A London graduate has told the JC how he is leading the defence of Israel against the “TikTok intifada” as an IDF commander on the cyber frontlines.
Staff Sergeant Benjamin Lee has 20 soldiers under his command running the IDF’s social media accounts in four languages on everywhere from Twitter to TikTok, and Facebook to LinkedIn, with millions of followers around the world.
Any IDF content that the public sees on social media is from his team.
In an exclusive interview, Lee described the daily battle that he and his troops are fighting: “We’re very, very aware of the scale of anti-Israel rhetoric and vitriol that there is online, but we’re still here, we’re still fighting. We’ve got that spirit which I think has carried the Jewish people through many travails and many difficult periods, and is at the heart of what it means to be Israeli as well.
“It’s so important for us to be in this arena, to be strong, and to be professional and to fight the battle that we’re fighting, which is a battle to strengthen Israel’s legitimacy.”
Staff Sargeant Benjamin Lee
'We’re very, very aware of the scale of anti-Israel rhetoric and vitriol that there is online, but we’re still here, we’re still fighting' (Photo: courtesy)
Lee is acting Head of the International Social Media Office. He told the JC about his crucial role in Israel’s defence: “It’s a combination of understanding in great depth the events that are going on around you, because you then have to communicate and explain them, and at the same time, managing the minutiae of everything.
“There’s no room for error. And [despite] the very big things going around you, you still have to remain calm and collected, and do the small things right, as they really matter.”
Having graduated in French and Spanish at the University of Leeds, Lee moved to Israel in 2017 and did military service, joining the spokespersons unit, but had left the army by the time of the war against Hamas in May 2021, when he was called back up.
Recalling the unrelenting battle amid an unprecedented global surge in antisemitism online during the war, he said: “The next 10 days were extremely intense.
“Social media was a key battleground for the narrative and in the public diplomacy area as well, and the IDF has to be there, especially in English, presenting our narrative of what’s going on, the real picture to the world in real time.
“It’s essentially nonstop because we are the main story in the international media, and the flood of information is extremely rapid.”
If you won't listen to us, listen to them: pic.twitter.com/6NkklMHWh8
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 17, 2021
(Above: One of many viral videos produced during the May 2021 Israel-Hamas war by the team Staff Sargeant Lee now commands)
He adds: “We want to share different sides of the IDF to the world, the human face, our values, our history, our heritage, what we really stand for, and the stories of soldiers serving here.
“With billions of tweets and posts every day, there’s no room to be boring because we have a message that we want people to pick up on. We want to catch people’s attention, because that’s our generation, that’s how social media works.”
Lee and his two younger brothers were raised in London by “very Zionist” parents, and he knew from his mid-teenage years that a life in Israel was his future: “It’s sometimes difficult to comprehend, but it was 2,000 years where the Jewish people were dispersed all around the world, and then this incredible combination of factors came together to bring us home a very, very short time ago.
“I had to be in the centre of that story as a Jew, as a proud Zionist. It was something that spoke to my identity on a very deep level.”
His first job after graduation was at the heart of the Israeli government. “I was an intern in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem, which was an absolute dream,” he said. “To work in the diplomatic sphere and use my languages in something very Zionistic and ideological as well was wonderful.”
3 women. 3 faiths. 1 uniform.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 27, 2021
A Muslim, a Jew, and a Christian—all serving together in the IDF.
This is the real story of Israel. pic.twitter.com/PCTTz0qdji
(Above: A tweet showing 'the human face' of the IDF)
He decided “pretty soon that this is 100 per cent the direction I was going in”, and chose to join the army with the aim of reaching the IDF spokesperson’s unit, which he did in mid-2019. “I had a number of different roles but principally I was the lead English content writer for our content, scripts, captions, articles... things like that.”
Lee then took a 22-month break from the military, but was called back to resume his key role during the Israel-Hamas war. He left the military again once hostilities had eased, but he felt that he had “unfinished business” and decided to return. Quickly moving up, he was appointed to his current position in December.
Despite the huge challenges of his job, Lee feels a deep sense of pride in his work. “It’s an absolute privilege and an honour to represent the IDF in this capacity, to speak on behalf of this institution that is so revered and trusted by Israelis, and abroad is also so often misunderstood, or our actions are misinterpreted,” he said.
“To be the voice of this organisation, for me personally, is a great honour and it’s something I think about every day.”
