Israeli propaganda, Biden's favorite media series: The Nation
8 Min Read
It is safe to say that public opinion of “Israel” is as significant and critical as any battlefield; when it fails on the ground, it has its backup plan - propaganda and the media.
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Wounded Palestinian children receive treatment at Al-Shifa Hospital following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza on Oct. 23, 2023 (AP)
Last week, the Arabic-language Twitter account of “Israel’s” Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a video of a supposed nurse in Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, warning Gazans to flee south as instructed by the IOF as bombs can be heard in the background. She also claimed that IOF's claims of Hamas holding the hospital as a house for weapons were true.
The video was not only questioned for its authenticity but it was also mocked by many viewers, especially Arabs. Here's why: none of the hospital staff knew who she was and she spoke in English with an accent that did not resemble any Arabic lilt or dialect.
Marc Owen Jones of The Daily Beast explains, “Everything about it smacked of high school theater—from the botched accent that sounded like it was straight out of an Israeli soap opera to the perfectly scripted IDF talking points rolling off her tongue.”
He noted that “the pristine white lab coat looking like it had just come back from the dry cleaner, the audio track of bombs falling that sounded like samples from a late-’80s Casio keyboard, and the contrived stethoscope-waving you‘d expect from an extra on Grey’s Anatomy.”
Within 24 hours of its posting, the video was deleted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It is safe to say that public opinion of “Israel” is as significant and critical as any battlefield; when it fails on the ground, it has its backup plan - propaganda and the media.
Read next: Israeli Oct. 7 'propaganda' film banned in parliament: Belgium Speaker
'Lost in Translation'
Earlier this month, “Israel” bombed a car in South Lebanon with the IOF claiming they had ”struck a vehicle in Lebanese territory that was identified as a suspicious vehicle containing several terrorists.”
It was later established and confirmed by Human Rights Watch that it was a civilian car carrying a mother, a grandmother, and three girls - the mother was injured and the rest were murdered.
Human Rights Watch called it an “apparent war crime” and “the attack on a vehicle containing only fleeing civilians shows reckless disregard by the Israeli military for its obligation to distinguish between civilian and military objects and a significant failure to take adequate safeguards to prevent civilian deaths.”
A week later, the IOF spokesperson Daniel Hagari invaded Al-Rantisi Hospital in Gaza as he claimed there was evidence there of a "terrorist" cell. He even pointed to a baby bottle and said, “It’s a baby bottle. It’s a baby bottle in a basement, above a World Health Organization sign.”
Here's how the Israeli propaganda has been failing miserably.
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) November 14, 2023
A calendar hung on the wall is claimed to be a target list.
An elevator shaft is claimed to be a tunnel used by #Palestinian Resistance fighters.
It's hard to distinguish whether "Israel" thinks everyone is dumb or… pic.twitter.com/50TZXENlXu
He continued to point to a list on a wall calling it “a guardians’ list, where every terrorist writes his name and every terrorist has his own shift, guarding the people that were here.”
#Israel's military claimed today that it found in the basement of Al Rantisi Hospital in #Gaza evidence that Hamas used the hospital for military purposes, showing this picture as part of the evidence material. Former member of Israel's mission to the #UN has even claimed that… pic.twitter.com/2mVMuMfNyF
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) November 13, 2023
Arab viewers were quick to debunk and call out Hagari that the “guardians' list” was a calendar with the days of the week on it. In response, the IOF blamed it on a “translation error".
Partners in crime
The largest and continuing propaganda fiasco right now is that of Al-Shifa Hospital, which the IOF claim is “the main headquarters for Hamas’ terrorist activities.”
National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby stated on Tuesday, “I can confirm for you that we have information that Hamas, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip including Al Shifa, and tunnels underneath them, to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages," but never once did any of them provide proof.
The next day, “Israel” invaded the hospital. As reported by The Washington Post, the IOF said they found small caches of weapons they claimed belonged to Hamas.
Meanwhile, invading Israeli forces were quick to argue that “Hamas knew we were coming” and allegedly moved the alleged headquarters.
They published a more than seven-minute "one-shot" video claiming that it shows weapons that belong to the Palestinian Resistance at the Hospital's MRI section, in addition to a small laptop and stack of CDs. The original video was soon deleted and the military eventually published a version of the video that is around 20 seconds shorter than the original one.
They claimed that "no cuts" and "no edits" were made, but still, it was 20 seconds shorter, so where did these seconds go?
"No cuts, no edits, just the undeniable truth." This is how the Israeli occupation military captioned a video it posted about weapons its forces allegedly found in #AlShifaHospital's MRI building in #Gaza. Later, the video was deleted and reuploaded with some adjustments. pic.twitter.com/dcHurgbTXj
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) November 16, 2023
In the edited version, they also blurred the display picture on the computer screen, which showed a female Israeli soldier whom the IOF claimed they rescued in Gaza. On October 30, "Israel" falsely claimed that it had rescued this same soldier Ori Megidish whose name was not even on the official list of captives held in Gaza.
As for the weapons staches and combat gears they allegedly found, they were so organized and neat and tidy in a way that it is impossible to comprehend how they could be the equipment of a resistance group engaged in battles since October 7 stashed there for a month and a half.
The new scandal proves that the alleged Israeli "discovery" of weapons in the hospital is entirely fabricated and fake.
According to The Nation, to pay attention to Israeli propaganda in recent weeks is like watching a magic trick done by an inept conjurer who constantly lets the audience see the mirrors and wires that are supposed to create optical illusions.
All the aforementioned, naming a few, of course, are part of an ongoing propaganda that barely makes any effort to convince, instead offering ludicrous arguments in implausible forms. Why bother to convince when US President Joe Biden is there to back whatever lies the Israelis come up with?
After all, the US President seems unfazed by the flimsiness of the evidence provided by "Israel" every time.
Of course, despite all the debunking, Biden comes to the rescue yet falls into the trap of his own words as he claimed that “Israel” was cautious in its invasion of Al-Shifa Hospital compared to its previous actions, saying, “So, this is a different story than I believe was occurring before, an indiscriminate bombing.”
Biden blatantly and overtly confessed to indiscriminate bombing - constituting a war crime. Clearly, if neither Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Biden are taken to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, Biden has already given sufficient claim of crimes against humanity through his words.
It is not only Biden, but the American media is also an accomplice to the genocide in Gaza. As confirmed by HuffPost, news outlets like CNN are known for airing IOF videos disseminating false information such as the calendar video.
When the errors are exposed, the videos are edited without an editorial note explaining the error or acknowledging it.
Sadly, "Israel’s" propaganda does not target regular people.
According to a new Reuters/Ipsos survey, popular support in the United States for "Israel's" war on Gaza, under the guise of fighting Hamas, is weakening, and most Americans believe "Israel" needs to implement a ceasefire.
A total of 1,006 American adults participated in the countrywide online poll, and only 32% of respondents in the two-day opinion survey answered "the US should support Israel," when asked about the US role in the matter.
This is in stark comparison to an October survey where 41% believed the US should support the occupation.
However, the fact that the public isn’t buying "Israel’s" campaign of lies does not count for much, as foreign policy is the job of elites, and Biden, side by side with the US Congress, stands firmly behind the Israeli occupation promising "unwavering" support. As such, even if Joe Biden is the only person on earth who believes "Israel’s" propaganda, his favorite media series, that is more than enough to push it forward and allow "Israel" to act accordingly armed with impunity.
