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Persistent and Growing List of Lies about Israel
While Israel slowly makes its way through Rafah, trying to assuage the international community with its promises to try not to kill civilians, the list of lies promulgated by outsiders and Israel’s enemies about their efforts continues to grow. Some of the lies are outrageous; others are bewildering and conflicting. But since the public is experiencing a great deal of confusion about what is happening, I thought I’d write about the worst lies and how they are being managed (or not). It’s also worthwhile to assess whether these lies affect Israel’s running of the war.
The first lie I decided to focus on was the accusations of genocide. South Africa, as ardent supporters of Hamas, made the charge to the International Court of Justice, only recently joined by Spain, a country that has demonstrated its hatred of Israel. Spain also recently declared its support of the Palestinians to be given an independent state.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, presented her report to UN member states regarding her assessment of Israel’s committing genocide:
Genocide is a specific legal term, and Ms. Albanese’s report suggests some of the legal criteria have been fulfilled.
She cites what she says appears to be Israel’s intention to destroy Palestinians as a group “in whole or in part”, a key clause in the Convention against Genocide.
She mentions in particular three elements which point to possible genocide:
- Killing members of the group
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
- Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
The death toll in Gaza, currently well over 32,000 according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, the bombing of densely populated areas, and the restrictions on aid supplies (which, the UN says, have brought Gaza to the brink of famine), are all proof, the report claims, of intent to destroy the group.
She insists that Israel is trying to destroy the Palestinians, and yet the three bullet points highlighted above suggest these elements point to “possible genocide.” Nowhere has Israel stated that it is trying to destroy the Palestinian people, but rather only the aggressors who began this war: Hamas.
I guess Ms. Albanese is unsure.
Trying to starve Palestinian civilians was the second lie I decided to address:
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court accuses Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of violating a law against ‘intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare.’ The statute requires a proof of intent, and the facts disprove the accusation.
A study was also conducted by a group of Israeli nutritionists, who state that more food is being distributed now than before the war:
The study revealed that the supply provided an average of 3,374 calories per person daily, well above the 2,100 recommended by the Sphere humanitarian movement as the minimum standard. It also confirms the daily availability of 101 grams of protein and 80.6 grams of fat per person, in compliance with the standards.
In addition, Hamas has made efforts to hijack food and materials for its own military.
Another fabrication I wanted to address is the inconsistency in the death toll numbers:
On May 6, the U.N. agency published the Gaza government media office’s latest estimate that 14,500 children and 9,500 women had been killed. Two days later, OCHA reported a much lower number of Palestinian women and children killed in the conflict based on those who the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health claimed had been specifically identified by name. The new figures were 7,797 children and 4,959 women killed and subsequently identified.
OCHA did not change its overall estimate that more than 34,900 Palestinians have died. That larger total includes both those whose identities have been confirmed, and an estimate that 10,000 additional dead are missing and have not been accounted for.
Since every international body uses these numbers in their assessments of the war, it should be incumbent upon the reporting organization to ensure their numbers are as close to accurate as possible, particularly since other countries are making demands on Israel based on those figures. It appears that accuracy is not a priority. Some authorities say that Netanyahu has slowed down the war effort to comply with Biden’s demands.
The next lie is the accusation of war crimes by the International Criminal Court against Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, along with three Hamas leaders, including Yahya Sinwar. The Court misjudged the reaction of the Israeli people if it expected Netanyahu to be rejected by them:
Nadav Shtrauchler, a former campaign strategist for Netanyahu, told POLITICO that Khan’s statement would only help his former boss by forcing opposition politicians and critics to rally to his defense. Most Israelis will view Khan as targeting Israel and not just Netanyahu, he warned. ‘People don’t see this as something that’s just against Netanyahu — it is against the state and its defense,’ he said.
I wanted to address the bombing of a Gazan school as the last lie I will discuss:
Israel hit a Gaza school on Thursday with what it described as a targeted airstrike on up to 30 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters inside, and a Hamas official said 40 people were killed including women and children sheltering at the U.N. site.
‘We’re very confident in the intelligence,’ military spokesperson Lt Col. Peter Lerner said, accusing Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters of deliberately using U.N. facilities as operational bases.
The reason I included this last example is that it’s representative of how Hamas and the Palestinians, as well as the U.N., conduct themselves. Hamas has stored armaments in schools for many years. They have used the Palestinians as shields. They have no reservations about telling lies about the enemy (Israel); this is supported by their belief in taqqiya, their commitment to protect the faith. They have little interest in protecting or saving civilians. They have no interest in peace. They are determined to destroy Israel and its people, whatever the cost.
