Israeli lies exposed by... Israeli newspaper

Why aren't these facts being presented in Western media outlets?

Why you can find truths about Gaza in an Israeli newspaper operating under military censorship than in the Western media?

Last week, an editorial of Haaretz - that is its official line - was published. Its headline read: ‘Israel, Not Hamas, Is Derailing the Gaza Cease-fire and Preventing the Hostages' Return’

It begins with the following:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid the asking price for Itamar Ben-Gvir's return to the government in advance. Not out of his own pocket, of course, but with the blood of the 59 hostages whose fate could be sealed by the resumption of the war, which has already sealed the fate of hundreds of Palestinians, including women and children.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, of course, is the far-right extremist National Security minister. Although it is difficult to know how that label distinguishes him from other members of Israel’s governing coalition. What are we supposed to call Benjamin Netanyahu, a wanted man by the International Criminal Court for grave war crimes and crimes against humanity? “Centre-right”? Clearly this is a government defined by extremism.

Nonetheless, Ben-Gvir is even more committed - certainly openly committed - to the genocidal obliteration of the Palestinian people.

As the editorial goes on to say:

According to the statement released by Netanyahu's office, the decision to strike Gaza was made with Defense Minister Israel Katz after "Hamas' repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all the proposals it has received from U.S. Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff and from the mediators.

But it must be said, loudly and clearly, that this is a lie. It was Israel, not Hamas, that violated the agreement. On its 16th day, the parties were supposed to begin discussing the second phase, which was supposed to end with the release of all the remaining hostages. Israel refused.

This is such an important point to make. Throughout Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people, Western media coverage has been overwhelmingly dire. And so it remains in the case of what’s happened with the so-called ‘ceasefire’, both when it supposedly prevailed and when it was openly terminated. Media outlets failed to inform the Western public about how Israel has systematically and grievously violated the so-called ceasefire when it was in place, from killing around 150 Palestinians to violating promises on humanitarian aid which culminated in a total siege on anything and everything entering Gaza from the beginning of March.

These Western media outlets then failed to inform the Western public that it was Israel which objectively destroyed the ceasefire. Instead they centred Israel’s deceitful claims, and treated them as credible. This is a classic example of that famous quote about journalism - "If someone says it's raining, and another person says it's dry, it's not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the fucking window and find out which is true."

So to continue with Haaretz:

Israel also broke its promise to withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor between the 42nd and the 50th day of the cease-fire. Moreover, Israel announced that it was halting the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and closing the border crossings. This decision, like the energy minister's decision to halt the limited amount of electricity Israel provides to Gaza, explicitly violates Israel's commitment in the agreement that aid will continue entering as long as talks on the second stage are ongoing.

All the proposals that Hamas received from Witkoff stem from Israel's refusal to uphold its part of the deal. Consequently, the attempt to portray Hamas' rejection of Witkoff's proposals as a reason to resume the fighting is nothing but a dishonest manipulation.

Again, a state committing every war crime and crime against humanity under the sun also has no problem with systematic deceit. Indeed, it is an objective fact that the Israeli state lies and lies and lies, provably so, not least about the atrocities which it commits. But Western media outlets continue to treat Israel as a “democratic state” whose public statements should be treated as credible. This is not an honour extended to, say, Russian authorities and rightly so. In doing so, Western media outlets make themselves not just complicit in Israeli lies, they become part of Israel’s propaganda machine. We have to rely here on an Israeli newspaper to spell out the basic facts which almost no Western newspaper will do. That is ridiculous.

As Haaretz concludes: “Israel – not Hamas – is the one preventing the deal's implementation and the hostages' return”

Notably, too, Barak Ravid, a former IDF intelligence officer and now journalist, says:

The ceasefire did not ‘collapse’, it was ‘collapsed’ by the Israeli government. The Israeli government never intended to fully implement the ceasefire agreement signed two months ago. It violated one of its key provisions, reneged on it, and tried to force an alternative arrangement on Hamas.

The point is - it is Israel deliberately destroying the ceasefire, not Hamas, and committing grievous atrocities as it does. And the vast majority of the Western media are not treating that as an objective fact, and in doing so, they’re not doing their job.