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(LifeSiteNews) — As Israel’s prime minister moves to censor its media, reports emerge in the Hebrew language press of a “poison machine” – directing hatred at released Israeli hostages and their families.
“Kidnapped people and their families who express their political opinions … about the situation in Israel are being bombarded with poison, even incitement, because they dare to speak,” said Achia Schatz of Israel’s “Fake Reporter.”
“This is systematic and repeated, we see it happening again and again.”
Former Israeli hostages and their relatives are targeted online with harassment and even threats, as Fake Reporter warned on April 7.
This week, Israel’s Channel 12 News – targeted for censorship by Benjamin Netanyahu – reported that hostages freed by Hamas are released into a “new war” – warning of an “orchestrated hate campaign against the survivors.”
Itamar Minmar’s special report of May 18 asked, “Who are the people behind the distribution of the poison?”
“These are not bots, but real people,” he said, explaining that the attacks come not from abroad – but from Israelis.
“[It is] Israelis who are sending the most poisonous arrows against [those] who were released from Gaza,” said Minmar, adding the problem was growing.
“According to social media researchers, these are not isolated cases, but a spreading phenomenon.”
The report cites former hostages such as Ilana Gritsovsky, who was held captive for fifty days. She said she was targeted in the street as well as online.
“I stop at a traffic light and the person next to me beeps and cheers me on. However, I also receive unpleasant comments on the street, but mainly on Instagram. Every day I receive negative messages in my inbox.”
What kind of comments? “Send her back to Gaza” was the message another hostage – Liri Elbag – received. Why? The reason is that those released from captivity are protesting against a Netanyahu regime which has “sabotaged every hostage deal” since October 7.
The hostages’ families have long maintained that Netanyahu is “sacrificing the hostages” so he can stay in power – by escalating Israel’s wars.
Minmar’s report covers Liri Elbag’s story – who was targeted after saying the Israeli prime minister was responsible for the October 7 attacks.
“A few weeks ago, Liri Elbag was interviewed on the radio in preparation for a television interview. Among other things, she mentioned Netanyahu’s guilt in the October 7 massacre, and was immediately attacked very harshly online.”
Netanyahu responded with a message of support for Elbag, posted on X (formerly Twitter) on April 9.
On the same day, Israeli journalist Noga Tarnopolsky reported that Netanyahu is refusing to meet the hostages’ families – and is instead “posting unconfirmed announcements of outreach, including to 20-year-old freed hostage Liri Elbag, who’s been ravaged by his online hordes.”
💥Hostages’ families say Netanyahu refuses to meet them, listen to them & has abandoned the Israeli captives in Gaza. So he’s unilaterally posting unconfirmed announcements of outreach, including to 20-year-old freed hostage Liri Elbag, who’s been ravaged by his online hordes. pic.twitter.com/nB2V6qrULy
— Noga Tarnopolsky נגה טרנופולסקי نوغا ترنوبولسكي (@NTarnopolsky) April 9, 2025
Elbag made a statement earlier, saying she was unafraid of the threats and of meeting the people who made them. Yet is “afraid of what we’ve become” – when her fellow Israelis can wish someone back into captivity for the crime of having accused Netanyahu of what he has -and has not- done.
Minmar’s report says “most of the reactions” directed online at former hostages “are spontaneous, from angry citizens.”
Yet he claims researchers have uncovered a coordinated campaign “beneath the surface.”
This “broad phenomenon”, he says, reveals “a flood of inauthentic reactions, suspicious accounts, precise timing.”
Who is behind this “poison machine”?
It is “[n]ot necessarily an Iranian campaign, but a dangerous mix of real hatred, with timed friction, mainly on the X network.”
Israelis on X took a simpler view, denouncing the “Bibi bots” behind the hate campaign directed at Elbag and other survivors.
You pray for Alon. I’ll pray he’ll still have a country to come home to. (Just heard today about the fiasco because Liri Elbag dared to speak her mind. I am very displeased w/ the Bibi bots)
— Grim🎗️Sister 🧡🦋🤘 (@GrimSister21) April 8, 2025
Chen Avigdor, whose wife Sharon and daughter Noam were kidnapped by Hamas and later released, wrote:
“Anyone who attacked, criticized or spoke out against Liri Elbag is not only a heartless slave of the Supreme Leader, he is also just a piece of s**t.”
