The war has excellent public relations, but the truth is that we lost
“Aspects of deception, self-deception, image-making, ideologising, and defactualisation,” Hannah Arendt wrote of the Pentagon Papers, but they are not unique to the Vietnam War. Democratic regimes that embark on long, aimless, wars which are costly in human lives are engaged in creating an image of a successful war — and the war in Gaza is no exception. And now everyone is already voluntarily enslaved to a huge PR stunt about the success of the war and is swallowing this knowingly and happily. But the truth is that we lost.
By Iris Leal • Translated by Sol Salbe
For the past six months we have lived in a knowledge and information blackout . Consequently we have also have had a deep sense of uncertainty. And in this age of disrespect for truth and facts, people have become accustomed to feeding themselves with comfortable lies and hankering after more of this drug. And because, alongside the loss of respect for the truth, the desire to understand the world on the basis of facts and figures has been lost, everyone chooses the reality that they find comfotable.
A few days ago I experience a first-rate internet shitstorm. I tweeted, “There will be a heavy price to pay for what Israel has done in Gaza. It’s devastation of biblical proportions, it’s a massive slaughter of civilians, including children, and it seems that most of the community thinks that it’s a justified punishment and has no idea what we look like to the rest of the world. We are the new bloodthirsty barbarians of the world, the pariahs, our name stained forever and there’s no Ella Travels and teams of assistants from Kohelet can sort it out.”
For those who don’t know, Ella Travels is the private Hasbara initiative of a woman by the name of Ella Keinan, who used to write a travel blog, but found herself at a loose end when the war broke out and enlisted in Israel advocacy around in the world. There are similarities between marketing trips & magical destinations replete with a perfect atmosphere, and Hasbara. But these days running Hasbara for what Israel is doing in Gaza is as moral as doing public relations for opioids.
What’s interesting is that the response to my tweet was an all-encompassing range, running across the spectrum. Among Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponents, I was attacked by senior journalists, a former politician and activists. Among Netanyahu’s supporters, they were led by senior Channel 14 personalities. On the right and the left, people competed with each other over who would attack me more for stating simple facts: A catastrophe is happening in Gaza. More than 50 per cent of those killed, not including those who die of starvation, are civilians. And so I realised once again that those who mention the facts and those who describe reality are sometimes perceived by the public, especially in times of war, as being almost as dangerous and hostile as external enemies. If you want to understand the power of suggestive denial it’s sufficient to recall how, just a month ago, any person who said what everyone says openly today, that Netanyahu does not want to bring back the abductees, was savaged.
“Aspects of deception, self-deception, image-making, ideologising, and defactualisation,” Hannah Arendt wrote of the Pentagon Papers, but they are not unique to the Vietnam War. The Second Bush War and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were also conducted behind an incomprehensible veil of lies. Democratic regimes that embark on long, aimless, wars which are costly in human lives are engaged in creating an image of a successful war — and the war in Gaza is no exception. Even though it began a murderous act of terror within Israel’s borders and therefore won justified global sympathy, it also exposed an inconceivable military and political failure.
It is no coincidence that questions about the goals of the war and the place of the abductees in the order of priorities are not being answered. The political-security cabinet includes people who were Chiefs-of-Staff during the “conceptzia” period, a prime minister who’s shirking his responsibility, and guilt-ridden defence-establishment head honchoes who would have given anything to turn the clock back.
The need of all those involved to save their damaged dignity is part of the military amuck that is being flogged to the public as a necessary evil. Each time, the next thing pops up that will change the equation forever. Today it’s Rafah, soon it may be a war with Hezbollah. Meanwhile, unnamed officials say that the number of abductees is “diminishing”. Hamas announced this month that six abductees had been killed in captivity but, using the excuse of not cooperating with psychological warfare, we ignores this. And now everyone is already voluntarily enslaved to a huge PR stunt about the success of the war and is swallowing this knowingly and happily. But the truth is that we lost.
