Another thing I was hoping to get to with the propaganda piece was the manipuation of Western ignorance of Arabic & Hebrew. Many videos have fake translations of Arabic, & plenty of conspiracies cite "proof" from news in Hebrew.
One piece that's been misread is this Mako interview with people involved in aerial response at Re'im. IDF discuss the less-than-100% guarantee that they weren't shooting at Israelis--which was *completely* distorted to fuel conspiracy. /x
https://www.mako.co.il/news-military/6361323ddea5a810/Article-02cfdbceafc4b81027.htm
Anyway, I'll still finish a more abstracted, general-principles piece on how to defend against many forms of propaganda made even more easy to pass off as good journalism / solid intel in our digital day and age... but good grief, is it ever difficult to stay ahead of each whirlwind as it arises!
What makes this form of propaganda so dangerous is that it's confidently lazy. It knows its target readership won't check the Arabic or Hebrew. And the few that can read / do translate? Too few, too late to stop the furor.
The distortion of frank conversation from military personnel about the challenges of precision is also cruel in its damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't character. What, would you rather they lie? Never let anyone treat the fog of war like a revelation that proves conspiracy.