Some things never change.
Why the international community thinks the Palestinians or Hamas will change their attitudes is wishful thinking.
Published in Foreign Policy
Neither of the Palestinian sources are making any effort to separate out how many of the dead were Hamas fighters. I have no idea what methodology is being used by the U.N., or even if they have a methodology. The drop in the numbers back in May seems to be related to no longer relying on the Gaza Media Office
The amazing rescue of four hostages from deep inside Gaza yesterday has thrilled Israel and its friends, but has caused outrage among the usual suspects. Hamas’s claim that over 270 people were killed during the operation is treated as accurate, while Israel’s estimate of less than 100 is put in quotation marks. The fact that the female hostage was held in the home of a doctor and his son- an Al Jazeera “journalist” – somehow has escaped the attention of almost all media. Meanwhile, a BBC journalist put it to an IDF spokesman that Hamas should have been forewarned of the rescue!!
And so it has been and will probably always be. It can be so discouraging.
Here’s that clip. The guest was Jonathan Conricus, a former IDF spokesman who is now retired and working at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
https://x.com/i/status/1799763520139227167
I commend him for his self-possession.
Shades of Monty Python’s Life of Brian. “You didn’t give us time to hide!”
I have seen many Xeets on X today to the effect of “How can the hostages sleep at night knowing that 400 people died for their “freedom””
We had posts list this one:
Honestly, I would sleep so well. I will sleep well.
Another example:
Your reminder that no matter how much you despise the Washington Post…it isn’t enough:
or this example:
Some have said that this is like a trolley problem with Israel choosing to kill 94-400 to rescue 4…
I especially like this meme in response:
although this one is pretty darn good as well:
The Babylon Bee had, perhaps, the best:
Perfect! Thanks, Drew.
That’s the BBC’s job! Or the New York Times. Or Wapo.
Shocked, I say!! Who knew?!
No matter how much you despise the WaPo…it isn’t enough.
Or Biden…. or His caretakers.
Like ‘food insecurity’ this is a term that doesn’t mean anything.
Starvation and famine are things that can be measured. Almost starvation and almost famine are undefined tools used to scare. See also; global warming.
I think that the falsehoods are your claims, Susan.
That is false. My references are to quotes from Israeli officials, which appear in South Africa’s submission to the ICJ in December. The following appear in paragraphs 101 and 102, with footnotes to the sources.
Perhaps the worst was from an unofficial person, a 95-year-old Israeli reservist named Ezra Yachin who participated in the Deir Yassin massacre during the 1948 Nakba, who gave a speech to boost morale that was broadcast to soldiers:
He goes on further, but you get the point.
I could go on and on. You can go read the South African ICJ submittal, full of facts, detailing Israeli intentions and the actions by which they were plainly carrying out those intentions, as of last December. It’s continued, and in some ways, it’s become even worse. The famine took a while to take effect, so while the Israelis had clearly stated their intention of starving the people of Gaza as of December, the worst of the effects have been this year.
Moderator Note:
Denounce Israel if you wish, but refrain from attacking the character of fellow Ricochet members.Since you throw around accusations of lying to everyone telling you things that you don’t want to hear, I’m going to respond in kind.
[insult redacted by moderator]
There is a mass starvation of children unfolding right in front of us, and you refuse to see it. You believe some Israeli liar. You probably believe the lies about beheaded babies and mass rapes. For God’s sake, open your eyes. [insult redacted by moderator]
One UN agency and official after another tells us that Gaza is experiencing famine.
Doctors Without Borders tells us that there is famine.
Cindy McCain, the American director of the UN world food program, tells us that there is famine.
Amnesty International, B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch, all tell us the same thing.
That’s not a fabrication. There is no inconsistency. This is made clear even in the quote that you include in the OP. There is a report of total fatalities, and a report of a smaller number of fatalities that have been fully identified.
The latest figures reported by the UN, as of June 5, were 36,586 total Palestinian deaths, of which 24,686 have been fully identified.
I’ve seen both Israeli spokespersons and Zionist organizations falsely claim that this clarification of the reported death toll actually demonstrated that the original figures were falsely inflated. That was not the case, and the UN folks who announced the figures made this clear.
This is not a surprise. Israel is supported by an empire of lies, spread by itself and by its supporters.
On the ICC issue — the war crimes charges are not lies. I’ve quoted the genocidal statements by Netanyahu and Gallant above, and they have presided over an open campaign of starving civilians. That’s a war crime.
There are many, many other war crimes, but the starvation is the most obvious one.
