Psychological operations: A new variation on an age old art: Hezbollah versus Israel

Studies in Conflict and Terrorism

Volumn 29, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 1-19

  Schleifer, Ron ^a  

^a BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY   (Israel)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 31344431516     PISSN: 1057610X     EISSN: 15210731     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10576100500351185     Document Type: Article

References (61)

1. Interview with Sheik Zivhi Tophieli, Al Ahad, Hezbollah weekly, 16 February 1990. Translation in Hatzav Report 17 April 1990/843/007.
2. Gideon's clash with the Midyanites (Judges 6) is usually considered an early example where psychological warfare was used in battle.
3. Sun Tsu, general and scholar, lived in fifth century B.C. China. His book on the art of war is still considered a classic and quoted in books and articles on modern forms of warfare, including cyberwars and PSYOP. See, for example, W. M. Hall's Stray Voltage - War in the Information Age (Naval Institute Press: Annapolis, Maryland, 2003), in which almost every chapter is prefaced by a quote from Tsu. Tsu's book has gone through several editions, including one entitled The Art of War (translated by R. D. Sawyer, Westview: Boulder, CO, 1994).
4. See J. Lederman, Battle Lines: The American Media and the Intifada (New York: Henry Holt, 1992).
5. See Ranstorp's article, which discusses, in passing, Hezbollah's use of PSYOP. M. Ranstorp, "The Strategy and Tactics of Hezbollah's Current Lebanonization Process," Mediterranean Politics 3(1) (1998), pp. 103-134.
6. FM 33-1-5 Psychological Operations Techniques and Procedures, available at (www.mega.nu:8080/somans.html); R. D. Maclaurin (ed.), Military Propaganda_Psychological Warfare and Operations, (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1982).
7. D. Lerner, Psychological Warfare Against Nazi Germany: The Sykewar Campaign_D-Day to VE Day (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1949), p. 20.
8. W. E. Daugherty and M. Janowitz, A Psychological Warfare Casebook (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1958);
9. J. Ellul, Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes (New York: Vintage Books, 1973);
10. A. George, Propaganda Analysis: A Study of Inferences Made from Nazi Propaganda in the Second World War (Ron Evanston, IL: Peterson & Co, 1959) are only a few of the dozens of books offering definitions and analyses of PSYOP. Professor Phillip Taylor, in an article published in The Encyclopaedia of Propaganda, reviewed the principal approaches to psychological warfare.
11. See P. Taylor, The Encyclopaedia of Propaganda (3 vols.) (New York: Sharpe Reference, 1998), pp. xv-xix.
12. Examples of attempts to demonize the enemy include Germany's propaganda campaign, launched prior to Operation Barbarossa, denouncing Bolshevism as the scourge of humanity and the Palestinian Authority and Egypt's anti-Semitic crusade against Israel.
13. In September 1939, Nazi Germany faked a Polish attack on a German radio station in Danzig, giving it the excuse it needed to attack Poland.
14. A recent example is the way Israel took advantage of the murder (lynching) of its soldiers in Ramalla in order to demonize the entire Palestinian population.
15. By the 1980s Hezbollah began to attract increasing academic attention. See M. Kramer, The Moral Logic of the Hizballah (Tel Aviv: Dayan Centre, 1987).
16. For example, Islamic Amal, a Shi'a splinter group that broke off from Amal carrying out numerous attacks on the IDF.
17. Saul Shai, Terror in the Service of the Imam (Herzliyah: The Interdisciplinary Centre, 2001), p. 56.
18. 1982 saw the formation of a global union of Shi'a religious leaders, beholden to the religious authority of the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini.
19. In 1978, seeking to put an end to an unrelenting spate of PLO bombardments, Israel launched Operation Litani, a small scale and limited invasion of southern Lebanon.
20. S. Gordon, The Vulture and the Snake: Counter-Guerrilla Air Warfare - The War in South Lebanon, "Mideast Security and Policy Studies," no. 39 (Ramat Gan: BESA Publications, BESA Centre for Strategic Studies: Bar Ilan University, 1998), p. 13.
21. Holding prisoners for ransom proved a profitable source of income throughout Jewish history. The Talmud and Rabbinical Responsa endlessly discuss such questions as who should be held for ransom? When? How much should be paid for whom?
