[News] Rape, ISIS, Mein Kampf and other Lies: How Israel Lost All Credibility

[Anti-Imperialist News]

counterpunch.org
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/11/20/rape-isis-mein-kampf-and-other-lies-how-israel-lost-all-credibility/>
Rape, ISIS, Mein Kampf and other Lies: How Israel Lost All Credibility
Ramzy Baroud - Romana Rubeo
November 20, 2023
------------------------------

Image by Austin Crick.

On Saturday, November 11, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari claimed
in a press conference that Israel had killed
<https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza-death-toll-rises-israel-faces-pressure-protect-palestinian-civilians-2023-11-11/>
a “terrorist” who had prevented 1,000 civilians from escaping the Shifa
Hospital.

The allegations made little sense. Even by the standards of Israeli
propaganda, falsifying such a piece of information while providing no
context and no evidence, further contributes to the deteriorating
credibility of Israel in international media and image worldwide.

Just one day earlier, an unnamed US official was cited by CNN as saying
<https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/09/politics/biden-diplomats-warn-middle-east-fury/index.html>,
in a diplomatic cable, “we are losing badly on the messaging battlespace”.

The diplomat was referring to American reputation in the Middle East – in
fact, worldwide – which now lies in tatters due to blind American support
for Israel.

*Roles Reversed*

This credibility deficit can be witnessed in Israel itself. Not only is
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu losing credibility among
Israelis, according to various public opinion  polls
<https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/only-27-of-israelis-see-prime-minister-netanyahu-as-best-person-to-run-government-poll/3042363>,
but the entire Israeli political establishment seems to be losing the trust
of ordinary Israelis as well.

A common joke among Palestinians these days is that Israeli leaders are
emulating Arab leaders in previous Arab-Israeli wars, in terms of language,
phony victories and unsubstantiated gains on the military front.

For example, while Israel was quickly pushing
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/20/six-day-war-israel-still-divided-over-legacy-50-years-on>
Arab militaries back on all fronts in June 1967, with full US-Western
backing, of course, the leadership of Arab armies were declaring through
radio that they had arrived at the ‘gates of Tel Aviv’.

Fortunes seem to have been reversed. Abu Obeida and Abu Hamza, military
spokesmen for the Al-Qassam Brigades and the Al-Quds Brigades respectively,
provide very careful accounts of the nature of the battle and the losses of
advancing Israeli military forces in their regular, much-anticipated
statements.

The Israeli military, on the other hand, speaks of impending victories,
killing of unnamed ‘terrorists’ and destruction of countless tunnels, while
rarely providing any evidence. The only ‘evidence’ provided is the
intentional targeting of hospitals, schools and civilian homes.

And, while Abu Obeida’s statements are almost always followed by
well-produced videos, documenting the systematic destruction of Israeli
tanks, no such documentation substantiates Israeli military claims.

*Beyond the Battlefield*

But the issue of Israeli credibility, or rather, the lack of credibility,
is not only taking place on the battlefield.

>From the first day of the war, Palestinian doctors, civil defense workers,
journalists, bloggers and even ordinary people filmed or recorded every
Israeli war crime anywhere and everywhere in the besieged Strip. And,
despite the continuous shutting down of the internet and electricity in
Gaza by the Israeli military, somehow, Palestinians kept track of every
aspect of the ongoing Israeli genocide.

The precision of the Palestinian narrative even forced US officials, who
initially doubted
<https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/israel-hamas-war-palestinians-news/card/biden-says-he-doubts-accuracy-of-palestinians-death-toll-reports-WXQUdN2EwX9EZO3Jhziq>
Palestinian numbers, to finally admit
<https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/israel-hamas-war-gaza-strip-2023-11-08/card/state-department-warns-gaza-death-toll-could-be-higher-than-reported-RWmIIiwHT4DfsOaJrZji>
that Palestinians were telling the truth, after all.

Barbara Leaf, assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, told
<https://thehill.com/policy/international/4301551-gaza-deaths-likely-higher-than-cited-us-official/#:~:text=5h%202m%20ago-,Death%20toll%20in%20Gaza%20likely%20'higher,is%20being%20reported'%3A%20US%20official&text=A%20senior%20Biden%20administration%20official,amid%20Israel's%20war%20against%20Hamas.>
a US House panel on November 9 that those killed by Israel in the war are
likely “higher than is being cited.”

Indeed, every day, Israel loses credibility to the point that the initial
Israeli lies of what had taken place on October 7, eventually proved
disastrous to Israel’s overall image and credibility on the international
stage.

*Rape, ISIS, and Mein Kampf*

In the euphoria of demonizing the Palestinian Resistance – as a way to
justify Israel’s forthcoming genocide in Gaza – the Israeli government and
military, then journalists and even ordinary people, were all recruited in
an unprecedented hasbara campaign aimed at painting Palestinians as “human
animals” – per the words
<https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2023/10/9/israeli-defence-minister-orders-complete-siege-on-gaza>
of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Within hours of the events and, before any investigation was conducted,
Netanyahu spoke of “decapitated babies”, supposedly mutilated at the hands
of the Resistance; Gallant claimed
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/10/israel-womens-groups-warn-of-failure-to-keep-evidence-of-sexual-violence-in-hamas-attacks>
that “young girls were raped violently”; even former military chief rabbi,
Israel Weiss, said
<https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231016-identifying-hamas-victims-is-a-new-ordeal-for-israel>
he had “seen a pregnant woman with her belly torn open and the baby cut
out.”

