ISRAEL AND PALESTINE ON SCREENS

    It was in 2010 when the 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti and we began to understand the social impact of a global village. The language of the screen, digitisation, the internet and technological innovation made it possible for us to share experiences almost as it happened and as a collective that went beyond a BBC news broadcast. Most of us would have a recall or memory of what happened and how we felt. 

This week the world saw images of destruction and force as the Israel-Palestine situation seemed to explode on our devices. Together we faced a fear of war. But this was different because many people felt torn with the reports and images posted on social media and carried on mainstream media. As the war continues, I feel like I am waging a war myself.

Generally a lot of people are not sure how to feel when there are issues concerning Israel and the Middle East. It is enough to tire anyone out. It is a lot to process particularly when the truth seems to be running from us or seems to be covered under a lot of garbage. Our world is already filled with so much untruths and half-truths. Like many others I feel distrust in the media, leaders and systems. 

I will present here the reasons why the images presented to us, created a strong sense of conflict. I am hopeful that social media or more generally digitisation, is allowing for a more democratic assessment of events. I will also show that the election process plays a role in exposing differing sides of issues. Here are the issues that I discuss as seen on the screens:

• Was there anything different in the reaction of key players to the Arab Cause? 
• Fake news
• Jerusalem is a stumbling block for many 
• The use of people by government as pawns and shields

THE ARAB CAUSE

In order to look at what we saw on the traditional and new media screens we have to establish a starting point or contextualise the events of the first two weeks in May. We saw the usual images commonly seen in war. We saw the burials of fallen heroes. But what else did we see? In times past the Arab world revolved around the Palestinian cause. 

The case for Palestine has been covered on many platforms and can be accessed globally on the internet; Palestine’s independence, Palestine’s claims on Jerusalem, Hamas’s hold in Gaza.  Many people can research the issues and decide for themselves independent of the news reporters but sadly they will not. There is a growing tendency among people to simply accept the popular view as truth. Most will not understand that the algorithms can be and are manipulated.

The Abraham Accord. This was Donald Trump's baby. Since it is not a conservative government the USA will not acknowledge the success of it making a difference. In fact they have decided not to mention the agreement at all. But things are definitely different for the Arab cause as the Abrahamic Accord was signed by a number of Middle Eastern countries (Bahrain, Morocco, UAE, and Sudan). Israel has had some support from Saudi Arabia (recently and temporarily) and had come to an understanding with Jordan since 1994. 

Falling Economies. The economic effect of mismanaged economies and of the impact of Covid-19 makes other nations think twice about getting involved. Added to this, it has been a while since they saw Israel retaliate with such force. Can they afford to commit political suicide by involving a strained or fallen economy in a possible war? This question was addressed on social media by a Syrian politician. 

International Agendas. The Arab world leaders have had experience with the likes of President Abbas and with Iran.  The world watched Israel change the skyline for Gaza on social media and mainstream media Turkey reached out to Russia to intervene. Was it for the brotherhood of Islam or was it because of Erdogan’s ambitions to look like a peace maker? On May 12^th, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov responded with a request for the reinstatement of the quartet. This quartet would include the USA and it had been dormant for years.

The Progressive Agenda. Most people will not understand the differences in the current situation in the Middle East because they will not be shown a new narrative. The one that they will see will support the progressive agenda. It will be pro-Iranian and pro-Palestinian. This is an Obama agenda.  Additionally, by progressive I do not refer to USA only. Unfortunately this has spread to different countries as well. The widespread support for Black Lives Matter shows this.

President Joe Biden said that the Israeli-Palestine conflict had to be resolved locally. How can the USA be involved if they are planning to fund Iran? This is another Obama trait. The progressive supporters were so confused they rallied against President Biden's decision for the USA to take a definitive stand against the Israeli government.

The Marketing Strategy. In this conflict we can see social media is being used as part of the strategy against Israel. This was done before. It came from different angles as a strategy or onslaught. This marketing strategy included videos posted on Tik Tok taunting the UAE for being friends of Israel. 

Prior to this attack on Israel, Saudi Arabia said that they saw Israel as a solution to Middle East problems. Despite Israel’s firm response to Hamas, Saudi Arabia did not rush to the Arab cause of Palestine’s ‘freedom’. Did they know that many of the scenes posted online by Hamas and Palestine were staged? Did they know that Hamas had a plan all along to create a situation? 

During the month of Ramadan the youth groups in Palestine were told to start random acts of provocation with Jews. They started by randomly beating up on Jews. Then they would escalate it as Israel taking advantage of them in the third most holy mosque. This they did. They piled up stones, rocks and boards and waited for the signal to stage scenes where the Israeli police would have to respond.  The Middle East countries already knew these tactics and did not fall for it. Furthermore, they were tired of Hamas.

 An Orthodox Jew beaten at Damascus gate in Israel by Arabs.

                The scene carried by the media. 

All this was during fasting month. Additionally they were using a holy place to incite violence. Not to mention to lie and deceive. When Israel responded to them the cameras came out. Who would cast the first stone? In this case it was not Israel, but respond they did.

