Hezbollah reads Israeli media and its media even quotes Israeli accounts to boost their own perception of events.
By SETH J. FRANTZMANA man rides a motorbike past a picture of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, near Sidon.(photo credit: ALI HASHISHO/REUTERS)
War today is not just about victory on the battlefield, but also about dominating the media front and also social media. On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces released details on sites where Hezbollah produces precision guided missile components in Beirut. Hezbollah rushed to take the media to the sites to show that there was nothing to see. On Friday, the IDF released more details. The video documenting Hezbollah’s sites has now moved to a social media conflict and media war because it appears that Hezbollah took the bait to run around looking at the sites that were identified and by doing so Hezbollah exposed its members and assets. Video and photos show that the areas Hezbollah claimed were just random civilian buildings in fact contained machines for making weapons. Even the men speaking to the camera, were Hezbollah operatives. Hezbollah fell into a media trap. Not a military trap.This reminds one of those old movies with spies and double agents and complex methods in some John le Carre novel, used to get some enemy to reveal themselves. Pro-Hezbollah media accounts want to assure readers that the terror group has not been caught in an embarrassing situation. They say that the group has access to many other places to hide munitions in the Bekaa and other areas in Lebanon, so why would they put them in Beirut?The media war, whether for local Arabic language consumption or the West is “indeed a type of warfare,” noted Elijah Magnier, war correspondent and a keen observer of Lebanese politics and the region. Who is getting more credibility he asks.In July Israel-Hezbollah tensions grew after the group accused Israel of killing one of its members in Syria. On July 27, the IDF said it thwarted an infiltration attempt by a Hezbollah terror squad in the Mount Dov area in northern Israel. Hezbollah and its supporters mocked Israel, claiming there had been no infiltration and that Israel was jittery. They tried to portray Israel as constantly on alert and worried. Hezbollah reads Israeli media and its media even quotes Israeli accounts to boost their own perception of events. They know that Israeli media expressed concern over the Mount Dov incident. They also know that Yediot argued that Israel had missed an opportunity to get deterrence. This is the media dance that has taken place over the last months amid the tensions. There were the July tensions and the alleged infiltration attempts. There were also tensions on the Golan border. Then there was the Beirut explosion in August and Hezbollah became distracted. However in September the reminder that Hezbollah has kept munitions in civilian areas illustrates the callous nature of Hezbollah and comes at a crucial time because France’s President Emmanuel Macron was frustrated by Hezbollah in his attempt to bring about a government of reform in Lebanon. In addition the US has announced that Lebanon and Israel may demarcate their border at sea and in other areas of border dispute. Lebanon failed on September 26 to form a new government. The Prime-Minister designate resigned. Israel produced the details about the missile factories on September 27 and three days later the further details about the same sites, after Hezbollah took media on a tour. The next day, on October 1 the US State Department discussed the Lebanon-Israel border issue. The overall context of the public relations conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, which heated up between July and October in conjunction with developments on the ground, is important because it goes along with the Lebanese political crisis in general. Unsurprisingly Al-Mayadeen, which is sympathetic to Hezbollah, wrote on Saturday about Israel’s political crisis, claiming the government will fall. Al-Akhbar mocked France for its “failure” to achieve a deal in Lebanon. The social media and media front can thus determine the future of relations between states and tensions with terror organizations.
