Did you know that with the flip of a channel, you can consume propaganda on TV channels that call for murder, advocate for a dictatorship and genocide, and much more? For Israelis who speak Russian, this comes as no surprise: Russian television channels offered by Israeli cable providers have content that can send chills down your spine. If they had Hebrew translation, they would send shockwaves all over.
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The vile coming out of the Russian mouthpieces is aimed at all democracies the world over and against Israel's in particular. The Kremlin has total control over them and they target whomever it chooses. When Syrian air defenses accidentally downed a Russian plane several years ago and Moscow laid blame on Israel's doorstep, our country was constantly vilified by those media channels for a while. This gave us a first-hand look at how low they are willing to go in propagating their falsehoods. Their attacks smacked of the worst kind of antisemitic tropes that had been laid dormant.
Under President Vladimir Putin, the funding spigot has been constantly filling the coffers of one of the most sophisticated brainwashing operations in the history of totalitarian regimes. The target audience is mainly in Russia, but those who reside in foreign countries get to "enjoy" some of this propaganda, especially Russian speakers. The Russian arsenal knows no bounds, everything is fair game: fake news, distortions, incitement, and antisemitism.
Those who live in democratic countries might not be aware of the modus operandi of the state propaganda in Russia and they may often dismiss it as ineffective. "These views are bizarre but how much damage can they inflict?," they might tell themselves. The answer is quite simple: In our day and era, propaganda is as harmful as any weapon system. The lies being radiated from Moscow are designed to impose a worldview that serves Putin. And yes, just like arms, they are lethal.
Russia is hardly the first that has resorted to such tactics, although it has made them much more advanced. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union both employed brutal methods that led to countless victims. Hitler and Stalin both appreciated the effectiveness of propaganda in building their deadly machine and saw it as no less important than artillery and tanks, and perhaps even more so.
Today's dictators fuse their modern weaponry with television broadcasting. Just look at what Al-Jazeera does. When Israel allows such subversive propaganda to continue unabated, it effectively allows the tyrants to extort it at gunpoint. If we seek to thrive and prosper, we must put an end to this propaganda wild west.
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