22. Ron Arad, the Israeli navigator, who was captured by Hezbollah in 1986, became one of the organization's most potent psychological weapons. Over the years, Israel spared little expense, both in terms of intelligence gathering and political effort, in its attempt to recover the lost navigator. As far as is known, about 10 years ago Hezbollah sold Arad to an unknown Iranian group.
23. Israeli soldiers presented no such problem being enemies of both Lebanon and Islam. See Kramer, op. cit., pp. 16-23.
24. Much has been published on guerrilla warfare, including several books on the role of PSYOP in guerrilla wars. Of these books, F. Kitson's Low Intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency, Peace-Keeping (London: Faber, 1971) is worth mentioning. Kitson, unhappy with the British army's in-built bias against PSYOP, tried to change the army's traditional "all it takes is a good soldier with a rifle" approach to war.
25. Another noteworthy book is G. Chaliand, Terrorism: From Popular Struggle to Media Spectacle (London: Saqi Books, 1985).
26. Interview with Sheikh Nasrallah, Hezbollah's Secretary General, in FBIS, daily report, 4 February 1998, Al Shira, Near East and South Asia.
27. Hezbollah runs several Internet websites, which offer information about its various social-welfare activities. Thus, (http://www.hyyaa.org) lists and describes Hezbollah 's health infrastructures; (http://www.shahid.org.lb), its welfare activities; (http://www/alemdad.org), the organization's child and mother healthcare service.
28. According to R. Saked, ex-member of the Israeli Security Service and long-time reporter on Arab affairs, in the past the Shi'a did not attach much importance to the Self Flagellation ceremony, which generally assumed the symbolic form of the participants pricking themselves and drawing a tiny drop of blood. However, since the Khomeini revolution, and in an effort to recruit soldiers to the ranks of the revolution, Lebanon's Shi'a fundamentalists, like their co-religionists elsewhere, transformed the Ashura into a public spectacle of feverish mass flagellation. Interview December 2003.
29. Interview with Colonel Samuel Nir Senior Intelligence Officer, April 2003.
30. M. Ranstrop, op. cit., pp. 103-134.
31. This is all relative, of course. Sheik Fadllallah granted a great many interviews to Western journals, including Der Spiegel and Le Figaro. But in order to discover Fadllallah's true attitude towards the West it is necessary to turn either to Hezbollah's Arabic publications or interviews Fadllallah gave to the Arab press. M. Kramer, Hezbollah's Vision of the West, policy papers no. 16 (Washington, DC: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1989), chapter iv.
32. M. Tugwell, "Terrorism and Propaganda - Problem and Response," in P. Wilkinson and A. M. Stuart, Contemporary Research on Terrorism (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1987), pp. 409-418;
33. M. Tugwell, Revolutionary Propaganda and Possible Counter Measures (London: Kings College, 1979), unpublished Ph.D. thesis.
34. The unit's reports are available in the Dayan Centre's Library in Tel Aviv.
35. Eli Horwitz, Ha'derg Ha'tsvai Shel Ha' Hizballa - dyokan chevrati [Hizbalah's Military Rank - A Social Portrait] (Tel Aviv: Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University, 1999), p. 20.
36. Esther Webman, "Anti-Semitism as a Corollary of Anti-Zionism: Basic Tenet of Hezbollah Ideology," in Justice (no. 6) (August 1995).
37. See also (http://qudsonline.net).
38. Al-Manar, 21 November 2003.
39. F. Ajami, The Dream Palace of the Arabs: A Generation's Odyssey (New York: Pantheon Books, 1998).
40. See Note 1.
41. Nasrallah's predecessor, Mussawi, in a speech given in honor of the unlikely trio of Christ, Al Zahraa (Muhammad's daughter) and Khomeini, placed the current battle in the context of its, allegedly, historical timeline, emphasizing that it was merely a chapter, albeit a critical one, in the long struggle to achieve the movement's goals. Accordingly, one of the recurring themes of his speech was the claim that when calling on the faithful to improve the human lot Al Zahraa was, in fact, preaching revolution. Available at (http://www.nasrallah.net/english/ leaders/abbas/speeches/khitabat009.htm)
42. Hezbollah regularly smuggles, by sea or through underground tunnels, military instructors as well as instruction manuals on how to prepare mines into the Palestinian Authority from Egypt.
43. As Webman has shown this leads to a blurring of the distinction between Jews and Israelis.
44. Nassrallah said that he should be congratulated not consoled for the loss of his son. Available at (http://www.mideastfacts.com/ whatdrivesabomber.html).
45. On the effort to psychologically reprogram Palestinian children see D. Burdman, "Education, Indoctrination and Incitement - Palestinian Children on their Way to Martyrdom" in Terrorism and Political Violence 15(1) (Spring 2003), pp. 96-123.
