UPDATE: The 7th Eye reveals that the identity of Abu Ali, which I’ve exposed here is under military censorship. Clearly, it’s not protecting Israeli national security. But rather suppressing the black eye that the army deserves for employing psy-ops to hoodwink Israelis. Exposing GIlad Cohen and publishing his name here offers a strong argument for the Israeli press to either force the end of the censorship of this story, or else force the army to admit its own lies and subterfuge.
One way to help in this effort is by posting links to this post in your social media accounts and alerting friends to it. The wider it circulates the harder it will be to suppress this ugly truth.
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With the IDF facing an ICC war crimes investigation and its snipers murdering and maiming thousands of Gazans during the Great March of Return, two years ago a senior IDF commander decided he needed an attack dog to go after his enemies in the Israeli media; and drum up favorable coverage in an otherwise dismal news cycle. He hired a PR shill (i.e. “consultant”) to create a social media psy ops project. This former junior officer in COGAT, the army’s unit which coordinates with the PA in the West Bank, was hired by then-Southern Command chief, Maj. Gen. Herzl Halevi, to create an anonymous Telegram group, with the terribly unwoke name, the Abu Ali Express:
“[Maj. Gen.] Eliezer Toledano, we’re waiting for you.” A purported threat from Hamas.The channel publishes exclusive stories, videos and pictures bearing the label “Abu Ali Express,” and many reporters get information from it and cite it. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit sometimes refers journalists seeking information on events in Gaza to this channel, while insisting that the articles don’t come from any military source.
Abu Ali hates the news media and routinely lambastes them for their the slightest criticism they offer of the army. Other reporters are routinely smeared as lap dogs of Hamas and traitors. In the overheated Israeli political environment in which every critic of the state is a leftist traitor, this is incitement to violence. In the past, it has led to political murder at the highest level.
He even went to the extreme of attacking one of Israel’s leading army reporters, who claimed Hamas had posted a picture with IDF Maj. Gen. and Southern Command chief, Maj. Gen. Eliezer Toledano. While doing so may satisfy Abu Ali’s hatred of the press, it could blow up in his face since the IDF relies of the media to put the army’s best face before the Israeli public. Insulting and inciting against reporters actually poisons the relationship.
Ironically, some of these same reporters are happy to lap up Abu Ali’s propaganda and publish it as truth. It reminds me of an abused woman beaten by her boy friend who apologizes to him after the beating, makes him dinner and does his laundry.
Abu Ali Express Hebrew Telegram channel
The army’s psy ops shill called his corner of the social media universe, Abu Ali Express. And its been a raving success with 100,000 followers and millions of daily views. He gives readers the false impression that he’s relaying to them fresh news of the Arab world which he’s compiled from his own set of secret, well-placed sources in the region. Amos Harel writes with slight irony in Haaretz that “somehow [his content] always seems to align with the propaganda interests of the IDF.” For an example of the credulousness with which his “reporting” is greeted in pro-Israel circles, read this. In truth, he has only once source. And that source has nothing to do with the Arab world. It’s the IDF itself.
Haaretz exposed the charade a few days ago. But either the military censor has prohibited reporting the story (apparently exposing secret PR deals damages national security) or the dude got a lawyer to secure a gag order prohibiting exposing his identity. However, Yossi Melman apparently (and thankfully) didn’t get the memo and tweeted (see above) the name of the bearer of IDF secrets. Melman is a brave soul to go directly against the censor. What surprises me is that the censor hasn’t demanded that he remove the tweet.
Let’s give Abu Ali the 20 minutes of “fame” he deserves. He is Gilad Cohen. And boy, does he have a sweet deal. Not only does he get juicy scoops straight from the IDF horse’s mouth which he diligently passes on to his readers, he runs the Telegram channel as an independent commercial enterprise. Given its heavy traffic, it can earn considerable income, which would be all his.
The army offers a typically lame excuse for his hiring:
The IDF has employed G. [Gilad Cohen] as a consultant to Southern Command for around two years, in light of his unique expertise in various fields vital to the command’s activities in the Gaza sector, including his deep knowledge of Palestinian culture, the language and Gaza’s social media networks.
Gilad Cohen (aka Abu Ali) monetizes his Telegram channel
Which of course is nonsense: Cohen is a creature of the IDF. He would have nothing to report without the news they give him. Their claim that they don’t do so is lame and unbelievable, since they themselves are paying him to do what he does.
