Details of Israeli military ‘psy-op’ training courses have leaked

Israel might be training hundreds of participants in the dark arts of ‘offensive’ influence operations and propaganda each year. A military leak exposed details of how the settler-colonial state seeks to shape public consciousness. And some material is specifically for English speakers. It is the second major leak of its kind in 2026.

Israeli-based +972 magazine reported on 4 June:

Israel’s defense establishment is training soldiers and other defense officials to conduct psychological operations designed to “influence public consciousness” in Israel and abroad.

Adding:

The courses, taught in Hebrew and English by academics who are not affiliated with the military, are intended for defense personnel based both domestically and overseas, as well as unspecified “foreign partners.”

Investigators at Hebrew-language outlet The Hottest Place in Hell also worked with +972 on a previous story about how the Israeli military seeks to dominate media narratives. A third influence operation was discovered by French and Israeli journalists on 19 May.

Courses in the new leaked documents teach would-be operatives:

how to use data to discretely shape the attitudes and actions of target audiences, intelligence gathering for such operations, and influencer training.

Most of the training is geared toward “offensive” influence operations aimed at:

actively disrupting or manipulating the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of target audiences rather than simply protecting an existing narrative. They include training in advertising and marketing content, alongside courses on cyber warfare and intelligence gathering on target audiences.

Black hat methods

The courses aim to teach so-called ‘black hat’ methods:

manipulation methods that circumvent tech platforms’ rules around cybercrime, cyber warfare, or other malicious activity.

One course teaches:

information operations for the purpose of influencing public consciousness in the local and international arena

Including how to:

craft and disseminate messages tailored to a target population, assess their impact, and apply the lessons to “future operations.”

The material makes it clear that training is conducted “at the [Israeli] government’s directive”. The documents describe a call for potential lecturers to teach the courses, the first of which was due to start in August 2026.

Teachers would need to have high-level academic qualifications in:

the fields of influence, consciousness, security and terrorism, mass communication, [or] digital and network communication.

And at least four years of “professional experience” in:

the fields of influence [or] influence intelligence in various security organizations.

Israel — Thematic clusters for influence operations

The material describes “thematic clusters”. These included teaching the:

fundamentals of psychological warfare, propaganda, deception, legitimacy and public diplomacy, and segmentation of target populations with emphasis on foreign audiences.

Which would include:

identifying adversarial influence efforts, narratives, and imagery, as well as deepfakes, psychological warfare, propaganda, deception, legitimacy, and public diplomacy.

Another cluster covered:

“campaign planning, execution, and evaluation,”

It sought to teach students:

the “considerations and expectations” of the political echelon, alongside “military intelligence,” “cultural intelligence,” and “intelligence collection and research capabilities for influence.”

Tailored for non-Israelis?

Significantly some courses were in English rather than Hebrew for “foreign partners” who were not identified:

For these participants, the Defense Ministry built a dedicated syllabus that includes study of “the American approach,” meaning U.S. perspectives and cultural norms, and conducting influence campaigns in the international arena.

Hilariously, an Israeli spokesman told investigators who contacted the defence ministry for clarification the training was:

an academic course for personnel engaged in the influence and consciousness effort in the IDF

The purpose of the courses, the spokesman added, was “personal enrichment.”

The overuse of terms like ‘psy-op’, ‘false flag’ and ‘influence operation’ — without evidence — has often muddied the waters around international politics. But this here is coming from the horse’s mouth. +972 Magazine and their colleagues at The Hottest Place in Hell have already produced two great reports on this topic in 2026. This is the kind of innuendo-free public service journalism which can actually put a dent in the settler-colonial war machine.

Featured image via Amir Levy/Getty Images