I’m not going to address the specific school, because it’s pretty much irrelevant. The Israelis have intentionally leveled entire universities. Here’s a video of one of them:
Hamas has intentionally built terrorist facilities under universities. And hospitals. And grade schools. You name it.
The Palestinians received effective autonomy in 2007. They have received billions of dollars in aid. In the seventeen years they’ve had, with those resources, they could have rebuilt the Beirut of the 50’s, when the first generation of the Jet Setters flocked to the Eastern Mediterranean. But instead they built crappy rockets and dug terror tunnels.
Life is hard. It’s harder when you’re stupid.
Love to see the Jew hate at work.
Good post Susan.
I choose not to read Jerry’s comments, so if he’s trying to impress me, he’s wasting his time. I hate to see his ugliness sitting on this post, but there’s nothing I can do. I’m comforted by those who choose to take him on. Thank you.
How is it that Gary Robbins was beyond the pale and could no longer be tolerated here? Twisted priorities and sensibilities.
I guess it’s called “freedom of speech.” I suspect Jerry has been suspended in the past, but I don’t know that for a fact. But he lingers on…
A respectful neighbor might exercise his freedom of speech on such matters in his own posts where his views can clearly sink or swim on their own instead of soiling the posts of others. Just sayin’…
Of course, Jerry isn’t respectful, is he? Thank you for the sentiment, philo.
For the record, it is not unheard of in these parts for special posting rules to be enforced on individuals that could moderate, if you will, such friction…especially if the temperature of the soiling material starts to rise. He could be corralled into his own posts on certain topics. Just thinking out loud here…not that I advocate anything of the sort.
philo, I will use your comment as incentive to appeal to the moderators and editors to consider taking some kind of action. Although I find his intrusion very distressing, especially under the current circumstances in Israel, I think there should be a limit to this kind of behavior. Others must find it very disturbing, too. You may have noted that a moderator or two intervened already. We all know that he will not stop. And I will not stop writing these kinds of posts, either.
Once you adopt the premise (as a certain commenter does) that (a) Israel has no right to exist and that (b) it is, therefore, OK to kill Jews and (c) any armed Israeli response is illegitimate and disproportionate by definition, the comments will stale, ugly and predictable.
There was never an Arab state called Palestine. I recall following the news avidly in 1967 and 1973 and nobody was claiming the restoration of “Palestine”. It was the Arab-Israeli war in which (a) the resurgence of pan-Arab nationalism after the Europeans yielded their colonial holdings in the Middle East combined with (b) the concept of Dar al Islam, that infidels in territories once conquered and ruled by Muslims have no right to be free of Muslim rule (Osama bin Laden’s constant complaint about Andalusia) that drove Arab invasions of the Jewish state that had been recognized by international law and by the previous owners of the region.
Some Israelis have called for the expulsion of all Israeli Arabs on the grounds that they cannot be trusted despite far more rights and greater material well-being than the average citizen in Arab countries (and far more rights than non-Muslims communities in the Muslim world). Certainly, there is nothing in Palestinian behavior and outlook that should inspire any sane Jew to welcome a mass influx under a BS rubric of a “right of return.” It was not the Jews who dismissed outright the notion of a peaceful co-existence.
I am really tired of the condescending racism of defenders of the sick culture and behavior of the Palestinians and the blanket dismissal of their culpability on the grounds that Jews (the official white people in this analysis) bear all the responsibility for making things right and assuaging the grievances of those who call for their extermination.
I will support aid to Palestinians if and only if they accept that the Jewish state may exist, they expressly renounce any and all suras or hadith that purport to give Muslims the right to kill and subjugate non-Muslims, they dump all leaders with terrorist leaders, and prove they will not support terrorism in any form. Otherwise, they remain those who are persona non grata in every other Arab nation, the people who perpetrated Oct 7 and the people who danced and passed out candy when my countrymen were massacred on 9/11 and thus a people that has absolutely no claim on my sympathies. If they are suffering in a war they started and they have let Hamas thugs and grifters steal all food and money and persist in making civilians useful victims, it is not my problem.
Gary’s problems were more about “flooding” comments with super-long wall-of-text repeats of other comments and even entire posts. Also bringing up “But Trump!…” in totally unrelated posts.
As always, so eloquent, OB. Unfortunately, I think your conditions are unlikely to be met. It is difficult for me not to fall into hopelessness. You provide a balm for supporting Israel and the Jewish people.
I, too, have started skipping over his posts. Replying to his disingenuous arguments only encourages him.
There are people I disagree with, but whom I can respect because they argue honestly. I am happy to engage with them. Jerry does not fall into that category.