Gallery of Shame and Gaza “Newspeak”
By Dr. Mark Meirowitz
The October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel was devastating with wanton murder, rape and atrocities committed by Hamas. However, also quite disturbing has been the response of the media and international Institutions to this disastrous, unprovoked attack. We have seen a literal perversion of truth. Accordingly, I have compiled a “Gallery of Shame” to cast light on some of the more egregious examples of how reality has been distorted:
The “Gallery of Shame”:
The New Yorker Magazine
for an article by Masha Gessen entitled “In the Shadow of the Holocaust:
How the Politics of Memory in Europe Obscures What We See in Israel and Gaza Today” (12/9/23) which equates Israel’s military actions in Gaza to the Nazi liquidation of the ghettoes. The comparison itself is horrific, and as the child of survivors of the Holocaust, deeply disturbing to me.
Shameful!
NPR
for the “State of the World” program (11/29/23), where “we hear about two experiences of life in Gaza. One from a 22 year-old Israeli reserve soldier sent into the Gaza Strip with his unit. And a mother of two who lives in Gaza trying to shield her children from the horrors of war and stay alive”. In an interview by Daniel Estrin of NPR with the IDF soldier, the soldier, while on leave in Israel, describes his Gaza experience: “First thing was the laundry, good showers, good food, good sleep, good friends… The days for me are pretty simple… it’s like a routine for me. We wake up. We drink the coffee. We can see the beach, and it’s nice”. Then in the interview with Aya Batrawy of NPR, a mother of two in Gaza describes her experiences: “catastrophe…how hard it is to protect your children - crashing airstrikes… …woke up with …children crying all the day with the bombing from F-16’s from the Israeli occupation”. The IDF soldier sits on the beach having a great time, while a civilian mother in Gaza tells of air strikes from Israel and destruction of her family. Quite some impressive article which is just a form of propaganda to be sure!
Shameful!
The BBC
Incredibly, the BBC (once the paragon of the broadcasting world) has had to set up “BBC Verify” which it says will counter disinformation. However, one imagines this as a bunch of staffers reading BBC articles and howling with laughter at the endless and gross inaccuracies about the Israel/Hamas War - for example, the BBC apologized when one of its reporters falsely stated that Israel was “targeting people including medical teams as well as Arab speakers” in Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital, and another BBC report claimed that Israel had bombed the hospital when in fact what occurred was the hospital’s being hit by a failed terrorist rocket launch.
Shameful!
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
The ICRC has failed miserably in its mandate by not demanding access to the hostages to assuretheir well-being and obtaining much-needed medicine for the hostages. The ICRC instead focuses its attention on criticizing Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Shameful!
The United Nations and Affiliates
The best description of the UN is within the title of Daniel Moynihan’s book (Moynihan served as US Ambassador to the UN) - “The United Nations: A Dangerous Place”. The UN has, throughout its history, been obsessed with condemning Israel. The UN Secretary General, instead of using his good offices as a neutral arbiter (as many previous UNSG’s have done), took sides in the Israel/Hamas War and stated (11/29/23) that “a far greater number of children have been killed by Israeli military operations in Gaza than the total number of children killed during any year, by any party to a conflict since I have been Secretary-General” and many other similar statements against Israel. The situation is so bad that Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan has worn a Jewish Star in the UN to highlight the treatment of Israel, and Ambassador Erdan has even called for the resignation of the UN Secretary General. Unbelievably, Iran was appointed as Chair of the UN Human Rights Council Social Forum. Garry Kasparov reacted: “Say NO to the UN legitimizing a regime that beats, blinds, tortures and rapes women for demanding their rights”. Hamas weaponry has been found in UNRWA schools. “Zionism is Racism” is one of the more charming abominations produced by the UN.
Shameful!
Gaza “Newspeak”
I also wanted to focus on some of the terms and expressions that have been prevalent in the discussions related to Israel/Gaza in our dystopian world where the meaning of everything related to Israel is inverted. These expressions are very reminiscent of “Newspeak” in Orwell’s novel 1984.
Said Orwell: “The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to … devotees…, but to make all other modes of thought impossible”.
“Free Palestine” - I can’t describe this any better than quoting Ben Salomo, a German Jewish rapper, who remarked in an interview with the podcast Welt, that “Free Palestine Ist Das Neue Heil Hitler” (“Free Palestine is the new Heil Hitler”).
“Gaza Health Ministry” - this is Hamas. Numbers of casualties (such as the so-called “milestone” of 20,000 dead in Gaza) are regularly quoted in the media as accurate, without distinguishing between civilians and Hamas terrorists. Casualty numbers are remarkably generated within minutes or seconds.
“Nakba” - Despite Jews’ being persecuted throughout history, murdered in the Shoah, and kicked out of virtually every Arab country, the majestic founding of a Jewish State in 1948 is now dismissed as a “Nakba”, a catastrophe. This term is regularly used in articles and discussions throughout the media.
“From the River to the Sea Palestine will be Free”
“Intifada”, “Jihad” - these are all expressions calling for the destruction of Israel.
“It all depends on the context” - too ridiculous to even give credence to, yet academic leaders of major American universities have put this forth this as the baseline for deciding whether advocating Genocide against Jews crosses the line.
“Proportionality” - it bedevils the mind to understand how this applies when a band of vicious monsters attacked, murdered and raped innocent civilians, including women and children, as well as babies and elderly people, and took over 200 Israelis hostage - then kept the hostages in harsh captivity without food or medical attention (which caused the death of some hostages). What possibly can be proportional to that?
“Both Sides” - how are there “both sides” when Hamas attacked and committed atrocities and Israel is defending itself?
“Occupation” - Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and even forcibly removed Israeli settlers. Thereafter, Israel turned over Israeli greenhouses to the Palestinians (so the Gazans could have a livelihood), which the Palestinians destroyed. Hamas took the millions of dollars in aid and used these funds to enrich Hamas leaders, obtain armaments and build tunnels, while leaving the Gazan population in utter misery.
At this point, Israel is beset on all sides, literally and figuratively. It seems that the entire world is against Israel and the Jewish people. We must all support Israel and push back against wrongful accusations concerning Israel. Regretfully, Israel’s enemies are enabled in the media which continuously portrays Israel as the aggressor. We need to be the “truth monitors” to call out any such errors and distortions.
However, if there is even a possible bright light in all this, everyone should watch and be inspired by the interview with Mia Schem who was badly wounded and held as a hostage in Gaza to observe her heroism and strength despite such adversity. Let the detractors of Israel know that Israelis of all backgrounds and opinions have united against this terrible threat, and that the entire Jewish world is with Israel in its existential fight against Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and their allies and supporters.
We pray for the immediate return of all of the hostages. We mourn the losses of our heroic Israeli soldiers. We pray for our Israeli soldiers that they should be triumphant against demonic enemies focused on killing Jews and destroying Israel.
Am Yisrael Chai - we will defend ourselves
