MILITARILY, there is no match between the Israeli war machine, and the defenceless people of Gaza. On one side is a racist colonial settler state, propped up by billions of dollars in aid provided by the world’s most powerful country, and applauded for its butchery by many in the Western bloc as part of its right to ‘self-defence’. Israel has one of the most savage war machines on the planet and is known to be a clandestine nuclear power which uses top-tier technology in the military sphere to give itself a qualitative edge. On the other side are two million Gazans, bloodied, bruised and barely alive after nearly two months of a vicious assault. Most are living in poverty, unable to properly feed their families thanks to the siege enforced by Israel since 2007. This cruel blockade has only been tightened after the Oct 7 events. In the name of crushing Hamas, Israel has butchered over 15,000 men, women and children in Gaza, while also unleashing a reign of terror in the occupied West Bank. However, while Tel Aviv may be advancing on the battlefield, the war of narratives is being won by the Palestinians.
When Israel mutilates children, assaults hospitals and refugee camps, and cuts off food, water and power to civilians, every person of conscience can identify who the aggressor is, and who the oppressed are. When Israeli officials term Palestinians ‘animals’, and champion the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, a large swathe of the world is able to cut through the spin in the mainstream Western media that terms Israel a ‘bastion’ of civilisation, and see modern barbarism in its most ferocious form. Thanks to non-Western media sources, particularly the courageous Palestinian journalists who have paid with their lives to tell their story, as well as numerous credible social media accounts, Israel’s spin doctors have suffered badly in the war of narratives.
Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2023
