'$50m condoms for Gaza': the US promotes deranged lie

The unhinged lies of Trumpism and Israel's apologists represent a deliberate attempt to turn reality on its head

$50 million in US taxpayers money for condoms in Gaza? This is a lie, an absurd and deranged lie, which has been spread by the new White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt.

Now, as we know, Israel’s cheerleaders lie and lie and lie again. Donald Trump’s allies lie and lie and lie again.

So we can expect the new US administration to take already endemic deceit to whole new levels, and so it has proven. But there are many lessons here which are worth exploring

Leavitt claims this finding was uncovered by DOGE, the new Department Of Government Efficiency which is led by the richest man on earth, the billionaire Elon Musk who definitely did not do two full on Nazi salutes in front of the entire world last week.

This claim about $50 million worth of condoms going to Gaza predictably was seized upon by right-wing pundits, like Jesse Waters on Fox News, who claimed these were been used as booby trapped condoms.

What are the facts here? As the Guardian US journalist Robert Mackey uncovered, the US Agency for International Development did a comprehensive report last September which found that in the previous year, the US spent $60.8m globally on contraceptive and condom shipments. No condoms went to any part of the Middle East. There was just one small shipment sent to the whole region - $45,680 in oral and injectable contraceptives to Jordan’s government.

He concludes:

“For the financial year 2023, the most recent for which data is available, only about $7m worth of condoms were distributed globally by USAid, and the vast majority of family-planning funds, 89%, were spent on programs in Africa.”

This offers a useful lesson though, about the plight of Gaza. As brilliant Palestinian anayst Muhammad Shehada points out, Israel bans condoms from being able to enter Gaza in the first place. And guess what else he notes are banned? Crutches for disabled people. Seeded fruit. Oxygen cylinders. Water filtration systems. Sleeping bags. Cancer treatment. Maternity kits.

Before 7th OCtober, Gaza was already under siege - in fact the longest siege of our time. After 7th October, the likes of Yoav Gallant, then Israeli defence secretary, declared that the civilian population were “human animals” and would have the basics of life cut off. The Israeli state made good on that promise. As well as doing all it could to stop the means of existence from getting in, and making it as difficult as possible for aid that did get in to be distributed to those who needed it, Israel also did all it could to destroy agriculture and local food production.

The idea that $50 million worth of condoms were ever going to Gaza is a lie, and a deranged, unhinged lie at that.

Why lie about something like this? It does make me think of Steve Bannon, the former key aide to Donald Trump, who once told the writer Michael Lewis in 2018:

“The Democrats don’t matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”

The author Jonathan Rauch cited this quote when he said: “This is not about persuasion: This is about disorientation.”

So some might go - why even respond to these lies? You’re just allowing yourself to be distracted: stay focused on the real issues.

Well, other than a useful hook to emphasise how Gaza is being besieged, let’s i have your attention, let’s use this moment for something else.

One year ago today exactly, a family tried to flee Gaza City for safety as Israeli forces closed in. there were four children and two adults. Almost all of them were murdered by the Israeli army. One of the two survivors, 15 year old Layan, rang the Palestine Red Crescent, begging for help. You heard her shot to death on the call.

All that remained, surrounded by the bloodied corpses of her family, was 5 year old little girl Hind Rajab, herself bleeding to death from her wounds.

A terrified Hind then rang the Red Crescent, begging for help.

Two paramedics were sent to save her. Their movements were coordinated with the Israeli army. As they arrived, the Israeli army blew up their ambulance. Almost nothing remained of their corpses.

Days later, the decomposing bodies of Hind and her family were found in their car.

Crucially, an investigation by Forensic Architecture - a term of experts - revealed the truth.

That the tank was 13 to 23 metres away when it opened fire on the car. That there were at least 335 bullet holes on the body of the car.

This was in broad daylight. The idea that one of the most sophisticated militaries on earth did not know who was in that car before they opened fire on them is a nonsense. A clear nonsense.

They were deliberately killed. And this one hideous incident underlines the horror of Israel’s genocidal onslaught against Gaza.

This is why Israel’s defenders want us to be distracted with deranged nonsense. Well, whatever lies they come up with, we’ll use as an opportunity to tell the truth, the full depraved truth - about one of the great horrors of our age, and the moral bankruptcy of its defenders.