Israel’s defenders are no longer just getting a hard time in interviews. As Natasha Hausdorff found here when she came up against Piers Morgan, they’re now getting shouted down altogether and are being deprived of the right to speak at all.
An appalling number of people now believe there’s overwhelming evidence that Israel is doing terrible things in Gaza. What’s actually overwhelming is the unprecedented and deeply sinister onslaught of lies about this by the media and the world’s humanitarian establishment. What people think amounts to overwhelming evidence is in fact the very opposite of the truth.
Many find that simply incredible. That’s not surprising: it is indeed very hard to believe. How can it be possible, people may well ask, that not just the BBC and Sky and the New York Times and the Financial Times but also the UN, the international courts, the big NGOs like Amnesty and British doctors working with the wounded in Gaza’s own hospitals, are all producing falsehoods? Are Israel’s defenders really saying that Israel alone is telling the truth and everyone else is telling lies?
Incredible as it sounds, this really is what’s been happening. Every day, the vast majority of the media and the entire humanitarian establishment are pounding out a narrative about the war in Gaza that channels Hamas propaganda and demonises Israel. It simply reverses truth and lies.
The appalling outcome is that countless people believe Israel is wantonly killing Gazan civilians, starving Gazan babies, even committing genocide. All these allegations are the very opposite of the truth and defy reason itself.
But they’re being pumped out in an obsessive manner, day in, day out. No other conflict gets such relentless attention, let alone such a twisted presentation.
We’ve never seen anything like this onslaught before. Its unique double standards, its unique construction entirely from falsehoods, its unique obsessional and unhinged nature, tell us that something pathological is going on here. It’s a global, verbal pogrom against Israel and the Jews. And in America, the outcome is that Jews are getting attacked and murdered.
Seven weeks ago, an arsonist tried to burn down the official residence of Pennsylvania’s Jewish governor, Josh Shapiro, because he believed Shapiro’s support for Israel was causing the deaths of people in Gaza.
Two weeks ago, a young Israeli couple were gunned down and murdered outside a Jewish community event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC.
Last Sunday, in Boulder Colorado, at least eight Jews were wounded, one critically, when a rally for the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza was firebombed. The attacker, Mohammed Sabry Soliman, fired a makeshift flamethrower and threw firebombs while shouting “Free Palestine” and “End Zionists”.
So after Israelis were burned alive in the Hamas-led atrocities on October 7 2023, an attempt was made by a Hamas supporter to burn Jews alive in America.
These terrible attacks are the direct outcome of the hysterical demonisation of Israel.
This week, there have been three successive days of claims that the Israel Defence Forces have been “massacring” Gazans queuing for food from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the new aid distribution centre operated by America and backed by Israel.
On Sunday, Hamas officials claimed that the IDF had opened fire at this aid centre killing 31 Gazan civilians.
A moment’s thought would surely have raised an immediate red flag over this claim. Since Israel had been the driving force behind this distribution centre to prevent Hamas continuing to steal the aid, as it had done throughout the war, why on earth would the Israelis want to shoot those civilians?
The aid centre emphatically rebutted the Hamas claim, stating that for the whole of Sunday aid was handed out “safely and without incident” and stating that these claims were “false and fabricated” and being “actively fomented by Hamas”. That didn’t stop just about every media outlet from uncritically regurgitating them.
A similar thing happened on Monday, when Hamas’s media office said IDF gunfire had killed three people and wounded 35 near the aid distribution site.
And yesterday the same thing happened again. The BBC reported, turning deeply questionable claims into a statement of fact:
“Total carnage as 27 reported killed by Israeli fire at Gaza aid centre. For the third day running, Palestinians have been killed while gathering to collect aid.”
On Monday, the BBC’s Today programme (around 1 hour 50 in) just took the breath away by its unvarnished malevolence. The BBC’s International Editor Jeremy Bowen — who months ago infamously declared he had no regrets that he’d falsely reported Israel had bombed Gaza’s al Ahli hospital killing numerous patients and staff, whereas it was in fact only the hospital’s car park that had been hit and by a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket — informed Today’s listeners that only the Israelis could have killed so many Gazans on Sunday.
Not content with that, he proceeded to pin this wildly unfounded claim on the fact that an Israeli government minister, Bezalel Smotrich, had said the people of Gaza would have no hope, that they would be totally despairing, and that he wanted them out of Gaza and replaced by Jews. Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bowen declared, backed President Trump’s plan for Gaza — which Bowen said was code for supporting the mass expulsion of Palestinians.
