In the spring of 1945, Italy’s most famous newspaper editor was gunned down, mere days before a controversial Austrian newspaper owner and artist died by gunshot at point-blank range.
I suppose there are better ways to describe the deaths of Mussolini and Hitler, but in the year 2025 this would likely be the more common path media would take.
In fact, I shudder to think how the war effort might have gone had either of those men worn a vest that said PRESS.
The point is not to compare the crimes of the Hamas men who wear press vests to those of Mussolini or Hitler—although the most recent press-vest-wearing terrorist figure to be eliminated in an IDF strike was a massive public enthusiast of the Nazis’ tactics and held a fairly similar ideology—but to highlight the creativity of the propagandists in the press. “9 hours and the heroes are still roaming the country killing and capturing.… God, God how great you are [heart emoji, heart emoji, heart emoji],” posted Anas al-Sharif, the man whose name appears on several Hamas rosters that were reportedly discovered by the IDF in Gaza. Can you guess the date on that post? Of course you can: It’s Oct. 7, 2023.
There’s been a lot of talk recently about how Israel is badly losing the propaganda war. And I don’t necessarily disagree. But I’m just not sure how Israel would turn it around: Have IDF soldiers wear press vests? Ultimately the challenge here is that the world contains a great many people who want to see the state of Israel destroyed, or at least defeated. And that’s why they pretend that anybody with a press vest is a journalist. They don’t care what happens to random journalists, they care what happens to Hamas.
Sharif worked for Al Jazeera, which doesn’t necessarily mean he wasn’t a journalist—surely Al Jazeera has unknowingly hired a journalist here or there. What makes him not a journalist is that he wasn’t a journalist. Earlier in the war, Israeli hostages were held in Gaza by a journalist and his family. I hate to have to spell this out, but: A person who holds hostages in the conflict he “covers” is also not a journalist. I have been known to dress up as Tom Petty for Purim, but not once has that actually made me Tom Petty.
Just as recognizing a Palestinian state does not make a Palestinian state suddenly appear. It may be a boon to the people dressing up as the Palestinian state, though.
Is an NGO or some other nonstate entity a “humanitarian” organization because it calls itself humanitarian? Over the weekend there was some excitement in the anti-Israel world over an open letter written by French self-described experts in international law, which made two pretty wild points: that Israel did not have the legal right of self-defense after Oct. 7, and that Israel’s “genocidal intent” toward Gazans was made clear when someone in Israel proposed a “humanitarian city” for Palestinians civilians that was never actually pursued. I’m sure these folks have university degrees in their chosen industry, but not a single person who signs a letter like this is an “expert” in anything except signing their own name.
The propaganda debate over the war is reminiscent of MSNBC’s Joy Reid once explaining that “The enemy of the far-right, in their own words, are Antifa, meaning anti-fascist. So, they are anti-anti-fascist by their own reckoning.” If you oppose a group called anti-fascist, you are a fascist. Magnify this galactic stupidity by a thousand and you have something like what Israel is facing in the international media.
What if we call the Hamas government’s police forces the “Gaza civil police”? Then the UN can argue its trucks are being guarded by legions of people like Dwight from The Office, who boasted of his status as a Lackawanna County volunteer sheriff’s deputy.
And where do you go when you need some solid medical or hospital information? May I suggest the Gaza Health Ministry? The ministry is not affiliated with Hamas because, as you can see, the word Hamas appears nowhere in its name.
Is there a single person on earth in a position of power and influence who actually believes any of this? Of course not. And that is the problem with the propaganda war. Someone who cites the “Gaza Health Ministry” is not someone who has been fooled by one side; it is someone who has chosen one side. There’s no question at all that Israel could stand to improve its response time in providing the real story behind whatever nonsense is leading, say, the Guardian on any given day. But one must also remember why someone would read the Guardian for its Mideast war reporting in the first place.
