Since 2015, Americans have heard quite a lot about Russian information operations, much of it wildly exaggerated or disconnected from an understanding of the Kremlin’s goals and methods. But Russian information warfare is very real, and the U.S. has not been its only target. Daniel Rakov presents a comprehensive look at Moscow’s efforts to exert influence in Israel, which have evolved to become subtler and better attuned to Israeli reality over the years. If there remains any doubt about Vladimir Putin’s intentions, recall that earlier this week he declared that “absolutely faithless people, godless people, . . . many of them are Jews,” have been undermining the Russian Orthodox church.

A persistent Russian digital interference campaign dedicated to Israel was not created until 2023. . . . Central to the campaign were websites masquerading as leading Israeli news sites (such as Walla, N12, and Liberal) and U.S. Jewish websites (Forward and HaModia). These sites hosted articles discussing news from the Israeli political context but articulating narratives beneficial to Russia. The articles appeared to have been authored by journalists and contributors who were writing for real sites. Additionally, Doppelganger, [as the Russian media operation is formally known], had “original” fake-news sites, Omnam (in Hebrew) and the Holyland Herald (in English).

The narratives tried to fuse Russian interests surrounding the war in Ukraine with Israel’s burning problems. . . . A frequent message was that Israel should mind its own affairs and not donate money to Ukraine.

The Doppelganger campaign in Europe during [the present] war has fanned anti-Israeli winds. It contributed to the spread of anti-Semitic content and increased Western fears of a new wave of Islamic terrorism. Many of the materials that the Russians disseminated in Europe were intended to shock. One of these was an AI-generated video circulated by Doppelganger featuring images of Jews in Auschwitz supposedly apologizing to the Palestinians for the IDF’s actions.

As the U.S. prepared to help Israel defend itself against a large-scale Iranian missile attack in April 2024, Russia publicly justified Iran’s right to attack Israel with missiles and the Russian campaign in Israel portrayed the U.S. as warmongering between Israel and Iran.

Addressing a recent meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Committee, Mahmoud Abbas criticized Hamas more sharply than he has previously (at least in public), calling them “sons of dogs.” The eighty-nine-year-old Palestinian Authority president urged the terrorist group to “stop the war of extermination in Gaza” and “hand over the American hostages.” The editors of the New York Sun comment:

Mr. Abbas has long been at odds with Hamas, which violently ousted his Fatah party from Gaza in 2007. The tone of today’s outburst, though, is new. Comparing rivals to canines, which Arabs consider dirty, is startling. Its motivation, though, was unrelated to the plight of the 59 remaining hostages, including 23 living ones. Instead, it was an attempt to use an opportune moment for reviving Abbas’s receding clout.

[W]hile Hamas’s popularity among Palestinians soared after its orgy of killing on October 7, 2023, it is now sinking. The terrorists are hoarding Gaza aid caches that Israel declines to replenish. As the war drags on, anti-Hamas protests rage across the Strip. Polls show that Hamas’s previously elevated support among West Bank Arabs is also down. Striking the iron while it’s hot, Abbas apparently longs to retake center stage. Can he?

Diminishing support for Hamas is yet to match the contempt Arabs feel toward Abbas himself. Hamas considers him irrelevant for what it calls “the resistance.”

[Meanwhile], Abbas is yet to condemn Hamas’s October 7 massacre. His recent announcement of ending alms for terror is a ruse.

Abbas, it’s worth noting, hasn’t saved all his epithets for Hamas. He also twice said of the Americans, “may their fathers be cursed.” Of course, after a long career of anti-Semitic incitement, Abbas can’t be expected to have a moral awakening. Nor is there much incentive for him to fake one. But, like the protests in Gaza, Abbas’s recent diatribe is a sign that Hamas is perceived as weak and that its stock is sinking.