 

The Iranian Influence. While the rest of the world was fed with lies. The rest of the ME knew what was really going on. Iran did send for proxies in Lebanon and Iraq. But any further involvement from Iran would not go well for them.  Iran is suffering its people to pay proxies.  Iran had strong armed Singapore to agree to release funds held due to sanctions.  According to a report it was Iran that was behind the recent attacks on Israel. Iran made calls to kill every Jew in sight and gave orders to Hamas.

 

Iran bought arms for them and incited the people.  Iran rushing to look like the saviour would not work, the ‘cat is out of the bag’ it was all a ploy to get revenge for the killing of General Quasem Soleimani, an Iranian Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (terrorist group). The interview carried on local television in Palestine revealed the truth. It took ‘spilling ones guts’ to another level. But the assassination was a joint effort between America, Israel and Kurdistan. Here is a reason for America to get involved but they simply said that Israel should exercise restraint. 

FAKE NEWS

 

Popularity and the screen, impacts decisions. In fact this was the concern when the first parliamentary meeting was televised. In this recent Israel-Palestine conflict, some people were ready and knew what to look for and where. This is how I can use examples now to show you how fake news or disinformation is used as a marketing strategy. 

For years now I have read reports about political bias seen in the BBC. And I do pick on BBC because they are still seen as leaders in truthful reporting. More and more I have observed cheap tardy tricks used by the media in general. It starts with sensationalism and click bait. It continues with the editor's bias or that of the owner of the media house. Sometimes it is the main investors or advertisers. 

How It Works. An article can start with facts but the writer discretely inserts an opinion that is clearly subjective. All it takes is one sentence on a key issue. When people do not know how to research or want to research they are prey to fake news and disinformation. Disinformation involves influencing people with propaganda. Click here to read more on this.

 

Video showing the burning of a synagogue near Tel Aviv turned up on social media. This was on May 9^th. Arab businesses have lost the trust of the Jewish people. The justification is that the Palestinians are so oppressed by Jews that they retaliate. The strategy is to reach out to the anti-semitics and the agnostics, the strongholds in different countries who will put pressure on governments to respond. There were many protests worldwide.

        

While the information is accessible and available, many people prefer to be told. The strength of social media is in the herd mentality.  Many people are caught and held hostage by the word ‘freedom’. The rallying cry as was in the past is ‘Free Palestine’ except this time it is with more hashtags. It even ‘piggy backed’ and competed with the  Afghanistan cause on social media. 

How do you feel when someone relates a story to you and adds ‘I have a right…’, or ‘I am free to…’? Automatically my brain goes into activist mode but then I start using my personal checks and balances. Some time ago I recognised that there is a thing called emotional hijacking. In marketing and on television, and film, the emotion is provoked and this is how success is measured. Feeling will cause an action. Believe it or not, marketing is about creating or provoking a response from the public. That response is buy-in.

 

The Truth Came Out. It was normal practise for Iran and Palestine to post images about the freedom for Palestine but this time their were other images popping up on social media giving support to Israel from other countries, individuals and organisations. Some of the images presented on video and stills were captured to show beauty and patriotism in the situation.

Social media platforms like Tik Tok showed posts of how Palestinians were staging scenes to discredit Israel. But the progressive agenda cannot allow the truth to be known. The mainstream media is unrepentant. Instead of being angry that they were used to spread false media and do retractions and apologies, they continued the disinformation. They even took part in staging fake riots in Israel.

There is a saying that once it is digitised it cannot be contained or kept secret. Politics and religion cannot prevent this collective desire to relate and share moments. Not even lockdown and covid-19. Hence why a few governments are blocking all internet activities during the time of elections. 

     

There is a saying, what is done in darkness comes to light. The narrative that we are told is that the Palestinians are oppressed by Israel. But in most cases it is the Palestinians themselves exposing the farce. The videos of how the scenes were produced were sometimes quite funny.

              

The flyer of Hamas at the Al Aqsa mosque is proof that Hamas is taking responsibility for the fight. This was not a scene where the Israeli Defence Force randomly took advantage of Palestinians. In 1967 Israel took back Jerusalem while defending itself from an attack. This would be celebrated every year on May 9th and 10th. It was when the attacks started to affect the festivities of the Jewish people that things started to escalate. 

None of the attacks by the Palestinians were because they wanted freedom. It was not random attacks by Israel either. Palestine did not expect for it to provoke such a response from the Israeli side. Since 2014 Israel has been very restrained in its response to their attempts at disruption.

JERUSALEM THE STUMBLING BLOCK

President Abbas called for election in November 2020.  Palestine had not seen an election in more than a decade. But when Hamas’s popularity seemed to be more in Palestine, the President realised that he could lose the elections. He distracted the people with the rallying cry that they cannot be truly free to have elections until Jerusalem is Palestinian. The images of the people in the streets responding with support can be found on social media. The focus was thrown on Jerusalem. Israel as usual gets the blame for everything.

