Why the bad guys are winning the propaganda war

Exactly 100 days after Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, I was asked to speak at a rally at Toronto’s city hall, to call for the release of the Israeli hostages still held by Hamas. I appeared before a crowd of a couple hundred people, tops. My colleague Brian Lilley was there, too, covering the event.

It was bitterly cold, so Brian and I headed a few blocks East towards Yonge Street, to warm up. Almost immediately, we could hear lots of chants and noise.  The clamour was coming from a crowd of variously anti-Israel, anti-West, antisemitic, pro-Hamas protestors heading South on Yonge Street, paralyzing Toronto’s main street.

There were thousands upon thousands of them.  They had taken over the centre of Toronto.  The police didn’t seem to be doing anything.  Palestinian flags and antisemitic signage, as far as the eye could see.

In the intervening years, that same thing has been observed, over and over again, in the streets and on computer and TV screens: the mainly Jewish, pro-Israel side, sometimes showing up in puny numbers. And, on the other side, 100 times as many people, organized and organizing against Jews and the Jewish state. With seemingly-bottomless resources, with tested messages, with military precision.

There are exceptions, of course. There is, say, the annual Walk for Israel, which attracts thousands of people to Toronto to march up Bathurst Street. But, for the most part, the angry Israel-haters have completely dominated the propaganda battle that commenced in earnest on October 7, 2023, when Hamas murdered and wounded thousands of Israeli civilians.  It is not even debatable: they are winning the information war.

The same phenomenon can be observed in politics, too. In an essay in a recent issue of the New Yorker, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Charles Duhigg investigated the contrasting tactics and strategies of the American Left and Right. The Left has the Democratic Party, Duhigg writes, and occasional events like the 2017 Women’s March or the 2025 No Kings protests. The Right has Donald Trump, MAGA, Turning Point USA and the Faith & Freedom Coalition.

Even though most voters self-identify as progressive, the Right has been utterly dominating the discourse in recent years in the United States. The MAGA side controls the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court. The Left, meanwhile, can put together big and flashy events - the Women’s March attracted five million participants, the No Kings rallies had seven million - and then…nothing.  After an event takes place, the momentum always fizzles out.

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