George Orwell once said, “The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.” No truer words have been written to describe Israel’s position in the world today. From the UN to U.S. senators to mainstream media, the distortion of facts into pure fiction has heaped disdain on Israel and those who support it.
Take for instance Nicaragua’s leap into the anti-Israel public square by taking Germany to the International Criminal Court. Why? Because Germany has been supporting Israel in its war against the terrorist group, Hamas, and therefore has engaged in genocide.
Oh, the irony. In February of this year, British politicians launched an investigation into Nicaragua for human rights violations. Soon thereafter, the U.S. State and Commerce departments also acted against Nicaragua. For what, you ask? “A campaign of repression and blatant human rights abuses.”
That a country with a known history of violence and human rights violations with no connection to the Middle East, could bring Germany, a paragon of European liberal democracy, to the ICC for human rights violations would be considered a farce in a world that honored truth.
The United Nations Human Rights Council Has a Truth Problem
Not to be outdone by Nicaragua, the UN Human Rights Council voted 28-6 for an arms embargo against Israel and an immediate ceasefire. If that wasn’t bad enough, Israel was cited over 50 times by the UNHRC while no mention of Hamas was made, not only in that resolution but ever!
Ignoring the fact that Hamas has refused multiple cease-fire proposals, the UN once again perpetuates a fictional narrative at the expense of truth. In the case of Israel, when truth dies, so do people. That is, hostages are left to die, and Hamas continues to use Palestinians as pawns and war materiel.
The U.S. Congress Has Truth Problem
If only this “Orwellian” thinking stayed over there. Senator Elizabeth Warren, never a staunch supporter of Israel, crossed the rhetorical Rubicon by invoking “Genocide” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza, just as Germany was defending itself from Nicaragua’s outrageous claim at the International Court of Justice.
Senator Warren, known for her expertise in finance, displays complete disregard for the meaning of one of the most important terms in human rights. Genocide is the purposeful destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnic, or religious group. Nothing Israel has done constitutes genocide, as attested by Defense Secretary Austin in Congressional testimony the following day.
In fact, everything Israel has done demonstrates the exact opposite of genocide.
While Hamas sacrifices Gazans to protect their rockets and sees every Palestinian death as a beneficial social media boost, Israel exposes its own personnel to risk protecting Palestinian lives. Senator Warren and others in the Democratic party bankrupt the truth by perpetuating demonstrably false “facts.”
Does hate distort the truth, or does distorting the truth cause hate? Only Senator Warren knows.
She is joined by long-term Congresswoman, Nancy Pelosi who, presumably on White House instruction, signed onto a letter with the Democratic party’s most anti-Israel members, conditioning aid to Israel.
The letter states, “We also urge you to withhold these transfers if Israel fails to sufficiently mitigate harm to innocent civilians in Gaza, including aid workers, and if it fails to facilitate – or arbitrarily denies or restricts – the transport and delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza.” This makes for great fiction.
Truth Behind Israel’s War Efforts
According to John Spencer, the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern Warfare Institute at West Point, “So far I have seen the IDF implementing – and in some cases going beyond – many of the best practices developed to minimize the harm of civilians in similar large scale urban battles.” By all accounts, Israel takes measures to protect civilians that no other country, including the U.S., has ever taken.
Likewise, their statement perpetuates the demonstrably false narrative that Israel has limited humanitarian aid. Israel does not deny any humanitarian aid to Gaza. At the time of that letter, COGAT – Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories – stated that over 700 trucks were scanned into Gaza.
However, the U.N. failed in its responsibilities to distribute that aid. Less than a third of those trucks had been mobilized by the UN to provide food and other essential items.
What’s more, the U.N. had sent only 65 workers to Gaza. Compare this number to the 1,000 U.N. workers provided to Ukraine. The U.N. failed to acquire more trucks, hire additional drivers, and increase the number of warehouses, which means it’s woefully unprepared to service humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Sadly, in the fiction against Israel, these facts are ignored.
Anti-Zionism and Anti-Israelism are Contagious
What does this look like when these narratives are transmitted to the streets of the United States or the UK? It looks like pro-Hamas supporters shouting “death to Israel, death to America,” threats against UK lawmakers, or vile antisemitism at Columbia, Yale, Harvard, NYU, University of Texas at Austin, and dozens of other American colleges.
When fiction triumphs, gaslighting becomes the operative tool for opportunistic individuals to indoctrinate the intellectually vulnerable into a dangerous army of the absurd.
Our allies in Europe are not spared from the “Orwellian” effort to re-write facts into fiction. As mentioned, Germany is the victim of such absurdities as it defends itself at the International Criminal Court. While Germany is on trial, the reality is that Germany is a proxy for every country in the Western alliance.
Germany’s defense of its right to support Israel which is defending its citizenry in a war of necessity, is a defense of our rights too, those of us in the U.S. and across Europe.
Israel is on the frontlines in a war against authoritarianism and Islamism. These front lines are shared by our European allies like Germany, Poland, Ukraine, and the Baltic states which are in the range of Russian and Iranian weaponry.
Former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned that Ukraine is a front line “where our future is in play,” and “another front line is the war brought by Islamism, shaped by the hatred of Jews.” His words are playing out across the U.S. and the U.K.: those who despise Israel based on fiction are also inclined to hate their own countries.
The former Prime Minister continued: “But we also immediately understood and anticipated the implacable mechanics of the “yes, but,” this new “negationism” … to erase the crime and turn the reaction of the attacked into the cause of all evil.”
Israel is the New “Jew Problem”
Israel has replaced “the Jew” as the canary in the coal mine. Israel is not only on the front lines against Islamism, antisemitism, and authoritarianism, it is also on the front line against anti-West propaganda and those who seek the end of Western values.
There is no length to which those with anti-Israel animus will not go to corrupt and distort the facts to perpetuate a narrative that damages Israel. Truth is the first victim in this war against Israel.
The absence of truth hurts not just Israel, but every country, every institution, and every person whose existence demands that truth prevails.
The war of truth against Israel is a sign that there is something dangerous in the air we all breathe. What you believe about Israel likely reveals what you will believe about anything. Truth matters.