Tag: propaganda

Press Relayed Israeli Claims of Secret Hospital Base With Insufficient Skepticism

A cover image of the New York Post (11/16/23) depicted a supposedly shocking find. The headline “Guns Behind the MRI Machine” accompanied a photo of what Israeli troops had allegedly uncovered: Hamas guns at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

On the Post cover were fewer than a dozen AK-47s and matching magazines, as well as a few tactical vests. In its subhead, the Post called this “proof Hamas used hospital as  military base in stunning war crime.”

Many other media outlets reported Israel’s claims—and accompanying photos and videos the IDF offered as evidence—with little pushback other than Hamas’s denials and an acknowledgment that the outlet could not independently verify the claims. “IDF ‘Found Clear Evidence’ of Hamas Operation out of Al-Shifa Hospital, Says Spokesperson,” was an NBC News headline (11/15/23); Fox News (11/15/23) had “Watch: Israel Finds Weapons, Military Equipment Used by Hamas in Key Gaza Hospital After Raid, IDF Says.”

Israel’s assault on Al Shifa hospital provoked widespread international outrage, so a great deal hinged on its claim that the hospital was being used as a military base. But there are many reasons to question this display of weaponry, questions that imply that not only did the Israeli military make a weak case, but that some media outlets and pundits were too quick to take this presentation at face value.

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Israeli Minister in Charge of West Bank Says Territory Is Home to ‘2 Million Nazis’

Bezalel Smotrich, the extremist Israeli finance minister who’s been given sweeping powers over the West Bank, has said the occupied territory is home to “2 million Nazis,” referring to part of the Palestinian population.

It’s estimated that around 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank. The Times of Israel reported that Smotrich made the comments in an apparent reference to two polls that found two-thirds of West Bank Palestinians supported the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel. However, the polls that were referenced surveyed Palestinians living in both Gaza and the West Bank.

The polls also came after weeks of Israel’s brutal bombing campaign and ground incursion into Gaza, as well as a significant uptick in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Based on polling, Hamas did not have much support before October 7 and the Israeli bombardment that ensued. A poll conducted on October 6 found that 67% of Palestinians in Gaza either had “no trust at all” (44 percent) or “not a lot of trust” (23 percent) in Hamas. The same poll found that 73% of Gazans favored a peaceful solution to the conflict with Israel.

Smotrich, the leader of the Religious Zionism Party, also referenced “Nazis” in the West Bank in comments on X in response to a Fatah official saying the October 7 Hamas attack didn’t happen in a vacuum. “A reminder to those who have not yet sobered up and think that the Nazis in Judea and Samaria are different from the Nazis in Gaza,” Smotrich said, according to Middle East Eye.

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Pro-Israel Trolls Mob Social Media

Almost as important as its military campaign for Israel is its battle to control its public image.

Even as it kills thousands of people in Gaza, the small Middle Eastern nation is spending millions of dollars on a propaganda war, purchasing ads on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and other online apps.

At the same time, an army of pro-Israel trolls has invaded the Community Notes function on X/Twitter, attempting to influence the online debate around the ongoing crisis.

Since Oct. 7, Israel has inundated YouTube with advertisements, with its Ministry of Foreign Affairs spending nearly $7.1 million on ads in the two weeks following Hamas’ incursion. According to journalist Sophia Smith Galer, this equates to almost one billion impressions.

With its campaign, the Israeli government overwhelmingly focused on rich Western nations, its top targets being France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium and the United States. In France alone, the ministry spent $3.8 million.

Other branches of the Israeli government undoubtedly also spent money on ads. The overwhelming message of the campaign was that Hamas are terrorists linked with ISIS and that Israel — a modern, secular democracy — is defending itself from foreign aggression.

Much of the content blatantly violated YouTube’s terms of service, including a number of ads featuring gory shots of dead bodies. Another ad that piqued public attention was played before videos aimed at babies. Amid a scene of pink rainbows and soothing music, text appears reading:

“We know that your child cannot read this. We have an important message to tell you as parents. 40 infants were murdered in Israel by the terrorists Hamas (ISIS). Just as you would do everything for your child, we will do everything to protect ours. Now hug your baby and stand with us.”