Usually, the IDF lies about its failures in operations attacking Palestinian targets. But it’s rarely been caught in such a bald-faced bit of media manipulation that involves lies and deception directed at Israelis themselves. This is a new phenomenon that indicates just how desperate the military is to change the dismal narrative, and go on the offensive against Israel’s own media.
Abu Ali’s venture is reminiscent of an Israeli magazine, Rimon, secretly funded by the Shin Bet in the 1950s to compete with the highly successful HaOlam HaZeh. The latter routinely published damaging reports on public figures, including military-intellignece officials, along with pictures of scantily clad women. The combination was immensely appealing to the Israeli public. The security apparatus was jealous of the publication’s success and annoyed that it continually poked its agents in the eye. So it created Rimon, a glossy color magazine which it secretly funded. The project ended unceremoniously after 18 months. It only reinforced the independence and credibility of its erstwhile target, HaOlam HaZeh.
The Abu Ali Express will similarly embarrass the army and expose it to yet another scandal of its own making.
Related Posts
The IDF is not alone in mounting such bogus psy ops projects. The US military paid Iraqi media outlets to publish glowing reports of its operations there. The Pentagon paid a UK PR firm $540-million to produce fake Al Qaeda videos. In the 1950s and 60s, the CIA secretly used 400 journalists to gather intelligence on its behalf. Apparently, armies the world over can’t afford to have ethics or moral standards. But average citizens can, and they can raise holy hell at such meshugas. That keeps the military miscreants in check.
The phrase “Abu Ali” is a linguistic borrowing from Arabic, where it’s come to mean essentially someone who is a fraud. So in that sense, Cohen’s choice of names for his enterprise perfectly illustrates who and what he is.
Further, there is a tradition among pro-Israel shills to adopt Arabic names and assume the false identity of Arabs. Commenters here have done it scores of times. Though different individuals may do this for different reasons, it’s part of a Arabophobic impulse to damage one’s enemy by assuming his identity. It’s a particularly nasty bit of psychological manipulation. First you steal Palestinian land, then you appropriate their identity as well. I’ve never seen a Palestinian or any Arab attempt to assume a false Israeli identity. That tells you something.
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22 thoughts on “BREAKING: IDF Psy Ops Operation, Abu Ali Express, Run by Gilad Cohen – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم”
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But if the IDF gets its info from intelligence, (it acts on the orders of the government which in turn gets its info from intelligence) which comes from sources which can be anyone from cleaners to maids to professionals to businessmen as well as any other civilian then….
Bruh this straight up propaganda just accept it. Like they literally had a commentator pretend to be Arab to gain some sort of fake credibility.
If the IDF was a reliable source they would have came out as an IDF run news organization but no. They lied and created a fake arab new commentator as a source that published stories on behalf of the IDF while pretended to be independent so that way the IDF can point to it and say this is a credible third party source that isn’t us wink wink.
This is literally state run propaganda. If they lied about this then they’re lying about everything and new articles themselves aren’t credible. If the Russian government got caught pulling some shit like this you wouldn’t be so naive. Don’t give IDF credit they didn’t earn.
The fact that they made a fake news organization in the first place makes the IDF not credible because if they were honest they wouldn’t have had to hide there narrative behind a fake Arab commentator to point to as a credible source.
If the russian government pulled something like this you’d need a considerable amount of mental gymnastics to try to claim the russian intelligence community is a reliable source when there not lying therefore we should believe the state run media says,
Don’t be naive this is what state run propaganda looks like. The information isn’t coming from the “Israeli intelligence community” the intelligence is meant to benefit the military not the new agencies. This information it coming from Israeli political propagandists. This organization was built to make you believe what is convenient for the Israeli government not necessarily what is true.
That is the reality you need to come to terms with.
I see there is an Eliezer Toledano who is chief of the IDF southern operations.
Is it him, and in case why, the target of Abu Ali, or who is he Eliezer Toledano?
@ AA: I corrected the post shortly after your comment. But since you’re such a hot shot explain to me why a guy being paid to shill for Toledano would smear a journalist for claiming Hamas wants to kill Toledano. That goes against the propaganda purpose of burnishing the commander’s image and making his appear a hero in the eyes of Israelis. Maybe Cohen is letting his ego get the better of him? And biting the hand that feeds him?
Oh, and since we’re picking nits here, his name is “Toledano.” You misspelled it.
Eliezer Toledano is the commander of the southern front comand, not a journalist. Also, what you posted is a Hamas/Islamic Jihad welcome for hkm when he began his new position. This is emberassing.
