An undeniable pattern is apparent regarding the way in which Russia and India’s policies towards the latest Israeli-Hamas war are presented to the Mainstream and Alt-Media publics. The first of these audience’s perceptions are manipulated by the US and Qatar’s state-funded outlets while the second’s are manipulated by independent influencers’ (presumably innocent) false assessments.

Prime Minister Modi’s opening remarks at the second Voice Of Global South (VOGS) Summit saw him reaffirm India’s balanced policy towards the latest Israeli-Hamas war. The leader of the world’s most populous country emphasized the need for dialogue, condemned all civilian casualties, and called on fellow Global South states to reach a consensus on resolving this conflict in line with related UNSC resolutions. For those who aren’t already aware of India’s policy, here are three briefings to review:

* “Interpreting India’s Position Towards The Latest Israeli-Hamas War”

* “The US & Qatar Are Trying To Discredit Russia & India’s Policy Towards The Israeli-Hamas War”

* “Explaining India’s Abstention From The UNGA Vote On Gaza”

Some readers might be surprised by what they learned after Qatar tried manipulating their perceptions, while those who don’t pay its outlet’s narratives much credence might have had their perceptions manipulated by some top Alt-Media influencers who’ve also written about India’s policy. For example, a very popular one wrote last month here that “India has just stabbed itself in the head as a leader of the Global Majority: their leadership does seem to get a hard on when facing Israel.”

It’s now known from the latest VOGS Summit that this was a false assessment, just like that top influencer’s recent observation about “Russia’s public pivot to Palestine” was contradicted by Foreign Minister Lavrov’s latest interview with RT. Russia’s top diplomat earlier elaborated on his country’s position in an interview with Belarusian media that was analyzed here, but his latest clarification deserves to be republished in full due to the popularity of the aforesaid influencer’s false assessment:

“President Vladimir Putin, whenever he visits Israel, whenever he receives Israeli leaders in Moscow, he always emphasizes that when he first came to that place, not being president, in his previous life, when he worked in St. Petersburg and had some business contacts with Israeli colleagues, he says, ‘When I saw Israel and its geography, I immediately understood why ironclad security was so important for Israelis.’

And this was his conviction from the very beginning. And he never, ever gave any reason to believe that we underestimate the importance of security for the state of Israel. Not to mention that we, the Soviet Union, were instrumental in creating the state, but also in defending the state. With arms and weapons, and with some volunteers. Immediately after Israel was announced as a new state, it was under threat.”

An undeniable pattern is apparent regarding the way in which Russia and India’s policies towards the latest Israeli-Hamas war are presented to the Mainstream and Alt-Media publics. The first of these audience’s perceptions are manipulated by the US and Qatar’s state-funded outlets while the second’s are manipulated by independent influencers’ (presumably innocent) false assessments. Either way, the outcome is the same, and it’s that the vast majority of the global public isn’t being informed of the truth.

These rival media camps’ convergence of narrative interests is coincidental and due to them having their own ideological motives for manipulating their audience’s perceptions. The US wants to discredit Russia by fearmongering that it’s secretly allied with Hamas while allied Qatar wants to discredit India by misportraying it as openly allied with Israel. Meanwhile, top Alt-Media influencers regard the first misportrayal as positive and agree with the second’s agenda, hence why they amplify both narratives.

Russia and India are therefore fighting an uphill battle to clarify their near-identical policies towards this conflict since these rival media camps are against each of them for their own ideological reasons. Seeing as how they’re decades-long strategic partners that have found themselves in similarly defensive positions, they should therefore work more closely to amplify one another’s policies. RT’s promotion of Prime Minister Modi’s pertinent remarks proves that his has already begun and will thus likely continue.

(The article was published on Korybko.substack.com on November 18, 2023 and has been reproduced here)