“No, I’m not Jewish,” reads the TikTok profile of Nick Matau, 31, otherwise known as dyna_rider2.0.
Although Matau is neither Jewish nor Christian, he has nevertheless amassed 21.2 thousand followers on an Israel-advocacy TikTok account that states, “No Weapon Formed Against Israel Shall Prosper.”
He also has another TikTok account, dyna_riderlive2.0 – this one with 24.2 thousand followers – where the navy-veteran-turned-hasbara-warrior engages with live audiences to talk about Israel, the ongoing war, and antisemitism.
We spoke before Oct. 7. “There’s nothing wrong with having a love for Israel because of your religious beliefs,” he said. “That’s okay. I’m just saying that’s not why I do it.”
He described how his father had planted the seed that would sprout into a passion for Israel.
“He instilled that love of history, even outside of Israel. He told me as a kid a little about the conflict, saying ‘we always need to support Israel’ and ‘it’s very important to stand against antisemitism.’ As a kid, I had no idea what the hell he was talking about.”
Matau reflected that he didn’t know many Jews growing up. Nevertheless, when a conflict with Hamas broke out in May 2021, he began speaking up for Israel on his already well-established political commentary TikTok channel – that, before it was banned, was quickly approaching 100,000 followers, he recalled.
A hasbara soldier
Circling back several months later, with the lives of Israelis and World Jewry changed forever by the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, Matau again looked back on his Israel advocacy journey.
Initially, Matau said, he was getting far more hatred directed at him for his stance than support. All of the opposition, however, just drove him to learn more.
“I learned and I read, and sometimes I would get off TikTok for days so I could learn about this thing that I was asked or accused of. And so, I made another video and then another. And this snowball just kept rolling into something bigger, and my passion grew each time I responded.
“So it didn’t matter that I wasn’t a Christian, I wasn’t Jewish, I wasn’t Israeli.”
Through this, he noted, he built a community predominantly composed of Jews and Israelis. When his account was banned due to his advocacy, it was this community that came to support the account he made next.
Despite all the time and effort he puts into doing his research, Matau recognizes an unsavory dimension to social media advocacy content, going so far as to call it “fake” in a way.
“You can make videos, edit them, and respond to only what you want to respond to,” he said. “And the problem is that TikToks are short, and people will cram in the information to be flashy and catchy because that’s what gets you views – that’s what hooks people.”
Still, Matau said he does his best to present the facts, debunk the myths and educate his viewers, even if that means the content is not the attention-grabbing, flashy rage-bait that many have come to expect from political social media accounts.
For his efforts, and because many of those leveling hatred at him assume he is Jewish due to the kind of content he creates, Matau regularly encounters the same antisemitic and violent hatred that Jewish pro-Israel content creators are faced with.
“I’ve received death threats,” he explained. “I’ve honestly received so many that I’m kind of numb to them a little bit now. But most of the time I receive just hateful or antisemitic messages. Sometimes I get pictures of Hitler sent to me – stuff like that.”
MANY OF the attacks directed at him come from what he described as an inability to refute his arguments.
“If they can’t debunk me, what they usually do is just attack me. They [often] won’t even talk about what I said in the video, they’ll just bring up something else or attack me.”
Otherwise, he often tackles an “endless stream of lies,” where, in the worst cases, anti-Israel users not only spread misinformation about Israel’s actions or objectives but gleefully engage in denial of Hamas’s atrocities.
Matau noted that for these people, no matter what is shown to them – whether it be official reports, eyewitness testimony, or even Hamas terrorists in custody confessing to the actions of their terror organization – no amount of evidence makes a difference.
“If you live your life just denying everything, then of course you’re going to be pro-Palestinian in this sense; of course you’re going to support what Hamas does, and call them ‘freedom fighters.’”
Still, there is a rewarding side to the advocacy work he does. On top of being able to engage in a topic that he said he is truly passionate about, Matau also regularly hears from the people who are helped by his work; people he is able to educate and inspire.
“That is definitely 100% why I do this and will continue to do this,” he asserted.
It likely also did not hurt that, coincidentally, several months after starting his online Israel-advocacy, he met Danielle, who is an Israeli woman – and now his fiancée.
“I started talking about Israel because I legitimately know it’s the right thing to do,” Matau emphasized. And that makes him passionate to create his content, “especially among all the world telling you that you’re wrong.
“But my favorite thing about being a Zionist is that the more I teach, the more I debate, the more I make videos, the more I learn.”