So, I went to the post and what is said is that this is not an official posying by Hamas/Islamic Jihad, and that this wasnt circulating in any main gazan media channels and not in Hamas/Jihad official channels. What Abu Ali is saying is that Nir Dvori took an isoteric post by somr unknowns and reported on it as if it had official credibility. That is all. If anything he is blaming Dvori for fear mongering. Im sorry, but I think you lack context in this situation, and the fact that youbaaid he is calling to murder journalists based on bad information/misunderstanding informatikn that was given to you is just bad reporting, and in my opinikn worse than what Abu Ali is doing (which is badmouthing joutnalists, who scoop him and qoute him daily withkut giving credit by the way).
[comment deleted: No tag team hasbara wrestling. Comments must be substantive and contain an argument. Rooting for your hasbara pals here is not an appropriate comment. Do not post in this thread again.]
@ bob: You’re attempting to distract from the main point. But I won’t let you get away with it. The main point is that Gilad Cohen is a fake and paid to be one by the IDF. The IDF and its generals got themselves into yet another major scandal.
Whether my first impression of Cohen’s post was mistaken is immaterial. Though I credit you for vainly attempting to make it so.
You are done in this thread. Do not post again in it.
Wow, look at you oh knight of free speech. What I did was pointing out that you have a misunderstanding of the situation, and are quoting a lot of sources who hate Gilad Cohen because he badmouths them. I didnt say that the IDF is not paying him. I didnt say that there is nothing fishy here. I merely commented abot the fact thatvyou blamed the guy for calling on people to murder journalists based, and you based this on very bad facts. This reminds me of the time you quoted “Fresh” with the “secret” Iran attack plans.
You dont care about discussion, you just want a circle jerk.
@ bob: Cohen has in fact incited for the murder of journalists. He’s called them traitors. He’s said they’re dupes of Hamas. He is inciting to murder. And given Israel’s past history of political violence, that is a very real threat. There are many Israelis only too willing to engage in such acts of intimidation and hate. Those are very good reasonable facts.
As for free speech, this is my website. It’s not the public square or the halls of Congress or the Knesset. You follow the rules here or you don’t publish. Regardless of that, there are tens of thousands of comments published here that disagree with my views. So quit whining. It’s unbecoming of the hasbaroid you are.
And because you ignored my Directive not to comment further in the thread, You are now moderated. Only comments respecting the rules will be approved in future.
[comment deleted: I told you not to comment in the thread. You did. THat got you moderated. You commented once again, Now you’re banned.]
Most of his content is sharing stories and videos from arabic social media with added commentary. There is really no need for a source.
@ Hilda: Absolutely not true. If you’re purporting to have exclusive sources for what you publish you have to authenticate what those sources are. He doesn’t because he posts Israeli intelligence info. It would blow his cover, which I just blew anyway.
Israeli Palestiinans should establish a service named Herzl Sharon Express and collect there from the Jewish social media the “best” stories and pubish them in English and Arabic. Without doubt those racist, violent stories with comments would make the international public understand better who are the real problem. If an Israeli Jewish minister has recommended publicly bombing the huge damn in Egypt, it is certain that the Israeli Jewish social media is full of even more macaber “ideas”.
But if the IDF gets its info from intelligence, (it acts on the orders of the government which in turn gets its info from intelligence) which comes from sources which can be anyone from cleaners to maids to professionals to businessmen as well as any other civilian then….
Bruh this straight up propaganda just accept it. Like they literally had a commentator pretend to be Arab to gain some sort of fake credibility.
If the IDF was a reliable source they would have came out as an IDF run news organization but no. They lied and created a fake arab new commentator as a source that published stories on behalf of the IDF while pretended to be independent so that way the IDF can point to it and say this is a credible third party source that isn’t us wink wink.
This is literally state run propaganda. If they lied about this then they’re lying about everything and new articles themselves aren’t credible. If the Russian government got caught pulling some shit like this you wouldn’t be so naive. Don’t give IDF credit they didn’t earn.
The fact that they made a fake news organization in the first place makes the IDF not credible because if they were honest they wouldn’t have had to hide there narrative behind a fake Arab commentator to point to as a credible source.
If the russian government pulled something like this you’d need a considerable amount of mental gymnastics to try to claim the russian intelligence community is a reliable source when there not lying therefore we should believe the state run media says,
Don’t be naive this is what state run propaganda looks like. The information isn’t coming from the “Israeli intelligence community” the intelligence is meant to benefit the military not the new agencies. This information it coming from Israeli political propagandists. This organization was built to make you believe what is convenient for the Israeli government not necessarily what is true.
