Israel, Gaza, and the 5th Dimension of Warfare
Perception is reality
In the digital age, warfare has evolved beyond conventional battlefields and weaponry, entering the complex realm of the "5th dimension of warfare,” which complements, and in some ways, given our interconnected world, supersedes, the four classical dimensions of war: land, sea, air, and space.
This complex dimension encompasses activities like cyberattacks, information operations, electronic warfare, and now, propaganda, where narrative battles are fought in the digital domain in an effort to shape public opinion and, thus, affect the trajectory of wars.
As propaganda efforts have transitioned into the digital realm, social media “network swarms” have emerged, with their power to rapidly mobilize the masses for various political purposes, including pressure campaigns on governments.
The convergence of these network swarms and social media is a significant development in the era of global conflict, especially when one side has military superiority, as evidenced recently by the Al-Ahli hospital blast in Gaza and the corresponding worldwide reaction to the initial narrative of an Israeli airstrike that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians.
The blast occurred at around 1700 GMT Tuesday, with officials from Gaza’s Health Ministry quickly blaming Israel for the airstrike. Western media outlets and online influencers quickly amplified the story, based purely on the assessment of Gaza’s Health Ministry, which just so happens to be run by Hamas.
Before Israel even had a chance to investigate and respond, these reports spread like wildfire across traditional media and social media and, within hours, galvanized protests around the Middle East and the West in opposition to Israel and, by extension, the United States.
In turn, these mass protests influenced governments around the Middle East to take action.
Jordan canceled a scheduled summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Egyptian and Palestinian leaders. Additionally, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with their first phone call between the two leaders since a China-brokered deal between Tehran and Riyadh to resume ties.
On Friday, thousands of people in Muslim countries and beyond held demonstrations in solidarity with Palestinians, even protesting around U.S. Embassies - all this directly spurred on by the hospital explosion in Gaza.
The United States has not been immune to the network swarm at home either. In response to Israel’s bombing campaign and supposed involvement in the hospital strike, college campuses across America have become flashpoints for pro-Palestinian protests.
U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib even posted on X:
“Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital, killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that.
@POTUS this is what happens when you refuse to facilitate a ceasefire & help de-escalate.
Your war and destruction-only approach has opened my eyes and many Palestinian Americans and Muslims Americans like me. We will remember where you stood.”
Side note: “Hyphenated Americanism” is rearing its ugly head again, directly weighing in on American foreign policy.
Theodore Roosevelt tried to warn us, but alas.
This widespread global response was a textbook example of a network swarm. Still, it must be noted that this firey response was also ignited by an “empathy trigger.”
John Robb correctly pointed this out on X when he cited the press conference given by Palestinian doctors surrounded by a horrific image of dead Palestinians at the bombed hospital.
(For a deeper dive into how network swarms and empathy triggers work, I highly recommend following
and subscribing to his excellent Substack “Global Guerrillas.”)But then a funny thing happened - a counter-narrative began to emerge, where it was not Israel that caused the explosion, but rather a misfired rocket that was launched by the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad and fell on the hospital grounds.
The U.S. has since determined, via an independent assessment, that it was likely a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket that misfired and hit al-Ahli Hospital parking lot. Of course, this assessment is still disputed, and media reports are still hedging as to what actually happened.
As of Friday, October 20th, the AP has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence released by the parties. In fact, there have been reports that have since cast doubt on the counter-narrative posed by Israel.
But in reality, what actually happened doesn’t matter at this point, as the damage, literally and figuratively, has already been done.
After the horrific terror attack by Hamas, which killed over 1,400 Israeli citizens, public opinion was squarely on the side of Israel, with the attack being cast as even worse for Israel than 9/11 was for America.
But despite Israel’s military superiority, Hamas has been able to effectively wield propaganda as a weapon against the IDF, which has suffered real-world consequences while generating enormous sympathy for the plight of Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire between Hamas and Israel.
While Israel has been relentless in its aerial bombardment, killing an estimated 3,793 people, including more than 1,500 children, this ONE event, amplified by network swarms, has seemingly turned the tide of public perception.
This may be uncomfortable for some to hear, but Israel has lost the moral high ground due to its unrelenting bombing campaign.
If Israeli airstrikes continue to result in collateral deaths like the most recent one at the Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church, Israel will find itself in an untenable position of fighting a kinetic war on multiple fronts while losing the propaganda war.
Winning hearts and minds is a crucial component of warfare, both in theater and outside of it. Ignoring this reality will be extremely detrimental to Israel and, by extension, the United States.
The interplay between network swarms and social media has emerged as a crucial development in the context of modern 5th-dimensional warfare, and this conflict specifically. For example, the U.S. did not have to consider this realm of warfare nearly as much when the Allies were bombing German cities like Dresden to the ground.
In the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, propaganda and weaponized narratives via social media have proven to be effective tools against a militarily superior opponent, and propaganda will continue to play a central role in the realm of psychological operations within this war until its conclusion.
The conflict between Israel and Palestine has always been polarizing, with both slides wholly assured in their belief that their cause is right and just. Today, social media platforms have amplified this polarization, tailoring algorithms to continuously serve up content that aligns with users' beliefs. Consequently, what one person regards as the truth may markedly differ from another's perception within the same digital space.
And whatever happens within the digital space will eventually escape into the real world.
Individual biases and perspectives remain paramount in shaping human perception, as people tend to interpret events and information in ways that validate their preexisting convictions. In today's digital era, we are inundated with endless information streams, which require cognitive filtering to keep from being overwhelmed. This leads to a selective process where individuals prioritize information reinforcing their beliefs while downplaying or disregarding contradictory information.
The potent influence of visual empathy triggers that fuel viral social media content further underscores how perceptions can give rise to network swarms that can spread rapidly on an unprecedented scale. Once unleashed, the truth, whatever that is nowadays, stands little chance of reasserting itself.
It is much easier to latch on to a familiar narrative than grapple with the nuances around a given subject, especially one as emotionally charged as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Facts may not care about one's feelings, as Ben Shapiro famously coined, but in the realm of 5th dimensional warfare, perception is reality.