Truth is the First Casualty of War

The tendency to believe lies and turn a blind eye to terror regularly leads the media to depict Israel’s intentions as evil, while terrorist-classified Hamas is described as ‘innocent victims’. Media-reporting contributes to making the conflict in the Middle East incomprehensible.

The whole world first saw Hamas’ ruthless brutality on October 7 last year, and then experienced Hamas’ blunt lies about the subsequent war, such as the lie about an alleged Israeli bombing of Al-Ahli hospital which was in fact an explosion caused by a misguided rocket from Islamic Jihad. Photo: Tasnim News Agency.

Time and again politicians and media in the West choose to believe lies and ignore the demonstrable brutality represented by Palestinian terrorist groups. Instead of trusting information from the Middle East’s only democracy, where every statement and factual report is duly and democratically questioned, debated and scrutinized, the outside world often chooses to blindly trust Hamas which deliberately distorts facts, deprives its population of freedom of speech and press, or academic freedom and democratic elections, and unscrupulously uses its own population as human shields. All this while seizing food and aid that was intended for its own civilian population.
The whole world saw the ruthless brutality of Hamas on October 7 last year. Kidnapped babies and the elderly, raped and mutilated women, burned and desecrated bodies – all to cause the greatest humiliation and harm. And the whole world has seen how Hamas has blatantly lied about the ensuing war, such as that Israel was responsible for an alleged 500-death hospital massacre which was in fact multiple deaths and injuries caused by a failed Islamic Jihad rocket aimed at civilian targets in Israel.

Major media outlets, the BBC and the New York Times, were forced to apologize for their incorrect reporting on the explosion at Al-Ahli Hospital on October 17. Leading Swedish media uncritically relayed Hamas’ information, which caused the Swedish Radio program “Medierna” (The Media) to call their own actions a “source-critical failure”. Exaggerated numbers of civilian casualties completely ignore the 14,000 Hamas terrorists who’ve been killed fighting Israel.
When, after October 7, the outside world demands that Israel continue to live alongside Hamas, it is a requirement that no other country in the world would be prepared to comply with. Here are facts that the media hardly report and which are the explanation for the existential threat that Israel finds itself in.
Iran intends to wipe out Israel and supports a number of terrorist groups in the region to achieve this goal. Iran and its allies operate a smuggling network spanning hundreds of miles and at least four country borders as part of their efforts to increase Palestinian military capabilities.
The country gives 700 million dollars per year to Hezbollah, according to the US State Department, which is to be added to the 100 million dollars that Iran gives annually to the terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Iran is also the main supporter of the terrorist group “Houthi rebels”, providing them with weapons, training and intelligence. Like Hamas and Hezbollah the Houthis claim responsibility for attacks likely ordered or carried out in consultation with Iran. A Houthi attack in the Red Sea recently killed three people, and sinking ships in the area is likely to cause an environmental disaster, with no reaction from the outside world.
Hamas has fired approximately 13,000 rockets at civilian targets in southern Israel since October 7. What’s more, according to the Israelis, Hezbollah has also fired 3,000 rockets at northern Israel from Lebanon during the same period. In addition, the same terrorist group has launched more than 600 anti-tank missiles and drones into Israeli territory.
Following Hamas massacres of Jewish communities near Israel’s border with Gaza on October 7, between 200,000 and 250,000 Israelis were evacuated from their homes in southern and even northern Israel. At the end of January 2024, more than 126,000 Israelis were still refugees in their own country.
Media also ignores the fact that Hamas has built tunnels for themselves but while totally neglecting to build shelters or air raid sirens for their own people, which means that Palestinian civilians are referred to support from Israel to be able to move from war zones. Israel has sent more than 9 million leaflets and made over 95,000 calls calling Palestinians to leave civilian areas where Hamas is taking cover. There is no other army that has ever done anything similar to this amount.