46. Webman, op. cit., p. 17.
47. Available at (http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/ 2003-02-09-tricks-usat_x.htm).
48. Ranstorp, op. cit., p. 106.
49. Examples include firing anti-tank missiles on Israeli military outposts. Hezbollah also used small guided missiles to target the narrow, slitlike opening of military observation posts.
50. Hezbollah extended the war into the disputed Shabaa farm region. It also sent a terrorist unit to attack targets within Israel and fired anti-aircraft shells into Israeli territory.
51. An article on PSYOP published in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz and translated by the government press bureau. The article can be read on the Foreign Office's website at (http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/ go.asp?MFAH08il0).
52. According to both CNN and the BCC, Israelis constantly referred to Lebanon as a muddy mire; available at (http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/meast/ 9811/27/israel.lebanon.02/) and (http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/ middle_east/newsid_635000/635314.stm).
53. This message was aired mostly in interviews to Western media and through Hezbollah's websites.
54. Hezbollah television station Al-Manar has also become increasingly popular with both the Palestinians living under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority and Israeli Arabs. Al-Manar reporters stationed in the territories do not bother hiding their identity.
55. During the First World War, the Germans published a newspaper in French, which they hurdled into the French trenches. In order to encourage the French soldiers to read the paper, they inserted in its pages messages from French POWS. See C. Roetter, Psychological Warfare (London: Batsford, 1974). Radio Cairo employed a similar tactic between 1973-1974 and the return of the Israeli POWs.
56. During the Vietnam War, following a visit to North Vietnam, Jane Fonda became known as "Hanoi Jane." Branded a traitor by some, she was hailed as a hero by others. When during the first Gulf War, CNN's Peter Arnett reported from Baghdad, voices were raised claiming that stationing a reporter in Baghdad during the war was like having a BBC reporter in Berlin during the Second World War. During the second Gulf War Arnett was fired from NBC following strong public criticism.
57. Hezbollah's main websites are: (www.almanar.co.lb), (www.moqawama.org), (www.Hezbollah.org), and (www.alnour.net). Others include (www.nasralla.net): Nasrallah (Khomeini's representative in Lebanon), homepage; recently renamed: (www.nasrollah.net), almost certainly as part of the unofficial cyberwar between Israeli and Arab Internet users, which often leads to changes in the URLs of various "frontline" sites. (www.wilayah.org): A website used for posting messages to Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran's spiritual leader. (www.hizballah.tv): A review of Al-Manar's program schedule. (www.jihadbinaa.org): A record of Hezbollah members killed in action. (www.aljarha.org): A site run by an organization tending victims of the war. (www.hayaa.org): The Islamic Health Organization's website. (www.khiamwatch.net): Offers information, including pictures, of members of Hezbollah killed in the line of duty. (www.qana.net): Documents the Kafar Kana massacre, where Israel allegedly indiscriminately killed Lebanese citizens. (www.almanar.com.lb): The Al-Manar television station's website. (www.alnour.net): The Al-Nur radio station's website. (www.al-ahed.org): the weekly's Al Ahad's website. (www.baqiatollah.org: The Islamic journal's Bakitolah website. (www.nasrallah.net/imam100/index.htm): Contains Khomeini's sermons. (www.shahid.org.lb): The social-welfare organization Shahid's, website. (www.alrassoul.org): The Alersoval hospital's website (under construction). (www.qudsonline.net): A website about Jerusalem and Islam's various holy sites. (www.alemdad.org): Offers information about Hezbollah's natal clinics. (www.almahdiscouts.org), (www.maahadalmahdi.org), (www.daralislamia.com): Contain information about the organization's educational services.
58. Available at (www.ynet.co.il), accessed 26 October 2000.
59. The picture of Professor Edward Said caught on camera throwing stones at Israeli solders was circulated worldwide. Available at (http://www.aijac.org.au/review/2000/258/id258.html).
60. Al-Manar is not alone in producing such docu-dramas, which have become increasingly popular across the Arab world.
61. Available at (http://pathfinder.com/time/international/1996/960115/ middleeast.interview.html).