Deceit and deception

Thanks to compliant and corrupt international bodies, the ability of nations to deceive with impunity has never been greater.

Israel and by extension, Zionist supporters are the targets of the largest number of what passes for deceitful deceptions. The current torrent should come as no surprise In the context of millennia of such tactics. However, their lethal and toxic effects are magnified by the widespread use of social media, media disinformation and a receptive audience.

In the distant past ,one could explain away the spread of Judeophobia as a phenomenon of the uneducated classes of society being influenced by the minority of literate, educated and “enlightened” elites. This assumption was demolished after the Shoah when it was apparent that the most educated professionals were just as guilty, if not more so, of mass murder as the ordinary person in the street.

This reality is starkly apparent today as academics join forces with brain-addled students and unhinged haters, all of them united in parroting senseless slogans of incitement. Like their predecessors in Nazi Germany these demonstrations of hate progress into violent demonstrations, vandalizing property, boycotts and physical abuse.

It only takes one lie and distorted news report for the political opportunists and mobs to be let loose. Once unleashed, it spreads virally and any attempt at correcting distortions or countering mistruths is doomed.

A brief survey of the latest manifestations shows the magnitude of the problem.

It was always a given that the so-called ceasefire with Hamas would collapse sooner rather than later. Despite the starry-eyed expectations of the perennially gullible, there was no way that the terrorists holding the remaining hostages would ever release all of them.

Even worse was the fact that Hamas used the lull to continue digging more terror tunnels and prepare for another 7 October-type attack.

When Israel retaliated the world media and all the usual suspects erupted in a fury of condemnation.

The NGO “Honest Reporting” put it very simply when they responded:

The ceasefire ended weeks ago—Israel didn’t break it. Hamas played the media by pretending to accept a deal that never existed, hoarding food while blaming Israel for starvation, and refusing to release hostages or surrender.

So when Gaza journalists accuse Israel of breaking the ceasefire, and the media amplify it, remember: Hamas chose for the war to continue.  

Of course, by the time this message was posted, the damage had already been done, and the disinformation had well and truly infected receptive minds.

The same deceitful technique is effectively employed when it comes to reporting the number of casualties and where they occurred. Accepting Hamas-sourced figures which do not distinguish between terrorists, their supporters and civilians, the media reports convey a grossly inflated and distorted reality. Moreover, the fact that terrorists and their enablers hide in hospitals, clinics, UNRWA schools and homes is totally ignored and glossed over.

What needs to be relentlessly hammered home are some salient facts.

Hamas and its supporters started this war on 7 October 2023.

They have hijacked aid and food, deliberately depriving their own civilians.

Their continued refusal to immediately release each and every one of the kidnapped hostages, those alive and dead, makes them only responsible for the death and destruction that ensues.

The US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, made a startling admission. He admitted that he “may have been duped by Hamas.”

As we say here in Israel, “Boker tov Eliyahu.”

One did not have to be any sort of genius to predict this probability.

The fact that this same official is trying very hard to convince us that Qatar, one of the chief sponsors and funders of Hamas, is a genuine mediator for peace makes one wonder whether we are being sold yet another mirage.

Our eternal “peace partner” whom the international community has anointed as a dove of fraternal love never fails to demonstrate his abiding urge to embrace each and every opportunity to deceive.

This week, in a speech on the occasion of International Water Day, Abbas declared that “Israel is responsible for crimes of ongoing mass extermination of Palestinians over one and half years.” He went on to compare this with the Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948 and the tragedy of 1967. No doubt these dates mean nothing to the clueless demonstrators against Israel. Therein resides the problem. Abbas considers Israel’s rebirth as a catastrophe and its 1967 defeat of Arab genocidal plans equally tragic. He relies on the collective amnesia of the world to absolve him of any taint of deception.

Needless to say, this latest piece of incitement raised nary a ripple in the corridors of the United Nations and the Foreign Ministries of all countries that voted for a democratic, peace-loving Palestine.

That is why a Greens leader can stand up in the New Zealand Parliament and demand to know why the Government has not imposed sanctions on Israel. She is a perfect example of how deceit and deception can be successfully employed. At least in this particular case the NZ Foreign Minister responded that he had yet to hear any condemnation from her or her party about the 7 October 2023 pogrom and hostage-taking of Israelis.

It never ceases to amaze when pronouncements and assertions issued by recognized terror groups are accepted without any sort of verification as to their authenticity and truthfulness. Casualty figures which make no distinction between terrorists and innocent civilians are quoted as holy writ. The latest example is the reporting by international media outlets of the death of a proven Hamas terrorist who also worked as a “journalist” for Al Jazeera.

Hossam Shabat was a sniper operative in an anti-tank company of the Beit Hanoun Battalion of Hamas. His journalistic expertise was no doubt an asset when it came to reporting from the front line. After his elimination by the IDF, his elevation to martyr status by the world media was guaranteed, and the headlines all portrayed him as an innocent journalist deliberately targeted by the evil Zionists.

The fact that this deception and others like it can be reported and swallowed with the greatest of ease proves how difficult it is for the truth to be revealed.

The erstwhile sultan of Turkey is another prime example of how to incite against Israel and Jews without incurring any negative repercussions. In one of his latest rants, he accused Israel of “feeding on the blood of innocents.”  Most Jews who know anything at all about historical facts would immediately associate this sort of rhetoric with the blood libels of the Middle Ages and Czarist Russia.

It is unfortunately futile for Jewish respondents to refer to “blood libels” because these days, mindless millennials and professional anti-Israel protesters do not have the faintest idea what these slanders were all about. If a survey was to be held it would reveal a massive black hole as to the history behind accusing Jews of “feeding on the blood of innocents.”

Knowledge is critical, but how can truth prevail when those spreading deceit and deception have a clear head start?

Countering confused and closed minds already rotted with a poisonous and infectious bacillus of hate against Jews, Zionists and the Jewish State is an uphill battle.

It is one, however, which must be continually fought and won if we are not to suffer the disasters of the recent past.