Psychological warfare isn’t always loud or obvious. Sometimes, it hides in plain sight, cloaked in compassion, urgency, or even religious devotion. It can look like journalism. It can sound like concern. And too often, we don’t recognize it – not even when we’re the ones deploying it.
When enemies use psychological tactics, their motives are easier to spot. Take Hamas, for example. When they release carefully staged, heart-wrenching videos of Israeli hostages to their families, the intention is clear: emotional manipulation as a weapon. It’s monstrous, but unmistakable.
But sometimes, the messaging is subtler – wrapped in the authority of international institutions. Not long ago, the UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, told the BBC that “14,000 Gazan babies could die in the next 48 hours” if aid didn’t reach them. The statement exploded across headlines, pushing panic at a global scale.
The power of headlines
To anyone familiar with the slow, tragic progression of starvation in war zones like Yemen or Sudan, that claim should have raised red flags. Starvation doesn’t strike overnight. In Yemen, for instance, UNICEF reported in March that, after nearly a decade of war, half of the country’s children are severely malnourished. That’s devastating – but it didn’t happen in 48 hours.
Fletcher’s statement was later corrected. The real projection – made by the IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) – warned that severe cases of acute malnutrition in children could occur over the course of a year, from April 2025 to March 2026, if aid failed to arrive. A serious concern, absolutely. But not the immediate cataclysm implied. Yet the correction never made global headlines: The damage was done.
Why did so few journalists question the original claim? Perhaps because it played into an old, insidious narrative – one that paints Jews as heartless, even murderous. “Jews killing babies” isn’t new. It’s one of the oldest antisemitic tropes: the blood libel. When familiar lies are repackaged as breaking news, they bypass skepticism. They feel disturbingly believable.
That’s the power of psychological warfare. It sticks, even after it’s disproved.
But this isn’t just something “they” do to us. We do it to each other, too.
Gaslighting within Israeli government and society
Consider the case of MK Tally Gotliv. When freed hostages began advocating on behalf of those still in captivity, and criticizing the government’s policies, she publicly questioned their credibility, suggesting they had been brainwashed by their captors. This wasn’t just political cynicism – it was a textbook example of gaslighting.
Gaslighting is a psychological tactic often used by abusers: make the victim doubt their own memory, their feelings, even their sanity. It’s manipulative. It’s cruel. And in this case, it was a public signal to discredit those who had endured unthinkable trauma. It wasn’t just a betrayal of empathy – it was an attempt to erase voices that might complicate the political narrative.
And perhaps most controversially, some of the most effective psychological tactics come from within our own communities – cloaked in religious authority.
Certain haredi (ultra-Orthodox) leaders, for example, discourage their followers from serving in the army or participating in national life, even in times of existential threat. Scholars of cult behavior will recognize the warning signs: isolation from wider society, which is viewed as a source of contamination and threat; suppression of questioning or dissent; and dependence on authoritarian leadership. These leaders offer comfort, meaning, and community – but also wield fear, shame, and the threat of ostracism to maintain control.
When such leaders prevent their followers from helping to rescue hostages or defend the nation, they aren’t just making a theological argument: They’re waging psychological warfare – on their own people and on the broader society that depends on shared responsibility.
Psychological warfare thrives in the shadows. It wears the mask of care, urgency, even holiness. That’s what makes it so dangerous. It bypasses reason and preys on our deepest instincts – fear, loyalty, grief.
We need to get better at recognizing it, no matter where it comes from. Because while bullets and rockets may wound the body, psychological warfare aims for something more lasting: our judgment, our unity, and our truth.
The writer, who holds a PhD in clinical psychology, hosts a podcast, The Van Leer Series on Ideas. She is a psychologist with the Tikva Helpline.