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US govt-linked Ukraine activists hold pro-Nazi Veterans Day rally outside White House

A recent rally in front of the White House featuring Nazi iconography has been wholly ignored by the same mainstream media outlets pushing the narrative of rising antisemitism. The two DC-based organizations behind the events collaborated with the Biden administration on a similar event last February.

This Veterans Day, on November 11, passersby outside the White House gates were met with the sight of protest signs bearing Nazi-inspired Wolfsangels and protesters performing fascist salutes.

While the rally may have fallen under the radar of the mainstream press – or was deliberately ignored – the US-government owned Voice of America (VOA) provided extensive coverage through their Ukraine branch. One photograph embedded in the story features Ukraine war veteran Roman Kashpur flanked by the White House and performing a fascist salute. Astonishingly, the second shot of the outlet’s video report features a Wolfsangel. Rally goers chanted “bring our heroes home!” and “Make Russia pay!”

VOA interviewed the rally’s organizer, Nadiya Shaporynska, whose talking points sounded as though they could have come from the Ukrainian embassy itself: “Our main message today is a call for the release of prisoners-defenders of Azovstal. We are now asking the United States for help to free them as soon as possible.”

Shaporynska has collaborated directly with the Biden Administration during past initiatives. As revealed in The Grayzone, she and a coterie of activists with longstanding ties to neo-Nazi militias managed to arrange for high-level Biden Administration officials to speak at a rally this past February.

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Israeli October 7 posterchild was killed by Israeli tank, eyewitnesses reveal

In a desperate bid for international sympathy, the Israeli government has sought to stir outrage over the killing of a 12-year-old girl during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7. 

“This little girl’s body was burned so badly that it took forensic archeologists more than six weeks to identify her,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry declared on its official Twitter/X account. “All that remains of 12 year old Liel Hetzroni is ash and bone fragments. May her memory be a blessing.”

Aviva Klompas, a former speechwriter for Israel’s United Nations mission and one of the country’s top English language social media propagandists, claimed on Twitter/X, “The terrorists massacred all of [the Hetzroni’s], then torched the building.”

Naftali Bennett, the former Israeli Prime Minister, chimed in to proclaim that “Liel Hetzroni of Kibbutz Beeri was murdered in her home by Hamas monsters… We’re fighting the most just war: to ensure this can never happen again.”

Liel Hetzroni was among the noncombatants killed in Kibbutz Be’eri when the small southern Israeli community was momentarily taken over by Hamas militants seeking captives to spur a prisoner exchange. During the standoff that ensued, she was killed instantly alongside twin brother, great-aunt and several other residents of Be’eri.

However, the 12-year-old Hetzroni was not slain by Hamas. According to new testimony by an Israeli eyewitness to the girl’s death, she was killed by an Israeli tank shell alongside several neighbors.

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How to Make Society Accept and Embrace Genocide ‘With This One Simple Trick’

In a glaring display of hypocrisy that has become all too common in the partisan theater, many on the right, who once proudly wore the badge of anti-war, have pivoted their stance amidst the bloody conflict in Gaza. Their anti-war voices, once loud against interventions and regime change wars, have muted, revealing a troubling inconsistency. The invasion of Gaza by Israel following the horrific attack on the Jewish state by Hamas has been met not with calls for peace and diplomacy but with a hawkish embrace of military aid, interventionist policies, and the wholesale embrace of genocide — a significant departure from their previous calls for non-intervention.

