During the 2020 riots in the US, I became aware of this site: https://beautifultrouble.org.
From their About page:
I checked back on the site after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks in Israel. Resources from the site can be applied to the strategy and tactics of Hamas.
Principle: The real action is your target’s reaction
Hamas exploited the asymmetry of power. They provoked a response from the more powerful target, Israel, which produced high civilian casualties, and they wrote the story of that devastation into their script.
Principle: Put your target in a decision dilemma
Responses with greater strategic advantage could have probably been developed, but the severity of the brutality of the October 7 attacks led to a quick response. To respond with anything but haste may have allowed for further attacks in Israel.
Principle: Bring the issue home
Social media was flooded with visuals of the effects of Israel’s reaction – highlighting the costs to the people of Gaza. (While Israel limited access to some of its most graphic photographic and video evidence of the violence Hamas brought to Israel.)
Principle: Lead with sympathetic characters
Across the globe, people related to the suffering in the images from Gaza. They saw parents holding their children’s lifeless bodies while standing in rubble and felt their pain. They saw themselves holding their own babies.
Principle: Think narratively
The story of the aggression of Israel against the innocent in Gaza was powerful in the minds of the global audience.
Theory: Framing
Within a very short time, the events of October 7 were already invisible to demonstrators across the Western world as the bodies of children pulled from rubble in Gaza & stories of past perceived oppression against Palestinians were highlighted.
Principle: Reframe the Issue
The new framing was clear. Israel was defined as an oppressive regime facing charges of genocide.