 

Hamas with Iranian support saw opportunity. Although Hamas controlled Gaza they wanted Palestine and leading a charge to take Jerusalem would give them that chance. Iran had an upcoming election as well. The death of Quasem Soleimani was a blow to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The destruction of the Natanz uranium enrichment plant was another blow to their plans and to their pride. Riots brought on by hardship and disappointment in the Ayatollah regime did not help. It was looking like a bleak future for Hezbollah.

The USA just changed its guard through an elections that is very controversial. It is uncanny how President Joe Biden immediately made pro-Iranian decisions.  The Houthis in Yemen were no longer listed as terrorists. By February 5th, 2021 former governor of Jericho, Amir Tsarfati noted the following since Biden became President:

• Iran expanded its terror infrastructures and its military grade uranium enrichment 
• Saudi Arabia was scolded for fighting a terror group that launches missiles at their cities on weekly basis 
• The sale of F35 to the United Aran Emirates was suspended 
• Palestine is now recognized as a state by the illegal international criminal court 
• Israel isn’t mentioned even once in Biden’s foreign policy speech! Biden hasn’t called Netanyahu yet.

Added to this, state department in USA has not allowed staff to refer to the Abraham Accord, the only working peace deal in the ME. 

Israel had elections and Benjamin Netanyahu’s seats are not enough to form a government. With widespread distrust of Arabs in Israel, we have yet to see how his reign will be affected. However, it is as stated by Amir Tsarfati now head of NGO 'Behold Israel', a 'convergence' of many factors provoking Israel into striking Gaza. 

Hopefully there will not be a 'deconvergence' in response. I suggest that Hamas and Iran planned around the perceived weakness in the situation for both leaders in their respective positions. Israel with a strong leader but weak situation, USA as a weak ally to Israel, and USA growing weak as a superpower.

 

THE HUMAN SHIELD

 

A tribunal was set up in Malaysia for Israel to answer for the harsh and inhuman attack on Gaza in 2014. It did not include the reason that Israel responded the way it did. The western world and part of Europe will not understand what it is like to live with an enemy who uses its own people for body counts or shields.

 

I remember the 2014 war. But the facts were not presented to me from a pro-Israeli perspective nor was it from an unbiased report. Later on I researched and found out that Israel intercepted 735 rockets fired from Gaza. Both UN and Palestinian sources claimed that 72-84 % of the Palestinians killed were civilians. Israel claimed it was less than 50%. This can be supported by evidence that Israel hit targets with such precision that it was mainly within two miles of the Israeli border. This was verified and applauded by America.

 

Israel had accepted the Egyptian proposal of July 15 for a cease fire. Hamas would not accept it until August 27. By then an additional 1800 Palestinians died. Social media and news stories did not portray this picture. Instead to sell and attract more eyeballs they scandalised Israel. They did not promote the fact that there were many tunnels dug under the border with Israel. Nor did they publish widely, stories on how Hamas takes over homes and civilian buildings using the families and civilians as protection. There are many posts claiming the death of young children that are fake. This is truly a betrayal of trust by other Muslims.

 

The tactics employed by Israel are not known to be done by other countries. Israel calls and tells the security guard at the civilian building to get everyone out before they bomb it. In 2014 Israel did notify the area that they would be bombing and advised them to evacuate. Also, Israel uses the ‘knock on rooftop’ method in which it sends a baby rocket to tap on the roof of a civilian building to let them know that they are going to be hit before they actually destroy the building. 

 

The buildings are used to house and set up Hamas and other terrorist activities against Israel. They are near to schools and hospitals. Similarly, civilian casualties in Gaza in this past week have been mostly due to rockets sent out from Gaza but falling in Gaza. I suspect this is to add a body count. 200 rockets from Gaza fell in Gaza. Mainstream media will not use this as a headline. 

 

On May 14 at 1:28 am I did a search for this article. It was the reason why Israel hit Gaza in 2014. Also, it can be a general search that is specific to Israel. However the top two stories that come up on Microsoft Bing is about Palestine. Investigations on Israel concerning the Gaza bombings do not include the initial reason why Israel took on an offensive or rather a defensive mode to protect its people. 

 

 

Many supporters of Israel and organisations that are based in Israel have been complaining about social media platforms deleting the accounts of members.  Had I not known that this was the reason why Israel struck Gaza in 2014 I would not have known what to look for. The social media platforms have been accused of taking sides against Israel and on a number of other key topics rendering its role in ensuring the democratic availability of information and equality to all useless.  

 

There are many other viewpoints and facts that can be presented on this topic. Evidence is still presenting itself but mostly on social media. Israel and USA recently concluded elections but both are still not settled and conclusive. Palestine did the usual and made false promises to the people, Hamas did what Hamas does, meddle and manipulate this time for elections. Iran has elections due as well. The screens are giving us two narratives. Both narratives are for high stakes, land and votes. After hundreds of years the stories have not changed starting from Biblical times (Quran was written after). With the internet and the expectations of a global village, both sides are available for the world to see. The democratic process of the election ensures that the story is told on the screens and different lenses are used and different sectors are weighing in. But the responsibility fo the people is to look for the truth.

 

Thank you Behold Israel

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