In the fog of war, the first victim is the truth. This has been particularly obvious in the Gaza war. Leyden in his article tends to fault Israel for its tardiness and lack of resources devoted to proclaiming the truth. I think this is unfair; Hamas is willing, nay eager, to lie, and these lies are then accepted and regurgitated by the Western media before it is possible to determine what happened and why. Israel cannot hope to win the PR war under these circumstances. This is particularly obvious in the UK, where the BBC and the Guardian newspaper as well as the Labour Government are so biased against Israel that the truth is suppressed. This is partly laziness, but more likely anti-Semitism; how else to explain the immediate support for Hamas after the Oct 7 pogrom, including claims of genocide of Gazans, before Israel even began to retaliate?
This became obvious to me when I offered my niece an opportunity to access my blog, which tends to cover much of the missing truth about the Gaza war. Her reply was a request to remove her address from my e-mail list, and a diatribe proclaiming her devotion to facts and truth not opinions. She announced that she was ashamed of being Jewish because of the genocide of Gazans. Of course she gets her ‘facts’ from the BBC and the Guardian. There are many ways in which people who care can get a broad range of information, but generally they won’t bother to read, watch or listen to anything that conflicts with their predetermined opinions. I do not know how bias can be overcome, however the effort must be made. The BBC can be attacked, because it’s a body supported by taxes on the British population, and sometimes can be forced to retract. However it took them weeks to withdraw the lie that the Al-Ahli hospital had been attacked by an Israeli missile causing 500 deaths, even though it was clear within hours that the deaths, far fewer than initially proclaimed, had resulted from a Gazan rocket that had misfired and landed in the hospital parking lot. The hospital was undamaged. Even now, Wikipedia suggest that there is some doubt about the source of the explosion.
For those who care for the truth, read the Israeli papers, watch Douglas Murray and Melonie Phillips and pray for our success.
stephenscohen.com 