Iran’s Attack on Israel
8 min read
Confronting the unending stream of misinformation with essential facts.
As Israel's war with Hamas progresses, new false assertions about Israel’s behavior and the war’s progress arise. Here are four big recent myths and facts about what is truly going on.
Israeli investigators have been documenting a systematic campaign of brutal rapes carried out by Hamas against Israeli women on October 7. Over a thousand testimonies and 66,000 video clips paint a picture of widespread, systematic sexual violence, as well as other instances of torture, dismemberment, and mutilation.
But that hasn’t stopped the myth that Hamas carried out no rapes from being spread. For example, two Canadian politicians – Susan Kim, a city councilor in Victoria, and Sarah Jama, an MP in Ontario’s Provincial Parliament – claimed that accusations of rape are “unverified.” Ms. Jama also asserted “there is no actual evidence of these rapes and the babies with their heads cut off - all these things are pieces of misinformation.” Their letter was signed by a host of Canadian human rights organizations and the director of the sexual assault center at the University of Alberta.
Those who wish to read first person accounts of Hamas’ sexual violence can do so here. Foreign outlets such as PBS have conducted extensive interviews with survivors of Hamas’ attacks and have found that rape was an integral part of the attacks. The sheer scale of corroborating accounts indicates that the thousands of victims and witnesses who described Hamas’ atrocities are telling the truth.
The myth that civilians are Israel’s main targets are women, children, or other groups of civilians – not Hamas terrorists – is gaining traction around the world. Resulting memes include pictures of graves in Gaza alongside pictures of mass graves in Nazi death camps, and placards equating a Jewish star with a Swastika. The accusations affect Jewish communities around the world. A synagogue in Seattle was defaced with anti-Israel graffiti demanding: “Stop the killing.”
In reality, Israel has articulated that it has two military aims in Gaza: freeing Israel’s 240 hostages being held by Hamas, and destroying Hamas’ leadership. If anyone is putting Gaza’s women and children at risk, it’s Hamas, which locates its military centers in hospitals, schools, mosques, and residential apartment buildings and has been fighting fiercely from those civilian sites for weeks.
NATO documents Hamas’ cynical use of its own people as human shields as far back as nine years ago, reporting: “Hamas most common uses of human shields include: Firing rockets, artillery, and mortars from…heavily populated civilian areas…(e.g. Schools, hospitals, or mosques)....” “If the IDF [Israeli military] uses lethal forces and causes an increase in civilian casualties, Hamas can utilise that as a lawfare tool: it can accuse Israel of committing war crimes….”
Civilian suffering in Gaza is real. Yet the ultimate blame lays with Hamas, which steals aid from its people, refuses to allow civilians access to its 500 km of sophisticated underground tunnels and supplies , and is only strengthened by the world’s condemnation of Israel.
The myth that Israel’s goal is creating misery for Gaza’s civilians is enabled by the fact that Western media outlets almost never discuss Israel’s military achievements, dwelling instead on tales of individual civilian suffering in Gaza, making it seem that Israel has no military aims at all and is instead focused on “revenge” or “collective punishment” of civilians. In fact, Israel has made significant progress in its military aims.
Ten of Hamas’ 24 battalions (which October 7 each numbered in the vicinity of 1,000 soldiers) are no longer operational. Israel estimates it has killed approximately 5,000 Hamas combatants, and has captured several of Hamas’ rocket launching sites in Gaza City. Hamas is still sending regular long-range missiles into Israeli civilian centers (another fact that’s seldom reported in the West), but after weeks of fighting, their capabilities are eroded. “Today we are talking about a salvo of four or five rockets every three days” into Israeli cities and towns, explains Zvika Haimovich, a former Israeli Air Defense Forces commander. “”In the first two weeks (of the war), it was a salvo every four or five hours. It’s a huge difference.”