Channel 12’s report of April 8 drew a sharp line between “sane Israel” and the “poison machine” mobilized against the former hostages.
“The poison machine makes a lot of noise, but … sane Israel [is] with you.”
As the story broke in April, Haaretz journalist Amir Tibon warned, “The poison machine is an existential danger to Israeli society.”
So what is this “poison machine” – and where does it come from?
A threat to Israeli democracy
On May 14, the Israeli Channels Forum warned the Netanyahu government is seeking to “take over the media in Israel.”
In a move which will silence public media – including the IDF’s own radio channel – Netanyahu and his communications minister are passing laws which will lead to “the cancellation of public broadcasting (IDF Radio and the Kan Broadcasting Corporation).”
The “legislation … gives the government political control, sanctions and fines in order to deter criticism or lead to the closure of investigative media outlets” in Israel, said Israeli journalist Ben Caspit.
Warning of a “media coup,” Caspit called on the “gatekeepers” of the finance and justice ministries to halt “a dangerous move that threatens to crush the foundations of free media and harm democracy in Israel.”
One of the threatened channels – Channel 12 – published an interview weeks after the October 7 attacks, in which the then-head of Shin Bet said he had advised the government to attack Hamas before they could launch an assault on Israel.
Yoram Cohen, the former Shin Bet chief, says on Channel 12 that he and other security advisers “recommended to the political echelon a surprise attack against the Hamas leadership.”
Israeli writer Avi Issacharoff added, “One can guess which of the political echelons did not adopt the recommendation.”
Channel 12 also reported in November that the “poison machine” was being operated from … Netanyahu’s office. The New Yorker’s January “Letter from Israel” documented how “Netanyahu’s Media Poison Machine” attacked anyone outside the ruling cartel.
“Everyone who criticizes Netanyahu receives ‘treatment,” said Gideon Sa’ar – now himself a member of the government. Of course, this includes the hostages themselves.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on May 14 that “Netanyahu’s Poison Machine Turns on Freed Hostage Edan Alexander and His Family” – because the Israeli-American’s mother had “thanked Trump, not the Israeli prime minister” for his release.
The “growing phenomenon” of “coordinated hate” noted by Minmar’s report is another sign of a “media coup” – long forewarned by former Israeli leaders.
Since November 2024, Haaretz has been targeted by an unprecedented government boycott intended to defund the independent newspaper, in a campaign aiming for total control of the media in Israel.
An early warning came in 2022, when former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said “a noisy and deadly poison machine” was coming to dominate Israel, run by “Ben-Gvir … Netanyahu [and] Smotrich … which is operating by means of violence, extortion, and fake news.”
Why does Netanyahu need permanent war?
Controlling the media is vital to continuing the war. Why does Netanyahu want to do this?
Rabbi Dr Ron Kronish tried to explain why – in November 2024. Asking “why Netanyahu does not want to end the war,” he said it was not only because the Israeli leader had become a “radical extremist fanatic.”
Kronish said Netanyahu now speaks exactly like the extremists – such as National Security Minister Ben-Gvir, and the Greater Israel expansionist Bezalel Smotrich – whose support he relies on to stay in power.
Yet the poison comes, says Kronish, from Netanyahu’s wife and son.
“Together, these two family members have created what is called in the media here ‘the poison machine’, which is constantly releasing negative statements about anyone who dares to disagree with Bibi in Israeli politics and in the media.”
Itamar Minmar’s report on the hate directed at Israeli hostages concludes with a modest proposal – that “elected officials” must act responsibly to “set the limit not online but in reality.”
The tragic reality for Israelis and Palestinians alike is that the poison begins at home for the political leadership of Israel.
With the U.S. threatening to “abandon” Netanyahu if he does not stop the war, how long can he sacrifice the hostages – and the Palestinian people – in a war without limits, fueled by the machinery of hate?
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