Israel is winning battles, but losing the PR war
Israel is militarily kicking Hamas’ collective asses. They have done a severe number on a number of Hamas’ hangouts, has apparently reduced Hamas’ ability to hide in tunnel complexes so that their occupation of hospitals is more overt, and can willingly strike Hamas anywhere, and any time – which brings us to today. I thought of calling this one “The Fog of War”, but it entails more than that.
Seven staff members from World Central Kitchen, the Andrés-founded humanitarian aid group that has been frantically working to get food aid to Palestinians in war-wrecked Gaza, had been killed late Monday in airstrikes on their convoy near the town of Deir al Balah.
“There was a tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people in the Gaza Strip,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday. “It happens in war — we are fully examining this.” LA Times
Happens. Unfortunately, even the best-intentioned people get killed in wars, just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It happens literally every war, whether we read about it or not. Collateral damage, civilian casualties, and they may have every man Jack of them been wonderful people, bravely helping others less fortunate. (Of course, had they not been there, they may have lived out March in peace – but thank God there ARE people like that in the world.)
What hurts is that this plays into the hands of the folks who loudly proclaim that Israel is the aggressor, they are evil, and that if they only would leave the Palestinians alone, no harm would have ever occurred to them. Usually these claims air like just before Yom Kippur in ’73, or June of ’67, or even October 6, 2023. But Israel is losing the War of the Big Lie, that they have killed almost 33,000 Palestinians, that 70% of them are non-combatant women and children, that they are targeting hospitals, that they shoot anything that moves. The world press trumpets this, and everyone with half a brain believes it. (Many actually have more than half a brain and don’t, but there are many, many half-wits.)
The World Health organization, which stayed silent on the October attacks against Israeli citizens but loudly condemns Israel targeting hospitals despite their status as refugee care centers – ignore that:
…even as the Israel Defense Forces continued to engage with fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, both U.S.-designated terror organization, who barricaded themselves inside the hospital’s maternity ward and emergency room and other places in the expansive center in Gaza City. “Hamas itself has admitted to using almost every hospital in Gaza, including Shifa Hospital,” Itamar Yaar, a former deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council, told Fox News Digital. “This information has been on the table for a long time.” Fox News
Or maybe see what an unbiased (by our standards) expert, John Spencer, the world’s foremost authority on urban warfare. Chair of urban warfare studies at the United State Military Academy at West Point, he served as an infantryman for 25 years, including two combat tours in Iraq. He says:
…Spencer said, moving civilians out of harm’s way to an unprecedented extent and deploying “technologies never used anywhere in the world” to preserve life. This has included 70,000 telephone calls, 13 million text messages and 15 million voicemails warning people to evacuate by designated routes to safe areas.
Giant speakers have been dropped by parachute that begin broadcasting warnings once they touch the ground. Military maps have been handed out and tracking technology has been used to keep people safe. “Ironically, the careful approach Israel has taken may have actually led to more destruction,” Spencer pointed out, since by assisting Hamas it likely prolonged the war.
The credible casualty figures stand testament to these efforts. Gaining exact data is impossible, but the true ratio, Spencer concluded, is about 1 combatant to 1.5 civilians. By comparison, when Britain, the US and other allies destroyed Islamic State in Mosul in 2016-17, the ratio was about 1 to 2.5; and according to the UN and the EU, the global average is 1 to 9. “Given Hamas’s likely inflation of the death count, the real figure could be closer to 1 to 1,” Spencer wrote. “Either way, the number would be historically low for modern urban warfare.”
What madness has possessed us? We would never dream of trusting data from the Kremlin or Islamic State. The statistics coming out of Gaza are obviously bogus. A paper by three distinguished academics, published this week, found that “the casualty figures concerning women and children are statistically impossible”, at one point even involving “the statistical equivalent of the resurrection of over a thousand men”. The 70 per cent figure has been decisively debunked. The Telegraph
Read the articles. Call out those who use the Big Lie. Right now our politicians, and our media, is supporting that lie.
Category: Israel
The two “big ones” in terms of current conflicts are largely propaganda wars. Just as I’ve been vocal about my belief that Ukraine cannot sustain their war with Russia (without our aid, they’d have probably come to terms months ago), I think that Israel is easily capable of steamrolling over Hamas and their allies. But it’s the PR and the public perception that matters.
I’m not any sort of intel type, don’t stay current on the day-to-day operations in foreign countries, and am largely just talking out of my fourth point-of-contact. That said, I think that many empathetic people want to side with Ukraine, despite the fact that Russia’s forces and resources dwarf what that country can expend without outside assistance. Simply put, Ukraine is the underdog, while the Russian Bear is a centuries-old destroyer of empires (including its own back in 1917). Israel/Palestine is a bit more questionable. Hamas provoked that conflict, and while Israel is trying to be perceived as being the “Force for Good”, they’re being undermined by a campaign determined to prove that Israel is the “Arbiter of Evil”, while the righteous Palestinian followers of the religion of peace are being slaughtered.
History will remember the narrative more than the victories in battle.
Hamas is getting the ass whoopin’ they asked for. Unfortunately, Israel will always be seen as the bully, the aggressor.
Even (the mind boggles) after Hamass has said sh*t like this:
https://twitter.com/HenMazzig/status/1719703605366689800
“the Russian Bear is a centuries-old destroyer of empires”
Which ’empires’?
The Soviet one, most lately.
The term “empires” may not be fully fitting, but Russia has either directly or indirectly led to the downfall of many nations. The USSR? Very good point. Imperial Russia? Sure thing. Napoleonic France and Nazi Germany? Their invasions of Russia sure didn’t help sustain them.