This flip-flop is a stark illustration of the power of party lines to cloud judgment, to turn the rational into zealots for causes they once denounced. It’s a phenomenon we at The Free Thought Project have documented extensively over the years, highlighting the cognitive dissonance that grips individuals when party loyalty eclipses principle and rational thought. The abrupt shift from advocating fiscal responsibility and caution in foreign entanglements to endorsing further indebtedness and military support for Israel reflects the influence of partisan lines over these easily dismissed principles. It clearly indicates how easily the masses can be swayed by party loyalty, even when it contradicts their previously held values.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the recent escalations in Gaza. The same individuals who once cried foul over foreign entanglements now stand idly by or, worse, cheer as Israeli forces launch devastating attacks on Gaza, claiming the lives of thousands. The death toll, a harrowing figure predominantly composed of civilians, women, and children, seems to be just another statistic to those who’ve traded their anti-war ethos for a seat at the partisan table. The Ministry of Health in Gaza has released chilling numbers that paint a picture of a population under siege: over 11,100 Palestinians have been killed, with a disproportionate number of the victims being children and women. 1 out of every 200 Palestinians is now dead — which is nothing short of genocide — and instead of decrying it, many are begging for more.

This about-face isn’t limited to war either. For years, Republicans lambasted the left for its rabid intolerance toward opposing viewpoints, decrying the ‘cancel culture’ that silences dissent. Yet, in a disheartening twist, these cries for free speech seem to vanish into thin air when it comes to the defense of Israel’s actions. Any criticism of Israeli policy is met not with debate but with attempts to silence and discredit—a tactic they once condemned.

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US Rep. Mast, a Former IDF Solider, Denies There Are ‘Innocent Palestinian Civilians’

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), a former member of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), dismissed the idea there are “innocent Palestinian civilians” in a debate on the House floor.

“I would encourage the other side to not so lightly throw around the idea of innocent Palestinian civilians, as frequently said,” Mast said on Wednesday. “I don’t think we would so lightly throw around the term ‘innocent Nazi civilians’ during World War II.”

Mast recently wore his IDF uniform on Capitol Hill, demonstrating his staunch support for Israel. “As the only member to serve with both the United States Army and the Israel Defense Forces, I will always stand with Israel,” he wrote on X in a post showing pictures of him in the uniform.

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There’s Only So Much Propaganda Spin You Can Put On The Murder Of Thousands Of Children

The thing is there’s only so much propaganda spin you can put on the murder of thousands of children.

With other imperial military actions the propagandists had an easier time spinning things. Oh no those evil communists are taking over South Vietnam, we need to stop them! Oh no Saddam’s got WMDs, we need to get him! Oh no Gaddafi’s gonna rape and kill all those Libyans, we have a responsibility to protect them!

In Gaza, Israel and its western backers are massacring children by the thousands with a shockingly vicious bombing campaign that is turning entire neighborhoods into gravel. They’re raining down military explosives on a giant concentration camp that is densely populated by children.

There’s only so much a propagandist can do with that.

They can talk about the killings on October 7 til they’re blue in the face, but people are going to object that nothing Hamas did makes it moral or acceptable to murder children by the thousands.

They can say “Israel has a right to defend itself” as much as they want, but people are going to object that murdering children by the thousands is not actually defending anything from anyone.

They can bleat the phrase “human shields” over and over again, but eventually people are going to start saying “Okay but even if they are human shields, could we please stop murdering children by the thousands? I know I wouldn’t want my children to be murdered just because they were being used as human shields.”

They can say every death is the fault of Hamas, but more and more people are going to start saying “Okay blame whoever you want, but can we please stop murdering children by the thousands right this very instant?”

They can say “Well what do you expect Israel to do?”, and people will respond “Stop murdering children by the thousands for starters, please and thank you.”

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The Australian Government Says It Will Be Exempt From Its Own Online “Misinformation” Laws

The Albanese administration’s pursuit of overreaching legislation intended to tackle “false” content on social media platforms is drawing sharp criticism and questions about its implications for free speech. A notable exclusion from this potential crackdown is the very government pushing for it.

This exemption, which would allow government messages to bypass these stringent regulations, was questioned by Independent Senator David Pocock. He rightly posited why governmental communications should remain unexamined when content from other entities would be under scrutiny. To many, the exemption smells suspiciously like a double standard, allowing the government to avoid the very accountability they seek to impose on others. “It would not ‘pass the pub test’ for the exemption to stand when the laws were eventually introduced,” Senator Pocock remarked.

Assistant Minister for Infrastructure Carol Brown rushed to defend the exemption, stating that it is intended to prevent critical emergency communications from the government being accidentally removed by social media platforms.

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