Psychological War Racing Military Operations in 2006 July Victory

Since the emergence of the Zionist Entity in 1948 and "Israel" is performing a psychological war on the Arab peoples and governments.
Through this performance, the "Israeli" enemy was able during a long period of time to put the Arabs in the frame of a semi-permanent thinking; that defeating the Zionist army is a chimera, and that there is no solution but through negotiations leading to the submission to "Israeli" conditions for peace.

However, the scene began to change soon with the launch of the resistance operations against the invaders in 1982.

Escalating processes and developing methods of confrontation, the resistance began to enter new methods into its program of operations.
The resistance realized the importance of psychological warfare to win the confrontation on the ground field through influencing the behavior of the enemy and its morale and this was the main objective, for which what was known as psychological warfare was established.

In this context, it launched a system of experts and specialists in war and psychological operations that has proved to own high capacity in managing this important part of the battle and to defeat the enemy, especially during the July 2006 war.

"Al-Intiqad" went after the role of psychological warfare in the July 2006 war in victory. For this sake, it interviewed the specialist in psychological warfare Retired Brigadier Hisham Jaber, and the Researcher in Psychological Sciences Dr. Ahmad Ayyash.

Dr. Ayash pointed out that the resistance most important weapon in its 2006 battle was the weapon of truth, which is a great psychological weapon that "Israel" hasn't witnessed before.

This weapon made the enemy suffer from intellectual theft and to put its self assessment on contest especially that what was always said that the Arabs are many in number but are defeated was reflected on "Israel" in the war.
The resistance was few in number and the enemy with all its soldiers, tanks and military aircraft were many. However, they were defeated.
Through this, Ayyash considered that the beginning of "Israel's" defeat in 2006 was in its own mind through which "Israel" underestimated the Lebanese mind in general and the resistance mind in particular.

"This was reflected in the policy of throwing aircraft "leaflets", a way that has become ineffective in the presence of modern technology in almost every Lebanese house," the Psychological Sciences Researcher clarified.
Stressing that "the enemy ignored a basic fact," Ayyash said that "the Lebanese have satellite dishes through which they viewed most channels in addition to global cell phones through which they connected any place they wanted to uncover the reality of the situation.

"The "Israeli" mind that planned for July war also ignored a basic fact resembled by the deep psychological faith of resistance fighters in addition to the great effect of Islamic ideology that Hizbullah has planted in the souls of fighters," Ayyash noted classifying the type and effects of this ideology.
Revealing that "this ideology was grounded on absolute confidence in the awareness of the resistance leadership and its good management to the battle," Ayyash acknowledged that "this ideology made the resistance fighters as well as its supporters confident in what was broadcasted via resistance media limiting their respond to letters of Secretary General of Hizbullah His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah."

"The implications of Sayyed Nasrallah's speeches had a major role in thwarting the psychological war launched by "Israel" against the resistance and its people parallel to other national media outlets that had a key role in thwarting the plans of the enemy by injecting a spirit of enthusiasm and a sense of pride of the resistance victories," he noted.

Ayyash also explained the importance of the moment at which the resistance leader announced strike against the devastating marine battleship "Sa'ar".
"This moment turned the intellectual theft of the massacres' images committed by the enemy against civilians, which was part of the enemy's psychological warfare, to generate a sense of frustration at the resistance side to a feeling joy, pride, and confidence in the resistance fighters."

"This in turn raised confidence in the resistance's power and capacity, and made the enemy lose one of its most important papers in the psychological warfare that it waged," he added.

Ayyash also indicated to a detailed key in the subject: "The resistance used psychological warfare in the context of operations against the enemy, parallel to the psychological operations aiming at generating a space of trust and confidence in its people's spirits."

"For this purpose, it chose in its statements and its media outlets carefully selected statements such as "Katyusha Rainfall", "Beyond Haifa", "If Allah helps you no one can overcome you", in addition to the use of certain metaphysical ideas inspired by religion and faith because of their significant impact on People's morale," the researcher explained.

