A massive anti-Israel march took place in New York City on September 2, 2024—the day Israelis were burying the 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a “high-profile hostage” captured and murdered by Hamas, along with five others, just days earlier in Gaza. A dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, Hersh’s execution at the hands of Hamas provoked an outpouring of grief and rage among Americans, many of whom learned his story from his parents, Rachel and Jon, who had appeared at the Democratic National Convention just two weeks earlier.
The sight of an estimated 5,000 rioters marching across Manhattan carrying Hamas, Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and Hizbullah flags on Labor Day perplexed many. What could they be protesting against on a day after Hamas had murdered six Jews?
Yet, this wasn’t the first time an aggressive, in-your-face “pro-Palestinian” rally in the West followed a high-profile massacre of Jews in Israel. The first demonstrations in the immediate wake of the October 7, 2023, massacre condemned Israel and demanded sympathy and support for Gaza.
Psychological Warfare in Full Display
The timing of these rallies is hardly accidental. Psychological warfare is a crucial part of Hamas’s strategy, and it excels at it. Hamas and its supporters understand that letting the Western public dwell too long on the massacres of Jews is damaging to their cause. Among the objectives of such actions are drawing attention and public sympathy away from murdered Jews, as well as shifting the news cycle to get the world back “on track” in sympathizing with Hamas as “the resistance” to Israel and depicting Jews as the devil incarnate.
Another goal is to present Jews as the culprits for their own murders. In the wake of October 7, pro-Hamas online brigades spread a lie claiming that the IDF murdered most Israelis who perished on that day. The same lie is circulating on social media today about the six hostages. Meanwhile, on the same day that Israel was burying Goldberg-Polin, Hamas released a statement claiming it had warned the Jews not to try to free the hostages. The implication was clear: it was the Jews’ own fault their loved ones were dead.
To add another emotional blow, Hamas released a video in which the soon-to-be-slain 24-year-old Eden Yerushalmi—gaunt and with dark circles under her eyes—blamed Benjamin Netanyahu for his failure to make a deal and called on Israelis to take to the streets and demand a cease-fire.
This is classic psychological warfare. It relies on disinformation, intimidation, and emotional manipulation to undermine enemy morale, seed chaos and confusion, and deepen internal divisions. A document reportedly uncovered recently in Gaza by the IDF shows just how intentional Hamas has been with its psyops strategy. It instructs its readers to increase dissemination of hostage videos to build psychological pressure on the Israelis; to continue blaming Netanyahu; and to work to undermine Israel’s belief that the ground invasion will bring the hostages home. Hamas’s patron, Iran, is likely closely involved in this: its role in the anti-Israel protests in the United States is increasingly coming to light.
Hamas’s and Iran’s “hearts and minds” efforts are geared at Israelis, Americans, and the West, more broadly. How we collectively respond to them will determine whether we can defend our societies or not.