That is the reality you need to come to terms with.
I see there is an Eliezer Toledano who is chief of the IDF southern operations.
Is it him, and in case why, the target of Abu Ali, or who is he Eliezer Toledano?
Hi hot shot, Eliezer Toledno is the Southern Command chief of the IDF.
@ AA: I corrected the post shortly after your comment. But since you’re such a hot shot explain to me why a guy being paid to shill for Toledano would smear a journalist for claiming Hamas wants to kill Toledano. That goes against the propaganda purpose of burnishing the commander’s image and making his appear a hero in the eyes of Israelis. Maybe Cohen is letting his ego get the better of him? And biting the hand that feeds him?
Oh, and since we’re picking nits here, his name is “Toledano.” You misspelled it.
Eliezer Toledano is the commander of the southern front comand, not a journalist. Also, what you posted is a Hamas/Islamic Jihad welcome for hkm when he began his new position. This is emberassing.
@ bob: Not according to Abu Ali. According to him the claim that this is Hamas propaganda is fake. So which is it? Real or fake? Make up your mind.
So, I went to the post and what is said is that this is not an official posying by Hamas/Islamic Jihad, and that this wasnt circulating in any main gazan media channels and not in Hamas/Jihad official channels. What Abu Ali is saying is that Nir Dvori took an isoteric post by somr unknowns and reported on it as if it had official credibility. That is all. If anything he is blaming Dvori for fear mongering. Im sorry, but I think you lack context in this situation, and the fact that youbaaid he is calling to murder journalists based on bad information/misunderstanding informatikn that was given to you is just bad reporting, and in my opinikn worse than what Abu Ali is doing (which is badmouthing joutnalists, who scoop him and qoute him daily withkut giving credit by the way).
[comment deleted: No tag team hasbara wrestling. Comments must be substantive and contain an argument. Rooting for your hasbara pals here is not an appropriate comment. Do not post in this thread again.]
@ bob: You’re attempting to distract from the main point. But I won’t let you get away with it. The main point is that Gilad Cohen is a fake and paid to be one by the IDF. The IDF and its generals got themselves into yet another major scandal.
Whether my first impression of Cohen’s post was mistaken is immaterial. Though I credit you for vainly attempting to make it so.
You are done in this thread. Do not post again in it.
Wow, look at you oh knight of free speech. What I did was pointing out that you have a misunderstanding of the situation, and are quoting a lot of sources who hate Gilad Cohen because he badmouths them. I didnt say that the IDF is not paying him. I didnt say that there is nothing fishy here. I merely commented abot the fact thatvyou blamed the guy for calling on people to murder journalists based, and you based this on very bad facts. This reminds me of the time you quoted “Fresh” with the “secret” Iran attack plans.
You dont care about discussion, you just want a circle jerk.
@ bob: Cohen has in fact incited for the murder of journalists. He’s called them traitors. He’s said they’re dupes of Hamas. He is inciting to murder. And given Israel’s past history of political violence, that is a very real threat. There are many Israelis only too willing to engage in such acts of intimidation and hate. Those are very good reasonable facts.
As for free speech, this is my website. It’s not the public square or the halls of Congress or the Knesset. You follow the rules here or you don’t publish. Regardless of that, there are tens of thousands of comments published here that disagree with my views. So quit whining. It’s unbecoming of the hasbaroid you are.
And because you ignored my Directive not to comment further in the thread, You are now moderated. Only comments respecting the rules will be approved in future.
[comment deleted: I told you not to comment in the thread. You did. THat got you moderated. You commented once again, Now you’re banned.]
Most of his content is sharing stories and videos from arabic social media with added commentary. There is really no need for a source.
@ Hilda: Absolutely not true. If you’re purporting to have exclusive sources for what you publish you have to authenticate what those sources are. He doesn’t because he posts Israeli intelligence info. It would blow his cover, which I just blew anyway.
Did you ever read any of his posts? I read it daily and out of the thousands of posts the vast majority are just social media references
@ Hilda: Amos Harel and Yaniv Kubovich disagree with you. I think I’ll take them over you.
Israeli Palestiinans should establish a service named Herzl Sharon Express and collect there from the Jewish social media the “best” stories and pubish them in English and Arabic. Without doubt those racist, violent stories with comments would make the international public understand better who are the real problem. If an Israeli Jewish minister has recommended publicly bombing the huge damn in Egypt, it is certain that the Israeli Jewish social media is full of even more macaber “ideas”.
Richard Silverstein, what the hell do you want?
Justice, tolerance, democracy for starters.