Factbox: How Israeli regime designs its blatant lies for Western audiences

Shabbir Rizvi

If you can’t win them, fool them. This has been the flagship public relations strategy of the Israeli regime for decades, one that it has seemingly doubled down in the wake of the events of Oct 7.

However, this time around, the Israeli regime has overplayed its hand and has fumbled itself into walking back lies, deleting statements, or simply ignoring calls to explain its brazen lies.

The genocidal onslaught on the Gaza Strip has unmasked the Zionist colonial experiment. With over 12,000 dead already, more than half being women and children, the Israeli occupation has been subject to widespread condemnation and criticism worldwide.

This is forcing the colonial-settler regime to explain its actions as it conducts them, as public disgust from its main allies could threaten its image - and its future.

The West has always been the Zionist regime’s number one supporter. The United States uses Israel as an outpost for its own imperialist initiatives in Western Asia and North Africa.

In a sense, Tel Aviv regime acts as a 51st state, mirroring the inception of the first American colonies - a violent, settler-colonial formation that ethnically cleanses the indigenous population.

For the illegitimate Zionist state to continue existing, it must exert oppression not only over the Palestinians but over any of its neighbors that insist on supporting the Palestinian cause.

This brings up an inconvenience - for the regime to survive, it needs American backing. It needs it in the form of financial aid, military aid, but most importantly in the form of political support.

The political backing in the form of congressional resolutions, statements, and calls for support can only be deemed “legitimate” to the public eye if the public approves of the actions of the regime.

The Zionist regime does not need to convince the entire world that its horrific war crimes are legitimate. It only needs to convince a Western audience. Without this key ingredient, the Zionist entity loses the very little credibility it has - along with all financial and political backing.

The sly propaganda campaign is often conducted subtly, using photoshoots, exclusive photo opportunities for only Western media outlets, and broadcasting doctored images and false narratives on Western social media applications.

Let's examine this image, posted on the account of a Zionist official:

Zionist officials as well as Zionist networks claim these are medical supplies for the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, which the occupation army cowardly assaulted in hopes of finding a Hamas base (they have yet to produce any evidence of this).

If you put yourself in the shoes of a Westerner, this looks like an act of mercy. The Zionist entity appears to bring much-needed resources to the suffering people of Gaza. However, this is the exact image they want to create - that they are humanitarians.

Zionist outlets claim these supplies include things like incubators and other technological apparatuses. This is a strange thing to claim, as it is well-known that Gaza has a fuel shortage and little to no electricity.

So already, this claim does not make sense - or is a sick joke. But there is something specifically about the photograph usage itself that we cannot miss.

Let's dissect it. Why is “Medical Supplies” written in large font, in English, in the middle of Gaza?

Should it not be in Arabic, or at least Hebrew? Which doctor(s) in Al-Shifa are only speaking exclusively English? At this point, the text may as well be in Mandarin. Next, why haven’t any of the doctors from the hospital confirmed the contents and usefulness of this supposed aid?

So, one is to ask, who is this photo for, and what purpose does it serve?

The photo appeared first on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, and multiple Zionist outlets. Photos of the boxes did not appear on any independent account, nor were their contents confirmed - only statements by Zionist media and politicians declare the contents of the box.

It becomes clear that this is a photoshoot catered to a Western audience. It does not matter what is in those boxes.

There could be nothing in there. But the utility of the photograph serves the purpose of convincing a Western audience to look past the carnage conducted by the Zionist military - to trick them into thinking they are humanitarians, not occupiers.

So, on one front, we have the Zionist occupation manipulating reality to show themselves as humanitarians and moral to a Western audience. This is to justify their criminal onslaught of hospitals and other civilian populated areas.

On the next front, we see the Zionist media blatantly lying, hoping no one questions them.

Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari posted a video of an Israeli soldier inspecting what they claim is an area where hostages were being held within a hospital.

The soldier points to a chart on the wall that contains dates with some Arabic lettering.

He then claims that the Arabic on the chart are the names of “Hamas fighters” and that they used this chart to organize watchkeeping shifts over supposed hostages.

As confirmed by hundreds of netizens, these are in fact the days of the week. What the Israeli regime soldier is pointing to is not a chart of Hamas fighter shifts - it is a calendar.

Unfortunately, this video was broadcasted on various news networks like BBC, CNN, Fox News and more. On the social media front, one may be able to find comments that question the validity of these claims or make corrections.

On western news media outlets - which do not question the Zionist officials, but rather act as stenographers for them - these claims are taken for fact without any investigation.

Thousands to millions of people likely saw this footage and took this embarrassing, blatant lie as fact, simply because they do not know Arabic - and were easily manipulated.

Without any pushback from journalists, Zionist officials use Western media outlets as battering rams for their genocidal lines, in attempts to normalize their brutal violence on the Palestinian people.

Zionists rely on three major factors to maintain a hold over their Western audience: the ignorance of the audience allowing them to manipulate reality freely, their status quo as US allies allowing them to present themselves as “just,” and lack of investigation or perhaps wilful omission of investigation from Western media, who seemingly are the only ones who enjoy exclusive access to Israeli operations.

However, people are catching up to these lies. Not only are netizens exposing the fraudulent statements from Zionist officials in real-time, but independent organizations are also now stepping up to the plate to demand authentic evidence that is corroborated by on-the-ground Palestinian testimonials.

Here, the Israeli regime is suffering embarrassingly - they are too used to being taken word for word.

And now, they are scrambling. Multiple times, the occupation regime has deleted videos it claimed were concrete evidence of Hamas hospital operations when everyday people did their own investigation and concluded that the claims are based on staged photographs and fabrications.

Even Western outlets - which seemingly act as spokespeople of their own on behalf of the Israeli regime - are being forced to report on Israel’s walked backed statements and deleted videos.

Technological advancements and the ease of information transfer has stripped the occupation regime of the privilege of enjoying Western ignorance. Prior to these advancements, condemnation for the Zionist regime primarily existed within the so-called global south.

This time around, things have changed. The images and videos coming from Gaza have invoked sadness, disgust, and horror in the western public sphere - which has typically stood by the Zionist regime for decades, often repeating Zionist lies as facts.

Meanwhile, the Zionists cannot conjure up a shred of truth to back up their brazenly false claims.

It has reached a boiling point where in the United States alone, hundreds of thousands are marching every weekend for Palestine. Activists are shutting down offices, weapons manufacturing plants, roads and bridges.

Every lie exposed is serving as shovel’s worth of dirt in the grave of the colonial regime. The alternative? Israel shows its true face and leaves it up to humanity to decide. Either way, it loses.

Shabbir Rizvi is a Chicago-based political analyst with a focus on US internal security and foreign policy.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV)

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