A disturbing pattern has emerged in how terrorist organizations and authoritarian regimes destroy their opponents: they don’t always need bombs or bullets. Sometimes, a fabricated scandal on social media or a disinformation campaign does the job more efficiently.
Recent events involving a senior US diplomat working on Lebanon policy illustrate this tactic in real time. Hezbollah operatives spread fabricated rumors about an alleged affair, complete with AI-generated images and manufactured “evidence.” A post on social media started the rumor, Lebanese outlets ran with the story, and Turkish media outlets followed. Social media did the rest.
It is best not to repeat the victim’s identity here so as not to spread the false claims. In truth, their identity matters less than the method. The method represents something far more dangerous than a single smear campaign. It’s a weaponized assault on truth itself.
The method of smear campaigns
The playbook is devastatingly simple. First, manufacture a personal scandal out of thin air. Second, generate fake images using AI technology. Third, seed the false narrative through seemingly independent outlets. Fourth, amplify it through networks of coordinated accounts. Fifth, watch as legitimate news sites pick up the story, desperate for clicks and engagement. Finally, let the algorithm do its work as the lie becomes embedded in search results, AI responses, Wikipedia entries, and the permanent record of the Internet.
The ancient sages of the Talmud understood this danger with remarkable clarity. The Babylonian Talmud teaches that harmful speech about another person ranks among the gravest transgressions, equal in severity to a combination of idolatry, sexual immorality, and murder. That might sound like hyperbole until you witness the destruction such speech actually causes.
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue,” declares Proverbs 18:21. The Babylonian Talmud, in Tractate Arachin 15a, expands on this: “A person’s tongue is more powerful than his sword. A sword can kill somebody who is nearby; a tongue can cause the death of someone who is far away.”
The sages went further, teaching that harmful speech, lashon hara, “kills three people: the speaker, the listener, and the subject,” as each loses part of their humanity with the lie. If a person even thinks differently about the subject of the lie after hearing it, then they are already affected, and their lives will never be the same.
The sages issued this stark warning: “Regarding one who speaks harmful speech, God says, ‘I cannot dwell with him,’ as it says in Psalms 101:5, ‘One who slanders his neighbor... him I cannot tolerate.’”
Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, author of the Hafetz Haim, spent his life fighting against this transgression. He, like many other rabbis before him, understood that destroying someone’s reputation destroys everything they’ve built, everything they might yet accomplish, and everyone they might yet help.
Inaccurate narratives on social media
Social media has turbocharged this ancient evil. Slandering a person’s public reputation once required whisper campaigns that took a long time; now, it spreads globally in hours. The damage becomes permanent.
Even if the original post gets deleted, screenshots are often taken and can live on forever. Even if fact-checkers debunk the lie, the initial narrative often wins because most people lack the time, energy, or tools to determine what’s actually true, and the public has moved on from the topic to the next element of the news cycle, taking with them only the slander that began the debate.
We’ve seen this pattern play out on a massive scale. Consider how the false narrative of genocide in Gaza took hold despite facts on the ground. After two years of urban warfare in one of the most densely populated places on earth, 99% of the civilian population remained alive. This represents an unprecedented effort to minimize civilian casualties in modern warfare.
Instead of praising the modern military miracle that was this accomplishment, the lie spread faster than the truth because it fit a preferred, and, in this case, prepared narrative, because social media algorithms rewarded engagement over accuracy, and because mainstream outlets amplified claims without adequate verification.
It began with labeling, slander, and targeted disinformation about Israel. Now the same tactics target individuals who work on Middle East policy, diplomats who dare to counter the interests of Hezbollah or other terrorist elements, and anyone else deemed threatening to authoritarian agendas.
The technology keeps evolving. AI-generated images grow more sophisticated. Deepfakes become harder to detect. The infrastructure for spreading disinformation becomes more refined, and the perpetrators continue to use these technologies to foment the core evil with the intent of destroying their targets through lies.
Warnings from Jewish sources
The psalmist warned us of this as well: “Who is the man who desires life, who loves days to see goodness? Guard your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceitfully. Shun evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it” (Psalms 34:13-15).
God desires a world built on loving-kindness, where human beings help one another flourish. Tearing each other down, whether in person or online, represents one of the gravest sins imaginable. It can destroy lives, shatter legacies, and erase decades of good work in a matter of hours.
Groups like Hezbollah have weaponized this ancient transgression. They’ve turned slander into a military tactic, deployed against anyone who threatens their power or exposes their crimes.
But we don’t have to be accomplices. Each of us faces a choice every time we encounter inflammatory claims online. Do we share first and verify later? Do we amplify accusations simply because they confirm our pre-existing beliefs? Do we participate in the public shaming of people based on unverified reports?
The Talmud’s warning applies with particular force in the digital age: harmful speech kills the speaker, the listener, and the subject. When we share slander, we become part of the weapon. In the modern era, this happens faster than ever.
We must hold ourselves to a higher standard. Verify before sharing. Question narratives that seem designed to destroy rather than inform. Call out coordinated smear campaigns when we see them, regardless of whose interests they serve.
The power of the tongue remains what it always was. The only question is how we choose to use it.
May we merit to see the next two passages of the psalm fulfilled: “The eyes of the Lord are to the righteous, and His ears are to their cry. The face of the Lord is against evildoers, to cut off their remembrance from the earth.”
The writer is director of public relations and communications for Aish, a former spokesperson for United Hatzalah, and a freelance writer, media consultant, and theater director.