There are SO MANY accounts on Instagram that I see rolling down my feed actively promoting the narrative that Israel is committing genocide and decrying the deaths of innocents who, in reality, Hamas is positioning as human shields and weaponized victims for propaganda and world sympathy. It is masterful deception on a global scale using the jet fuel of technology and social media. It is political racketeering. What I call Catfish Politics. In just the last two days, I have seen reports that Ireland, Spain and France are refusing to help Israel's counteroffensive. This is huge politics at the historic level interfering in the elections and opinions of nations at every level -- because social media has that far and influential a reach.

These are the accounts I currently see/follow who are posting these influential narratives MULTIPLE TIMES DAILY. Perhaps members of this site could also take on a counter-narrative effort with me on these posts. If you know more, perhaps a list should be started on GoogleSheets, with actions taken to report them and counter them.

• AJPlus

• Aljazeeraenglish

• WeAreThePeace

• LandPalestine

• KahledBeydoun

• yaseminacr_2

• mudiclick

• MiddleEastEye

• MothersAgainstGenocide

• GrassrootsLaw

I've come to think the social media accounts themselves must be reported to Instagram / META for the daily churn and barrage of falsehoods they promulgate for obvious "court of public opinion" and massive political influence they seek -- just as one would any suspicion of fraud. This is something I will begin doing in the coming days.

I post commentary on many of these posts calling out their deception and citing the culpability of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, the regime in Iran, ISIS, the Taliban and Boko Haram -- THERE ARE SO MANY -- just about every day, multiple times. I've come to a core set of concise, articulate talking points and cutting counter-narratives that I hope have impact on readers. I am looking for more platforms / news outlet "opinion" kinds of platforms to get these views out in the open.

I am also discovering many important counter-narratives emerging as quickly, prominently, and influentially -- such as this community! -- including EndGenderApartheid.today that is currently circulating a petition to declare the oppression in Iran and Afghanistan "crimes against humanity" tantamount to genocide and the film on YouTube, "Women Leaving Islam".

The Islamist narrative is adopted by many progressive activists such as Shaun King and Bernie Sanders, nations in sympathy with the oppressed who have been longstanding opponents of Netanyahu, his appeal to the far right in the US, and his pulling politics to the right globally these last two decades (along with Putin and Islamists). These activists are joining regular protests and getting involved in grassroots and higher political parties. My former campaign manager is now a Muslim after attending Rutgers University. I had a young man at a political dinner last week whom several of us around the table had to explain that Israelis experienced the real genocide and Hamas is entirely culpable for 10/7/23 and what they represent is a threat to humanity and global peace and stability. He was expressing empathy as a descendent of the Armenian genocide, so that word is a trigger for him and many others who are not well-informed.

This is a tragic cross-current of the best of progressive intentions, empathy and charity being aggressively, persuasively, plausibly misled and undermined with expert propaganda finesse by well-funded Islamists and tyrants. IG @MelissaSherpa

FB @Melissa.Brown.Blaeuer