is very dangerous if we don’t get our information from reliable sources. A couple of important definitions to frame the issue. First, Information Warfare, “while there is currently no official U.S. government (USG) definition of information warfare (IW), practitioners typically conceptualize it as a strategy for the use and management of information to pursue a competitive advantage, including both offensive and defensive operations.Strategy can be defined as the process of planning to achieve objectives and goals in the national interest. Operations link strategic objectives with tactics, techniques, and procedures. For IW strategy, that link is information operations (IO).” The second one is Information Operations, “the integrated employment, during military operations, of information-related capabilities in concert with other lines of operation to influence, disrupt, corrupt, or usurp the decision making of adversaries and potential adversaries while protecting our own.” Both definitions were taken from a document titled, “Defense Primer: Information Operations” dated December 9, 2022 and can be found on the Congressional Research Service website at this URL: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10771.

Within information operations you have three categories, Propaganda, Misinformation, and Disinformation. Below are brief descriptions for each of them: (same CRS source)

1. Propaganda: This means the propagation of an idea or narrative that is intended to influence, similar to psychological or influence operations. It can be misleading but true, and may include stolen information. A government communicating its intent, policies, and values through speeches, press releases, and other public affairs can be considered propaganda. 

2. Misinformation: This is the spreading of unintentionally false information. Examples include Internet trolls who spread unfounded conspiracy theories or web hoaxes through social media, believing them to be true. 

3. Disinformation: Unlike misinformation, disinformation is intentionally false. Examples include planting false news stories in the media and tampering with private and/or classified communications before their widespread release. 

Some of these terms are familiar because we heard about them during the last two election cycles in the U.S. Learning these terms and understanding what information operations do will help us as we make decisions, especially during the next 2024 elections. It will also help us as we try to make sense of what is going on in the Israel, Palestine, and Hamas conflict.

Most of the Information (not counting the death toll and number of hostages) coming from Israel, Palestine, and Hamas cannot be trusted but there are a lot of Americans believing it and you are seeing the results in the news. Antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents at schools, on college campuses, and the streets are on the rise and if you dig deeper you will find that information operations is a key player in this mess.

What troubles me is that both the European Union and the United Nations are well aware of the situation. They have highly intelligent individuals and organizations dedicated to studying these matters around the clock. However, the information coming from them is just laughable. If they truly aim to halt the violence and address ongoing issues in that region, they need to do better. They should transparently inform the public about the facts, the root causes, the nations contributing to the conflict, and the necessary steps to end this chaos. It’s essential for the EU and the UN to convene all key stakeholders (Israel, Palestine, and Iran) for a real discussion and a path forward to the two-state solution. Perhaps, they should consider waiving the Security Council veto powers in the UN due to the disproportionate power that one nation has during the decision-making process.

I can assure you that if these international organizations can accurately inform the public and genuinely demonstrate the will and determination to resolve the problem, it’s achievable. However, I fear that world leaders might not truly desire to solve this issue, as the prevailing chaos, in one way or another, seems to benefit them. The same could be said regarding politics in the U.S., where there’s too much money involved to reveal the truth.

In the meantime all we can do is to get our information from reliable sources and take our time when we see information on social media and analyze what we read knowing that countries are using information operations to put us against each other for their strategic goals.      

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