Where to start with such a travesty? The Trump plan is not for expulsion but voluntary relocation in other countries, which about half of Gazans are reportedly desperate to achieve. And just look at how Bowen took Israel’s attempt to ensure that never again would Israel be invaded by genocidal savages and twisted that into a policy of ethnic cleansing. All while airily making claims about what actually happened in Gaza the previous day — which owed nothing to the facts and everything to his prejudice.
In the fog of war, we can’t know for sure what happened and new evidence may emerge to shed further light. What actually seems to have been happening, though, is that Hamas — desperate to stop Gazans from obtaining this newly organised food aid because that has the capacity to destroy its power over the population — has been provoking gun battles with the IDF by firing on both Gazan civilians and Israeli troops, and then claiming these are massacres by Israel of those queuing for food.
In yesterday’s incident, according to the Israelis, during the movement of the crowd towards the aid distribution site — approximately half a kilometre away — IDF troops identified several suspects deviating from the designated access routes and moving toward the soldiers. The troops fired warning shots, and when the suspects didn’t retreat fired additional shots near a few individuals who, the Israelis said, advanced toward the troops in a way that was viewed as a threat.
Yet today’s media coverage has run with the “Israelis killed 27 at aid point” story. This even though the BBC was forced to admit on Monday that it couldn’t confirm what had happened on Sunday because of “conflicting reports” — having previously reported that day that “Israeli tanks” had opened fire on thousands of Palestinians who had gathered near the US aid site, with “bodies of the dead and wounded taken on donkey carts”.
On Sunday evening itself, the BBC was forced to debunk an al Jazeera video it had used in its own reporting of that morning’s alleged Israeli atrocity. It now reported that this graphic video, which was said to show the aid queue “massacre” — and had been viewed no fewer than 134,000 times on one X post alone — had been filmed about 4.5 km away from the aid distribution point, and in the evening.
What had given the Hamas claims particular weight, however, was the testimony of western doctors in Gaza. Questions need to be asked about the role of these doctors in spreading such lethal disinformation.
The medical charity Doctors Without Borders said about the claim that 31 were killed in the aid queue on Sunday:
“Patients told MSF they were shot from all sides by drones, helicopters, boats, tanks and Israeli soldiers on the ground.”
But how did that square with the emphatic statement by the aid centre that food had been handed out all day with absolutely no violence at all at or near the site?
The BBC reported that day:
“The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has shared a video of British surgeon Victoria Rose, who is in the emergency department at Nasser hospital, describing the aftermath of today's incident. ‘We've had a shooting at the GHF aid distribution centre near Rafah,’ she says, adding: ‘It's absolute carnage here’.”
But how did Dr Rose know who or what had caused the casualties she was treating? Her statement was put out by the Gaza health ministry — which is Hamas.
A more circumspect statement was made by a second UK doctor, Ian Lennon, from a hospital in Rafah. He told BBC Today that another hospital near the aid centre was experiencing a mass casualty incident, and that his hospital had treated about 35 of these patients suffering from a mixture of gunshot and blast wounds. Pressed on what had caused these injuries, however, he merely said candidly that he had “gleaned very little directly” because he was “not an Arabic speaker”. Quite so.
And there’s evidence that Hamas gunmen have been killing Gazans queuing for food. As the Jerusalem Post reported:
“The Israel Defence Forces released drone footage on Sunday that shows armed and masked individuals in southern Khan Yunis attacking Gaza civilians who were attempting to collect humanitarian aid.”
According to the IDF, the video, captured earlier in the day, shows men throwing rocks and firing weapons at fellow Palestinians trying to retrieve looted aid packages.
This was backed up by a Gazan who said this in a post on X:
“Hamas for 18 months has been using aid and its distribution to pressure people, exploit them , control them and recruit the young and the needy. Thus the new mechanism [of aid distribution] vexes and angers Hamas. All the evidence we've seen with our own eyes indicates that Hamas caused the killings and panic during the distribution of aid a few days ago [last Sunday].