Even the supposedly ‘moderate’ Israeli President Isaac Herzog made
ludicrous statements on the BBC on November 12. When asked about Israeli
airstrikes on Gaza, Herzog claimed
<https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-67396773> that the book Mein Kampf,
written by Adolf Hitler in 1925, was found “in a children’s living room” in
northern Gaza.

And, of course, there were the repeated references
<https://jcpa.org/hamas-raises-the-isis-banner-in-its-invasion-of-israel/>
to the ISIS flags that, for some reason, were carried by Hamas fighters as
they entered southern Israel on October 7, among other fairy tales.

The fact that ISIS is a sworn enemy of Hamas and that the Palestinian
Movement has done everything in its power to eradicate
<https://www.ft.com/content/7d6c49d0-0547-11e5-9627-00144feabdc0> any
possibility for ISIS to extend its roots in the besieged Gaza Strip seemed
irrelevant to Israel’s unhinged propaganda.

Expectedly, Israeli, US and European media repeated
<https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/what-are-the-connections-between-hamas-and-isis-0db9rnlg3>
the claim of the Hamas-ISIS connection, with no rational discussion or the
minimally-required fact-checking.

But, with time, Israeli lies were no longer able to withstand the pressure
of the truth emanating from Gaza, documenting every atrocity and every
battle, and obfuscating any drummed-up Israeli allegations.

Perhaps, the turning point of the relentless series of Israeli lies was the
attack
<https://afsc.org/newsroom/bombing-al-ahli-baptist-hospital-unconscionable-we-need-ceasefire-now>
on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on October 17. Though many
adopted, and still, sadly, defend the Israeli lie – that a Resistance
rocket fell on the hospital – the sheer bloodiness of that massacre, which
killed hundreds, was, for many, a wake-up call.

One of the many questions that arose following the Baptist Hospital
massacre is: If Israel was, indeed, honest about its version of events
regarding what took place at the hospital, why did it bomb every other
hospital in Gaza and continues to do so for weeks?

*Israeli Hasbara Canceled*

There are reasons why Israeli propaganda is no longer able to effectively
influence public opinion even though mainstream media continues to side
with Israel, even when the latter is committing a genocide.

Firstly, is that Palestinians and their supporters have managed to ‘cancel’
Israel using social media which, for the first time, overwhelmed the
organized propaganda campaigns often engineered on behalf of Israel in
corporate media.

An analysis of online content on popular social media platforms was
conducted by the Israeli influencer marketing platform, Humanz. The study,
published
<https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/sykzpeqqp#:~:text=An%20analysis%20of%20online%20discourse,platforms%20%2D%20almost%2015%20times%20more.>
in November, admitted that “while 7.39 billion posts with pro-Israeli tags
were published on Instagram and TikTok last month, in the same period
109.61 billion posts with pro-Palestinian tags were published on the
platforms.” This, according to the company, means that pro-Palestinian
views are 15 times more popular than pro-Israeli views.

Secondly, independent media, Palestinian and others, offered alternatives
to those seeking a different version of events to what is taking place in
Gaza.

A single Palestinian freelance journalist in Gaza, Motaz Azaiza, has
managed to acquire <https://www.instagram.com/motaz_azaiza/> more than 14
million followers on Instagram over the course of a single month because of
his reporting from the ground.

Thirdly, the ‘surprise attack’ of October 7 has deprived Israel of the
initiative, not only regarding the war itself, but also the justification
for the war. Indeed, their genocidal war on Gaza has no specific
objectives, but also has no precise media campaign to defend or rationalize
these unspecified objectives. Therefore, the Israeli media narrative
appears disconnected, haphazard and, at times, even self-damaging.

And, finally, the sheer brutality of the Israeli genocide in Gaza. If one
is to juxtapose Israeli media lies with the horrific Israeli crimes
committed in Gaza, one would find no plausible logic that could
convincingly justify mass murder, displacement, starvation and genocide of
a defenseless population.

Never has Israeli propaganda failed so astoundingly and never has the
mainstream media failed to shield Israel from the global anger – in fact,
seething hatred – for Israel’s ugly apartheid regime. The repercussions of
all of this will most certainly impact the way that history will remember
the Israeli war on Gaza, which has, so far, killed, and wounded tens of
thousands of innocent civilians.

A whole generation, if not more, has already built a perception of Israel
as a genocidal regime and no number of future lies, Hollywood movies or
Maxim Magazine spreads will ever lessen that in any way.

More importantly, this new perception is likely to compel people, not only
to re-examine their views of Israel’s present and future, but of the past
as well – the very foundation of the Zionist regime, itself predicated on
nothing but lies.

*Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He
is the author of five books. His latest is “**These Chains Will Be Broken*
<https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092>*:
Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity
Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the
Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU).
His website is **www.ramzybaroud.net* <http://www.ramzybaroud.net/>  *Romana
Rubeo is an Italian writer and the managing editor of The Palestine
Chronicle. Her articles appeared in many online newspapers and academic
journals. She holds a Master’s Degree in Foreign Languages and Literature,
and specializes in audio-visual and journalism translation. *
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