Two essential aspects of the war against Palestine

In the issue of 24 June 2024 The guard published an exclusive editorial titled “Israeli Documents Reveal Extensive Government Efforts to Influence U.S. Discourse on Gaza War.” Reading this article left me feeling that the Israeli war against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, despite its horrific character and the unprecedented crimes committed by the Zionist apartheid entity, was neither confined to Palestinian geography nor limited to a brutal military campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Rather, it was also a carefully orchestrated and systematic war aimed at depriving Palestinians of even the right to human compassion for their suffering or a genuine understanding of their plight over more than seven decades. The apartheid regime not only led the criminal bombardment of the Gaza Strip’s population and infrastructure, but also waged a battle to prevent the white phosphorus dust from reaching the noses of those who wanted to smell the true smell of what was happening in Palestine. I felt that Zionist criminality exists in two parallel worlds that seem to be completely separate, although intertwined: a world of killing, extermination, starvation and suppression of all factors that could ensure livelihood, and a world of deception for which enormous budgets have been allocated, laws and strategies have been developed to ensure that criminals can continue to commit their crimes with impunity by controlling the media and buying the loyalty of politicians, journalists and celebrities.

I have often spoken about the power imbalance between a few besieged resistance fighters trapped on land, sea and air and a vicious military machine that has the latest tools of killing and destruction developed by the Zionist-aligned West. However, after reading this article, I felt that the imbalance is much wider and is not limited to the military aspect. It includes narratives, manipulation of public opinion and the suppression of any movement or human sympathy that might condemn the Zionist criminal or support the Palestinian victims, including children and defenseless civilians. The article states: “Last November, just weeks after the outbreak of the Gaza war, Amichai Chikli, Minister of Diaspora Affairs in the Israeli government, was summoned to the Knesset to brief parliamentarians on what to do about the growing anti-war protests by young people throughout the United States, especially at elite universities.” Since then, Zionist organizations and associations, some long-standing, others recently founded, have begun to undertake activities aimed at fundamentally diverting public opinion and sentiment in the United States and Europe away from sympathy for the victims of the Gaza genocide.

These organizations have begun publishing research reports and news reports and intervening (through bribery and influence) with members of Congress, journalists and university presidents under the pretext that protests against “Israel’s” human rights record are motivated by anti-Semitism. They are also heavily involved in the campaign to pass new laws that redefine anti-Semitism to include any form of critical speech against “Israel.”

The article reveals that other American groups have pursued a number of initiatives to bolster support for “Israel.” One such group publicly listed as a partner, the National Black Empowerment Council (NBEC), published an open letter from black Democratic politicians expressing solidarity with “Israel.” Another group, CyberWellhas established itself as an official “trusted partner” of TikTok and Meta, helping both social platforms review and edit content. A recent CyberWell report called on Meta to suppress the popular slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” To achieve their criminal goals, these Zionist networks and organizations used hundreds of fake accounts posting pro-“Israel” or anti-Muslim content on X, Facebook, and Instagram. The article further reveals that all of this activity was funded by the Israeli government and the result was Israeli interference in American politics.

One of these unethical organizations specializes in condemning any celebrity who criticizes “Israel.” Their strategic priority has been to encourage countries to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism, which equates criticism of “Israel” and anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. This approach limits the ability to criticize the genocidal crimes committed by the Israeli government and uses the concept of anti-Semitism as a cudgel to punish critics of Israeli policies.

They actually started changing laws in states, universities, and even in the US Congress. These new laws empower American authorities to cut funding to institutions and universities that allow certain criticism of “Israel.” In the end, some proposed increasing the budget for these efforts tenfold.

Reading these details more than once, I felt that the resistance movements in Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria are fighting with one hand on the trigger, while they lack the other hand that develops ideas, strategies and funds and works diligently and methodically to support the rightful, powerless owners of the land who are being killed en masse every day. At the same time, there is no specialized intellectual, scientific or research institution dedicated to combating these deceptions and falsehoods, refuting lies and conveying perspectives to all potentially interested parties around the world. I felt that this is the result of decades of neglect of the importance of thoughts and thinkers who are deeply rooted in this country and who sometimes have no choice but to emigrate, as they revolve around those who have research think tanks and provide the opportunity for self-actualization and unleashing their self-potential.

The Arabs gave the world their philosophy and thought through figures such as Ibn Rushd, Ibn Sina and Ibn Khaldoun, who contributed significantly to the European Renaissance. What has happened to us today? Most Arab youth dream of emigrating to work somewhere in the world, and as Daily Telegraph, BBCAnd CNN have become our sources of information, even about our own home countries and airports?! We are now in a position where we have to prove to them that we are not warmongers, even if they are the murderers and we are the victims.

What is even more disturbing is that several influential Arab figures and media outlets repeat the words of those who seek our annihilation. They treat these misleading statements and campaigns against us with a kind of sanctity and absolute faith, as if their words were infallible and beyond reproach.

Our struggle today is not just a military confrontation with our enemies on the battlefield; it is an existential struggle that requires us to reevaluate all the underlying factors, gaps and practices that have brought us to this point where we have been victimized and our archives, our people and our institutions are being destroyed to erase our memory and our identity. Yet we lack clarity in our references and in the paths we should take for our future, while our enemies are waging systematic and organized campaigns to erase our history, our rights and our roots from our land. They use every tool and resource and exploit the latest knowledge systems to manipulate public opinion and turn the truth on its head. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of martyrs and brave fighters are sacrificing their lives in defence of the nation and its dignity, having been deprived of the intellectual and knowledge-based support they migrated from their homeland for, a fact that has weakened our ability to even raise the voice of truth and convey it to the conscience of the world.