“There was an attack by armed men on queues of people waiting to receive aid from the American company. No-one possesses weapons and the ability to mobilise and carry out such an attack on people except Hamas and Israel . and no-one has an interest in such an attack except Hamas…
“From the beginning of the implementation of this free aid distribution mechanism, Hamas has been trying in every way to prevent people from going to receive the aid, whether by accusations of treason, intimidation or spreading information and rumours about the distribution mechanism that Israel will arrest you or kill you or that you are traitors.
“Hamas's anger and rage increased with the spread of videos of people happy to receive the aid, thanking President Trump and cursing Hamas and its leaders. This is what drove Hamas to carry out the attack. There are no masked or armed men in Gaza capable of doing this except Hamas or the Israeli army. But the Israeli army is concentrated in certain areas and doesn't risk moving among civilians in this way.
“On their social media pages Hamas publishes posts every day inciting and threatening those who take American aid. And what we saw confirms Hamas's responsibility for the incident...Hamas is ready to kill us, torture us and starve us so that we keep on being human shields so they aren’t targeted and can stay in power.”
The new aid distribution, which is getting food to Gazan civilians for the first time rather than it being stolen by Hamas, is the gravest threat possible to Hamas. Virtually none of this, of course, has been reported in the mainstream media. Instead, others with a deep interest in Israel losing this war have been piling in to help Hamas prevent Israel from winning it.
Having accused Israel baselessly of starving Gazans to death, the same people are now denouncing it — for supplying food. Is this not really incredible? The emergency co-ordinator for Doctors without Borders, Claire Manera, called the new system of aid delivery — which Gazans are hailing in gratitude — “dehumanising, dangerous and severely ineffective”.
The UN’s “human rights” chief, Volker Turk, said “deadly attacks” on civilians around aid distribution sites in Gaza constituted “a war crime.”
Even worse, the UN is acting with Hamas in actively trying to thwart the provision of food in Gaza. Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, told that shameful body:
“The UN is using threats, intimidation and retaliation against NGOs that choose to participate in the new humanitarian mechanism.”
This has barely been reported in the mainstream media.
Meanwhile, Hamas announced yesterday that it had executed a number of Gazans for unknown crimes — almost certainly for speaking out against Hamas, or allegedly collaborating with Israel, or taking the food aid being offered to them.
Of course no mainstream media have reported these executions. That’s because they don’t actually care about the fate of the people of Gaza. What drives them instead is their intense and unhinged desire to bring Israel down.
The reason these falsehoods have gained such traction is because there’s now a global echo chamber in which the lies people are hearing are bouncing off them towards others who are then echoing them back, reinforcing the impression that they are the unchallengeable truth. The humanitarian and human rights establishment constitutes one such feedback loop; the mainstream media constitutes another; and both feedback loops feed into each other.
The outcome is an alliance between the media and “human rights” bodies that’s libelling Israel and the Jewish people on an unprecedented global scale under the guise of sounding the alert about Israel’s war.
And that’s because no other conflict features a propaganda apparatus as extensive and as wicked as the Islamists’ use of the Palestinian cause as a weapon of extermination and holy war against Israel, the Jewish people and the west.
War is always hideous. Even in the most just of wars — as Israel’s is — there are always innocents, including children, who are tragically killed. That’s no less true in Gaza, even though the Israelis are going to far greater lengths to avoid civilian casualties than any other military on earth.
But if you’re someone who isn’t convinced by any of this; or if you’re someone who’s always believed Israel commits war crimes; or if you’re someone who has been sympathetic to Israel but now thinks there’s just too much evidence that it’s doing terrible things, please stop and think for a moment.
Does it occur to you to wonder why you’re being bombarded with images of suffering in Gaza every single day while being told next to nothing about the children dying of starvation in Sudan, or the atrocities against Christians in Africa?
Does it occur to you to wonder why, if there is starvation in Gaza, so many Gazans are conspicuously well fed? Or why not one single example has been produced of a person or child who has actually died of starvation there?
Does it occur to you to wonder, if the Israelis are wantonly killing huge numbers of civilians, why they’ve been constantly moving Gazan civilians to places of relative safety outside the active war zones?
Does it occur to you to wonder, after Hamas has rejected yet another ceasefire deal this week, how it can be that people suffering from “starvation,” “war crimes” and “genocide” turn down a proposal for their suffering to be brought to an end?
No? You don’t find cause to wonder at any of this? You think the answer to all these questions is just “Israel is guilty”?
If that’s the case, you inhabit a different universe altogether: a lost world of captured minds.
