The news about Arab truth--and Arab fiction

After the 50-day Gaza-Israel war that ended on August 26, 2014, the nations of the world did two things. First, they promised to ‘investigate’ Israel for ‘war crimes’; and, second, they promised to help Gaza rebuild.

Both promises have, at least for now, been shelved.

The call to investigate Israel got a lot of press. Then it fell off the table. Will it come back? You’ll have to wait.

You’ll also have to wait to see Gaza get any help. Of course, at first, lots of nations promised Gaza billions. Then they promised hundreds of millions. Now, more than two months since that war ended, Gaza still has nothing.

Tens of thousands are still displaced. In the parts of Gaza Israel attacked, food is difficult to find. Water and electricity are in short supply. There’s no sign of rebuilding anywhere. Virtually nothing has been done—nothing.

The nations of the world had wrung their hands for Gaza. They made big promises. But life in Gaza remains shattered, perhaps even hopeless (“Hating Hamas: Life in post-war Gaza”, The Week, October 26, 2014).

As a result, Hamas today seems widely loathed in Gaza (The Week, ibid)—for good reason. Hamas doesn’t help anyone.

Because of Hamas propaganda, Gazans had believed they’d win this war. Now, they know better.

Life didn’t get better, as Hamas had promised (ibid). It got a lot worse.  

There’s a growing feeling in Gaza that Hamas’ strategy of daily rocket-fire into Israel’s civilian population wasn’t such a smart idea (ibid). Surrounded by incredible destruction, Gazan resentment against Hamas seems to be building (ibid).

Part of this resentment comes from the truce Hamas signed with Israel on August 26, 2014. That truce gave Hamas the same terms that an Egyptian truce had offered some 42 days before—when the Gazan death toll was closer to 20, not the final 2,100 (ibid).

Gazans remember that. The war against Israel had been ‘sold’ to them as a good war. But the war brought them only destruction—and a civil war.

Gazans felt the brunt of Israel’s response to Hamas attacks. They also saw fighting between ‘Palestinian’ factions (ibid). There was open war between Hamas, Fatah and other anti-Israel groups struggling for supremacy. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, were killed.

During and after the war, Hamas officials roamed the streets shooting (and arresting) Fatah members, then claiming those they killed to be civilian casualties of Israel’s ‘aggression’. That violence did nothing to make life easier for Gazans. It made life more brutal.

This undeclared civil war did nothing to help Gazans. It just added misery to shattered lives.

But if Hamas is indeed ‘widely loathed’ (ibid), Arab propaganda gives Hamas a boost (ibid): a rosy public opinion poll shows increasing support for Hamas and an increasing call for war against Israel ((“Forget the ‘peace process,’ Palestinians need reform”, Washington Post, October 28, 2014). This new poll in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority territories shows that 57 percent of those polled claimed that Hamas was victorious. 53% claimed the recent war aided the interests of the ‘Palestinian’ people (ibid). Finally, support for military action against Israel rose from 31.5 per cent before the 50-day war to 42.7 per cent in the new survey (ibid).

For this Washington Post essay, the poll demonstrates how decades of anti-Semitic propaganda have distorted the ‘Palestinian’ world-view (ibid). Thanks to a ceaseless propaganda barrage and a censorship of outside news, ‘Palestinians’ continue to deny fact (Hamas’s defeat) in order to promote fiction (together, we will destroy Israel).  

The Post writer blames the West for this state of affairs. The West doesn’t demand that ‘Palestinians’ build a civil society. It doesn’t demand reforms. It doesn’t demand a free press (ibid). Instead, it enables the Arab fiction that the only reason there’s no peace is because Israel prevents it (ibid).

This Post essay says, don’t believe it. You can’t build a peace-oriented society on a fiction of war and hate. Peace can only be built on fact, and the fact is, when you look at the repression used by both Hamas and Fatah, and consider the impact of their propaganda on their own people, you realize that peace with Israel is virtually impossible (ibid). Arab leaders have never given their people the chance to consider peace. All Arabs get is a diet of war.

Israel isn’t the problem. Arab propaganda is (ibid).

The war that was built on a fiction of hate didn’t bring the Arab peace. It brought devastation.

Everyone ignores that reality. They ignore the truth. They prefer a fiction of war and hate.

The G-d of Israel has a Story for you. It’s the unfolding Story of the Final Jewish Redemption. Do you think the fictions of Arab propaganda will play a role in that Story?

Stay tuned. The G-d of Israel won’t disappoint you.