The myth that Hamas is deeply unpopular in Gaza has been surging in recent weeks. The reality is more nuanced. Hamas was popularly elected to run Gaza (and the West Bank, which later rebelled and voided the results) in 2006. In the years since, support for the group - which is designated a terrorist organization by the US, EU and others - has fluctuated. A poll conducted by Arab Barometer and concluded the day before Hamas’ devastating October 7 attack found that only about a quarter of ordinary Gazans showed enthusiastic support for Hamas. Respondents reported they were tired of Hamas’ corruption, theft off of aid money, incompetence, and autocracy.
Yet Hamas was able to amass an army estimated to number about 40,000 (numbers vary). When Hamas fighters brought back approximately 240 Israeli hostages, large crowds in Gaza (as well as the West Bank and elsewhere) gathered to cheer them on, dancing, playing music, firing guns into the air in celebration, and passing out candies.
Since October 7, Hamas’ popularity in Gaza and elsewhere has soared. A poll released on November 14 by the Arab World Research and Development Group (AWRAD) found that 64% of Gaza residents reported supporting Hamas even “extremely” or “somewhat” strongly. 75% supported Hamas’ October 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis.
The war in Gaza has disrupted the lives of virtually every resident there; many innocent civilians have been killed and injured in Israel’s attacks on Hamas targets. Each and every civilian death is a tragedy. The statistics being provided by Gazan officials about the number of people who are killed and injured is likely unmoored from reality. Every official in Gaza lives in fear of Hamas; every single statistic given by Gaza’s Health Ministry is a statement that was disseminated direct by Hamas.
Even ostensibly independent actors aren’t free to speak their mind. Take the case of Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the head of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. During Israel’s attack on the hospital, which Israeli intelligence named as Hamas’ command and control center, Dr. Salmiya was a frequent subject of sympathetic interviews with foreign news agencies, claiming that his hospital had no links to Hamas. Yet Israeli troops found evidence that Hamas used the hospital as a base, and discovered CCTV footage of Hamas terrorists bringing Israeli hostages into the hospital. The bodies of two Israeli hostages were recovered from the hospital’s grounds.
On November 22, Israeli forces arrested Dr. Salmiya as he tried to flee to southern Gaza and charged him with operating a Hamas center out of the hospital, with a network of doctors who cooperated with the terror group.
Veteran journalist Bret Stephens described the near impossibility of gaining accurate statistics from Gaza. “Western audiences will never grasp the nature of the current conflict until they internalize one central fact. In Israel…journalists…tell the stories they want to tell, and don’t live in fear of midnight knocks on the door. The Palestinian territories, by contrast, are republics of fear…. Palestinians are neither more nor less honest than people elsewhere. But, as in any tyrannical or fanatical regime, those who stray from the approved line put themselves at serious risk.”
Stephens refers to a 2009 article by the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera for a sense of how inflated Hamas death toll numbers are. In the midst of another military conflict between Israel and Hamas that year, Hamas said 1,400 Palestinians had been killed, mostly civilians. A doctor in Al-Shifa Hospital secretly told an Italian journalist that these numbers were made up: “The number of deceased stands at no more than 500 to 600. Most of them are youths between the ages of 17 to 23 who were recruited to the ranks of Hamas, who sent them to the slaughter.” The newspaper noted “The doctor wished to remain unidentified, out of fear for his life.”
There are two wars going on right now. One is the physical one Israel is waging against Hamas. The other is the spread of damaging myths about the Jewish state.
When you see or hear falsehoods, speak up. On social media, remember that the goal isn’t to convince dedicated anti-Zionists, but to post accurate information and links to reliable news sources for a wider audience to see. On news sites, comment when you see biased reporting; write letters to your local news outlets when you see something inaccurate. Educate yourself too. Read online news sources from Israel. Become the voice of reason in your social, school, and work environments, offering an intelligent take on the news and some of the smears and slanders that are being directed against Israel.
very informative and important article. like the author, I too believe that we as individuals have the power to influence others by sharing reliable and sane reporting
Tell me what you accuse the Jews of, and I shall tell you what you are guilty of.