Decent, rational people everywhere will realise by contrast that the west is now in grave danger of toppling into a very dark place indeed.
Melanie Phillips is a British journalist, broadcaster and author - you can follow her work on her website HERE.
12 comments:
"An appalling number of people now believe there’s overwhelming evidence that Israel is doing terrible things in Gaza."
That's because they are, Melanie.
Jewish talking heads like you are being rolled out to assure people that they shouldn't believe what they can see with their own eyes, and that they should be reaching the conclusions they are, which are entirely consistent with Israel's behaviour in the region for the last 80 years, and before Israel's establishment.
"Decent, rational people everywhere will realise by contrast that the west is now in grave danger of toppling into a very dark place indeed."
Israel isn't "the West" and Jews are not "Westerners" particularly the Zionists who live outside of Israel but tend to care more about Israel than their own countries (as exemplified by Melanie Phillips herself). The Jews' Israeli project is there's, not ours, no matter what propagandists like Melanie would have us believe.
For the love of all things good, please start publishing articles on this issue from opposing reputable sources instead of ideological propagandists. The reason the likes of this lady & Douglas Murray et al get so much vitriol, is because they seem to think this issue started on 7 Oct and that the constantly shrinking West Bank is a Palestinian utopia. They conveniently ignore all the human rights abuses that have been going on for decades, including breaking the legs of the rock throwing kids and then bulldozing their family homes so the Israelis can just move on in.
These staunch defenders on the right are just as fanatical as those on the left. It’s nuts how similar they are and how both exhibit such wilful blindness and continue to defend the indefensible.
Two things can be true - and are true - at the same time: the State of Israel and Hamas are terrorists. I don’t think Israel was originally, but that is what they have proven to be now.
So for true context, let’s see articles from historians, political scientists and people with lived experience on all sides of the debate.
I heard of a report by a group of engineers commissioned by the UN a couple of months ago claiming that there were 50 million tonnes (that's metric tons) of rubble in Gaza which would take more than 20 years to deal with.
It seems quite obvious that the Israelis are intent on making Gaza irreparable and uninhabitable. That will create another 2 million international refugees - real refugees, unlike so many opportunists crossing illegally into Europe. Surely this must qualify as a crime against humanity.
israel is so innocent of all accusation's, netanyobbo and his co-charged are willing to appear at the I.C.C..................yeh nah-tui ad
The British construct, known as Zionist Rothschilds Israel, is imploding.
Mel has got to be a paid shill?
I cannot give named credit to the following words-The problem is that the conflict/ethnic cleansing of Palestine is framed as a religious war, when in reality, it's only a religious war from one side. It's only one side that claims "god" gave them the land, whereas the Palestinians claim to the land is that their families have lived on the land for many generations..... but yet we're told that hamas are the religious fanatics while ignoring the chosen people's own fanatical teachings!
It seems to me that contributors did not read the entire article. I believe it had reasonable balance with cause for contemplation and despair. Is it an easy fix? hardly, Is it deep seated and ingrained hatred? unfortunately yes . How can contributors assist? Maybe starting at home in NZ by NOT murdering NZ children so often.
“ The tempo and viciousness of the attacks on Israel in the west are running at fever pitch”
But less tempo and viciousness than the attacks on Gaza right?!? 🤔
Go Israel. Complete the Gaza mission and destroy Hamas. How people and institutions think they know better than the Israelis about these terrorists beats me.
Basil Walker thank goodness for a sensible comment.
Phillips' comments resonate with anyone who understands what's really going on in Gaza. HAMAS has every interest in attacking aid convoys organised by Israel. If they can't steal the aid for their own corrupt purposes as they have been doing for years, they are determined to stop it being enjoyed by anyone. Israel has no possible interest in shooting the people trying to access the aid. Commentators like Madam B cannot see past their own blind hatred and ignorance. Hatred that does nothing but incite violence by sick-minded, mentally disturbed people against individuals who, who, like the State of Israel, just want the security to get on with their lives in peace. And last time I looked, incitement to violence was a criminal offence in this country.
I have no idea exactly what is going on in Gaza but Melanie is a very reputable journalist contributing to high profile British newspapers.
I know the UN is largely run by Muslims and similarly the BBC.
I also know biblical prophesy which is astonishingly accurate and Israel will win in the long term despite being abandoned by everyone.
Zionists who may have committed war crimes will not go unpunished .
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