He added that "the resistance's launching to its social apparatus among displaced citizens to ensure their needs and to reassure them that the resistance stands by them had a great effect in the alleviation of psychological warfare that "Israel" waged on hand and in supporting anti-psychological operations that the resistance carried on the other hand."

Moreover, Ayyash pointed out that the resistance in this context created heroism tales of its fighting individuals and groups. "This proved that the resistance mind engaged in psychological warfare is a young and creative mind while the "Israeli" owns an old mind that reproduces itself so that its psychological tools no longer deceived anyone."

The psychological Dr. also explained that the psychological war the resistance waged against the enemy took the form of confrontation during the war and then the opposite form of attack after the fire stopped.

"This was greatly manifested in the victory speech delivered by Sayyed Nasrallah through which he destroyed the morale of the enemy as he proved that the resistance's leader does not lie, and that the Truthful Promise turned into a fact."
Ayyash said that it is enough to demonstrate this image through the reflection of defeat on the "Israeli" internal side and the mutual accusations between the enemy leaders on the responsibility of defeat.

For his part, Brigadier Hisham Jaber stated that both parties of the conflict went into psychological warfare in 2006 war as they were well aware of its importance. Both parties used in their psychological fight visual and audio media, in addition to electronic cyber media.
"However, the resistance showed high capabilities in this type of warfare, as demonstrated by the survival of "al-Manar" television - the primary mean used by the resistance in the psychological war against the enemy- in a complete broadcasting during the entire war, despite the bombing of its headquarters several times."

In parallel, Jaber believed that the first psychological weapon that the resistance used the in this war was its great victory in May 2000. "The resistance invested this victory to break the morale of the enemy and to remind it of what to expect from the defeats if it decided to return the try."
Clarifying that the resistance second arm was the course of the July war itself, the Brigadier said that "the enemy, who entered the war determined to erase the effects of 2000 defeat, was surprised by several factors that caused to retreat up the morale of the "Israeli" army to the lowest level since the establishment of the Zionist Entity in 1948."

"The "Israeli" built his fighting theory on that the guerrillas can block the advancement of armies, but they can't stop its progress. However, he was surprised that the resistance fighters had a complete control on the field for thirty-three days and prevented the army of progress," he revealed.

The Specialist continued that "the failure of the Zionist intelligence to collect information on weapons of the resistance and its network of contacts increased the crash of the "Israeli" army morale throwing them into disorder."
Jaber noted that the war waged by the enemy on the axis of "Ghandouriyeh", through which it was able to achieve a lonely penetration along the duration of battles, was aimed at a purely psychological basis.

"The "Israeli" wanted, through this result to raise the collapsed morale of its soldiers on one hand and to spread terror in the ranks of the resistance fighters to push them to flee out of the area in order to facilitate "Israeli" control on the other," he explained adding that "this result was soon turned against the "Israeli" when its soldiers found themselves in an ambush that destroyed a large number of their "Merkava" tanks."

Referring to the role of the Resistance War Media in the psychological war against the enemy, the Retired Brigadier noted that "broadcasting images of these burning tanks on local and international media participated in the fall of the Zionists' safety symbols resembled by this very sophisticated tank."
"The collapse of the "Merkava" myth means the loss of confidence in the "Israeli" army and the government. And therefore the settlers have no other choice but to leave occupied Palestine," Jabber stressed.

Jaber also argued that the resistance through its organized psychological warfare was able to get to sow confusion and doubt in the hearts and spirits of the Zionists over their leadership on two things: style in conversation and credibility in facts and information transmission.

"At one point, they heard from their leaders that the resistance matter will end within days of starting the battle, while on the other hand, the resistance emphasized them that the battle field will be cleared on a crushing defeat of the Zionist army, and that what really happened," Jaber explained.

"The resistance persuaded both the "Israeli" army and people that the war is no longer a picnic. After this war, the "Israeli" fear is no longer limited to the fact that resistance missiles can reach any spot in Occupied Palestine, but he is now living in a continuous fear of transmission of the battle to inside Occupied Palestine through the entry of resistance groups into the Northern Border to occupy and control the settlements. This is what pushes the "Israeli" to leave after losing the security he was promised to enjoy," Jaber concluded.