Riboua confirms here what I have been suspecting for some time. Many if not all of these NGOs are not honest with their contributors. I have been and continue to be one of them. Overstating the horror of the conditions in Gaza is almost forgivable when trying to gain support. Providing cover for the complicity of Hamas in creating those conditions is not. Nor is placing the onus on the state of Israel for them.
This is a deeply clarifying piece — one of the few that actually examines the architecture of how this narrative was built, rather than just lamenting its effects.
One nuance I’d add: I don’t think Western governments were ever fully “duped.” Most intelligence agencies have long understood Hamas’ operational embed within the aid sector. The real vulnerability is at the level of public perception. Voters absorb NGO-framed narratives as neutral truth, and democratic governments then adjust policy to avoid massive domestic blowback.
That dynamic becomes even more lopsided in our current media environment, where attention is votes and raw numbers matter more than expertise or accuracy. A tiny global population of Jews and Israel supporters is inevitably at a signal disadvantage against vastly larger audiences shaping online sentiment. That imbalance is structural, not moral — but it drives political outcomes. And it is almost never acknowledged in these discussions.
Hamas didn’t just manipulate NGOs — it successfully weaponized the incentive structure of democracies, where narrative pressure from misinformed publics can outweigh classified intelligence and strategic clarity. The tragedy is not merely the distortion of facts — it’s how easily that distortion can steer the foreign policy of free societies.
Your analysis helps illuminate what must change if democracies want to defend themselves against information capture.
Yes. Excellent article. As I wrote a year ago, we need to recognize the Gaza war (and what was publicly spoken about as a famine) as a suicide attack. Only by doing so can we properly analyze it and then seek to prevent future repititions: https://alighthouse.substack.com/p/gazas-famine-is-a-suicide-attack
Excellent examination of the situation in Gaza and perhaps the entire world. Who knows, Venezuela and Latin America could be next. Distorted governance is prevalent.
The podcast linked below is a great complement to this piece. True believers in their NGO's (Amnesty International's and Human Rights Watch's) missions paint the same picture as Zineb does here from perspectives high in the organizations.
The kicker being that the NGOs are doing the same things in the West. Subverting the will of the people , while leeching off a common budget.
Riboua confirms here what I have been suspecting for some time. Many if not all of these NGOs are not honest with their contributors. I have been and continue to be one of them. Overstating the horror of the conditions in Gaza is almost forgivable when trying to gain support. Providing cover for the complicity of Hamas in creating those conditions is not. Nor is placing the onus on the state of Israel for them.
This is a deeply clarifying piece — one of the few that actually examines the architecture of how this narrative was built, rather than just lamenting its effects.
One nuance I’d add: I don’t think Western governments were ever fully “duped.” Most intelligence agencies have long understood Hamas’ operational embed within the aid sector. The real vulnerability is at the level of public perception. Voters absorb NGO-framed narratives as neutral truth, and democratic governments then adjust policy to avoid massive domestic blowback.
That dynamic becomes even more lopsided in our current media environment, where attention is votes and raw numbers matter more than expertise or accuracy. A tiny global population of Jews and Israel supporters is inevitably at a signal disadvantage against vastly larger audiences shaping online sentiment. That imbalance is structural, not moral — but it drives political outcomes. And it is almost never acknowledged in these discussions.
Hamas didn’t just manipulate NGOs — it successfully weaponized the incentive structure of democracies, where narrative pressure from misinformed publics can outweigh classified intelligence and strategic clarity. The tragedy is not merely the distortion of facts — it’s how easily that distortion can steer the foreign policy of free societies.
Your analysis helps illuminate what must change if democracies want to defend themselves against information capture.
Yes. Excellent article. As I wrote a year ago, we need to recognize the Gaza war (and what was publicly spoken about as a famine) as a suicide attack. Only by doing so can we properly analyze it and then seek to prevent future repititions: https://alighthouse.substack.com/p/gazas-famine-is-a-suicide-attack
Excellent examination of the situation in Gaza and perhaps the entire world. Who knows, Venezuela and Latin America could be next. Distorted governance is prevalent.
Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts.
And that’s the entire global system, Ireland for example has 60,000 NGOS.
Which aren’t, they’re government vendors And cut outs
> a level of political shunning unprecedented for a democratic state fighting a terrorist organization
Utterly laughable. The entire article
The podcast linked below is a great complement to this piece. True believers in their NGO's (Amnesty International's and Human Rights Watch's) missions paint the same picture as Zineb does here from perspectives high in the organizations.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-57-when-human-rights-ngos-fail-with-daniel/id1794590850?i=1000735381360