I think the British, Prussians, and a few other nations had something to do with the defeat of Napoleon, and the Russians had more than a little help defeating the Nazis.
That’s it? Napoleon and Hitler? All those centuries and you only have two examples?
Propaganda sells, no time for fact checks.
In 2009, Sri Lanka had finally had enough of the Tamil Tigers in the NE of the island and went on the attack. After pummeling those assholes for a while, the “international community” started to bitch (as they had done in the past when the Sri Lankans had pummeled the Tamil separatists) but this time, they kept going. In the end, they eliminated the problem and haven’t had any problems going forward the vaunted international Mos Isley Bar moved onto the next outrage and forgot about it. [I had a major I worked for that was originally from SL and he told me the background. When we were in Iraq in early ’04 he would talk with the TCNs from there about it].
People may not forget as quickly with Israel because they hate it more, but the point is you have to do what you have to do and if liberals don’t like you after, well that’s the risk you have to take.
Israel will never win the PR war with the liberal media in charge of PR.
The liberal media has not had people throughout history trying to kill them either. They fight safely from behind their keyboards.
Bad stuff happens to the wrong people in war and it gets attention. Even undue attention from people that wield that news as a cudgel. it doesn’t stop nations from continuing strategic efforts, even if it solidifies the (usually ill-informed) opinions by people who make noise. Israel is fairly open and transparent, and definitely goes out of their way to avoid CIVCAS. This event will change nothing but the lives of the family members of those killed. Israel will never win the PR war. Better to win the hot war against Hamas.
Am glad we didn’t have these assole critics during WW2 or I would be speaking German on the east coast or not hear at all.
And speaking Japanese on the West coast.
I don’t see what everyone outside of TAH is upset about: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/afghanistan-drone-strike-zemari-ahmadi-family-colleagues-resettlement/
Where was all the bitching when Biden did it?
The major mistake Israel has made, in my humble opinion, is slow rolling this, and putting so much effort into reducing civilian casualties. They should have gone full shock and awe as soon as their forces could be mobilized, and had this shit over and done with by Christmas. The muzzies and their supporters wouldn’t hate them any more (or less) than they do now, and it would have given the supporters of terrorism here and abroad less time to organize their efforts.
just my 2c worth..
Yep. Any notion of a cease fire would be described as when every Hamas fighter and the organization were eradicated, and any remnants that hid in other countries had been hunted down and killed.
You mean, like Gen. William Sherman making Atlanta howl?
Yes, only 100 times worse.
Shorely is good that The Bad Orange Man wasn’t re(s)elected as the prezzy. We’d find ourselves embroiled in conflicts all over the world. Oh…wait…
Hey, Ham-Ass (and the rest of the world)…You fornicated about and now you are discovering. Not even going to go out to check my field…I know that it is barren.
You should’ve sold before interest rates went to shit.
Nah, Younger Brother…that field is the free fire zone on the other side of the North Wall. ‘sides…I have another plan for a crop. The clue will be in an upcoming FGS Post.
Why do I have a suspicion that you’re gonna try and grow a field of sister golden hairs…
I admit nothing…call my lawer!
It’s the same old same old. The old joke is “The Democrats told me that if I voted for Goldwater he would get us involved in a war in Asia. Well, I voted for Goldwater and by golly, they were right; we wound up in a war in Asia.”
Spot on, timactual.
My 2cents worth is we REALLY need to quit concerning ourselves with be adventurous abroad/despotic at home and REALLY start concerning ourselves with all of the single, military aged males that are pouring into our country unabated.
I’ll just stick this right here…
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/border-agents-apprehend-one-hundred-eighty-two-chinese-citizens-crossed-us-illegally-key-sector
Does that make me old that I remember seeing and hearing that “joke”?
As long as we can remember that we are old, we are doing okay.
I mentioned a few months ago that it seems to me support for Israel has dropped rather remarkably since the last Arab/Israeli skirmish and support for Hamas, etc. has increased. Another 20 years or so and the US attitude may change to active opposition to Israel. Israel cannot survive without strong US support. I wonder if Israeli refugees would be accepted as refugees, with open arms, or whether they would have to sneak across the border.
They can, it’ll just mean that a lot of the ME glows in the dark..
So, winning the war militarily, but losing the PR front?
Looks like Vietnam II, but with Birdbrain playing LBJ.
Tet ’68 was a victory for US & RVN forces. From what I’ve read, Uncle Ho actually gave some thought to some sort of an cease fire/armistice. Then they saw how it was portrayed by the media back in the US, and they redoubled their effort.
Just goes to show that waging a successful war involves more than just military operations.
When the Israelis stop giving a flying fuck what outsiders think, most of their troubles are -done- in short order.
Frankly I am of the opinion that Israel feels much the same as the US did on Dec 8, 1941. As such we would not have reacted kindly to outside nations telling us to not hit back and destroy Japan’s and Germany’s ability to wage war.
Quite frankly, having understood that the palistinians allegedly voted to be represented by a terrorist organization and supporting same should understand that the opposition may take offense by what their “leaders” do.
IMO the best way to stop the “innocent civilians” from being casualties is to remove hamas from existence once and for all. The faster the better.
To them that is not really an issue. Everyone hates Israel anyway, and they know this. So they settled with everyone fearing them, and leaving them alone, or they kill them. No country really has allies, they have other countries who temporarily have interests that align with theirs, and should those interests diverge, they would fuck each over in a second.