Exactly!
But what if I am not accusing the jews, but the actions of the politicians in charge of the state of Israel? Why does every accusation of Israeli politicians have to be anti-semitic if it includes no undertones of tropes or attack on them because of their religion?
Do Jewish Organizations have a Public Relations wing to counter these myths. Individuals correcting myths are find but I think that we need an organization to take this on in a big way. Is there such an organization in Israel? Is there one in Canada? Is there one in the U.S.?
the sexual assault director at U of A was fired, IMO, too many middle eastern immigrants
Thank you, as always, for your important, helpful and precise information.
Of course, anyone can choose to deny facts and the truth and to create a new, safer or convenient reality. A Fairytale narrative. I constantly remember the words of the great Golda Meir: "When the Arabs will love their own children as much as they hate our Jewish children, there will be peace.
The BIGGEST myth, not mentionned in the article, is that the death and destruction is all Israel's fault, rather than due to Hamas hiding under /near these places, using civilians as human shields and thereby turning these places into legitimate military targets
could not more agree with you!
I have watched how the IDF has sent various messages to the people in the north to move out of the areas they plan to bomb Tell me of any other military that would do this. The media has spread lies for example the bomb that Hamas dropped in front of the hospital. Did you ever hear of a retraction of their report What kind of savages put their own people in an area they launch rockets from or celebrate when babies are beheaded and civilians slaughtered?? How can you advocate having a 2 state solution with people whose stated goal in life is to kill you??
no; wipe out Hamas is different than Palestinians.
Ironically, the “2 state solution” has been in effect since 1995, when the PA took over the “West Bank”, while since 2006 there are TWO Palestinian “states” - PA & Gaza - to one Israel.
Only, as you pointed out, neither conducted itself as a State, but as vast terrorist training camps and bases for attacks on Israel.
If they ask palestinians to evacuate to the south then bomb the south, where is the logic in that?
I speak up when lies and untruths are spread. We Jews HAVE to. I appreciate this article and was happy to know that I was aware of all of the myths.
Rather than confronting the non-Jewish world, we first have to win over those legions of Jews who are calling for a cease fire, or who've actually taken part in pro-Palestinian protests!
You're referring to liberals and leftists who have an agenda that doesn't include the truth!
Sadly, we learn that at the end of days the righteous of the nations will see the truth and react positively to it; however, the "eirav rav" among the Jews will be destroyed forever.
So wrong!
Your response reveals just how clever you are -- exactly like the IQ of the pictured animal next to your name!
GREAT!
Yes I've been telling everyone that the Hamas are fabricating stories about the IDF killings and the numbers of deaths caused by IDF untrue. The are the same as Putin spreading lies and misinformation on Russian TV. I am fully aware of their misinformation and social media is to blame.
So what constitutes unbiased or at least neutral and balanced news sources to use to counter false information? Israeli papers or IDF spokesperson sources will all be disparaged as having a bias towards Israel. What would anyone accept as “true or factual” from the other side?
Excellent question!
We need to stop to define Jordanian Arabs as Palestinians. Once we strip this term from them, they will be nothing. Palestine was, is and going to be the land of Jews. Look at their flag, it's the same as Jordanian Flag, so we should call them Jordanian vagrants, just Arabs or Hamasans.
Indeed, "Palestinian" is a misnomer. The name Palestine was adapted from the ancient land of Philistia whose inhabitants. the Philistines (who were not Arabs), no longer exist; it's the same fate that will meet all of Israel's enemies, b'ez"H!
Agreed. Those in Gaza are now started to be called Gazans by outside media, which is making them less "Palestinians" in foreign eyes and more just another group of Arabs with their own nation (albeit in limbo at present). We need the rest of the world to recognize that those Arabs who colonized Judea/Samaria are nothing other than South Syrians and Jordanians.
This week, CNN stated that the civilian death toll in Gaza had reached 20,000. We are never given the source of this information, other than to indicate that it came from Hamas. Enough said.