Who would have thought that fighting a war, in the year 2025, no longer requires a superior army, the latest cutting-edge technology, or the most sophisticated and advanced weaponry available? In fact, you can have all those things, as does Israel, and still end up the loser – at least in the court of public opinion.
That’s because the winning tactic starts and ends with the smears, lies, and deception that are meant to annihilate the reputation and good name of a country which must never be allowed to bask in the victory it rightly deserves. Having fought the most moral war – one that began with a brutal massacre against its people, as terrorists invaded the sovereign space of Israel – the only way to have come against such a righteous retaliation was to wage a systematic campaign of vicious lies and false accusations against it.
That is exactly what the anti-Israel propaganda machine has successfully done. Almost from the start, the horrific and unimaginable accounts of murders, beheadings, charred remains, rapes, and dismemberment took a back seat to the invented tales of starvation, genocide, and ethnic cleansing. The real victims were swapped at lightning speed for a whole new set of casualties whose suffering was incomparable to anything initially carried out by Hamas.
At least that’s what they wanted us to believe. Because if the world could somehow see Israel through the lens of an unrivaled monstrous oppressor, then the barbaric acts of the true demons could be glossed over, covered up, and completely justified.
So, whether it was the complete fabrication of a hospital bombing by the IDF – which initially claimed that 500 lives were lost, when in fact the damage occurred in a parking lot due to the backfiring of a Hamas rocket – or the latest lie that a 1,500-year-old church was burned by Israeli settlers, the aim was to smear to win.
When a news cycle is able to perpetuate a mythical image, along with the damning accusation of a powerful bully who is decimating the weak, that’s when you know you have a winning strategy. And that is exactly what has happened to further the narrative against the Jewish state.
THE NON-STOP reports of widespread starvation in Gaza have fueled the anger of a world that was already predisposed to believe the worst about Jews who comprise their own nation. How do you combat headlines that disclose the death of 15 people, including a six-week-old infant, all of whom suffered from malnutrition? It’s the stuff that money can’t buy. Who cares if it was reported by the Hamas-run Gaza health officials – or that their claim of rampant death is attributed to Israel’s indifference over the lack of food and medicine?
In the end, their reports will be believed, whether authenticated or not, because it’s what everyone wants to hear. The death and suffering of the disenfranchised provides a great vindication for all the sins of the real promoters of genocide who are able to go about their work while enjoying impunity.
So, even when the UN is discovered to have held back 950 trucks, filled with the humanitarian aid needed to alleviate the suffering of Gazans, those important details go unaddressed as they become an inconvenient impediment to the casting of Jewish blame.
Regrettably, the media coverage is focused on putting out one story and, unthinkably, its truth and accuracy are not the drivers of what we read in print or hear on our evening news broadcasts. That’s because those reports would not sell nearly as well as the smears.
It is unfortunate that news stories, such as the one titled, “There is no famine in Gaza – IDF” (JPost, July 23, 2025) is not shouted from every rooftop or carried on every media outlet so that the lies of the anti-Israel war machine are shot down.
Also, a pity is the malicious lie of an ancient church being torched – a story that made its way to the four corners of the earth in record time. Why? Because it serves the purpose of piling on more blame and condemnation to the people that it’s meant to harm.
According to The Jerusalem Post editorial of July 23: “Contrary to misleading reports, no damage was caused to the Church of Saint George. The fire was confined to adjacent scrub land.” Nonetheless, it didn’t stop newsrooms from running with a juicy slanderous account, which could be used to fan the already spreading flames of hatred and vilification of Israelis.
World we live in is one where dishonest narratives are ultimate weapon
THIS IS the world we live in – one in which a dishonest and fraudulent narrative is the ultimate weapon in the quiver of news reporters, whose professions have become the backbone of terrorists who are lucky enough to have them in their corner. Consequently, the manipulation of an entire audience can be executed with ease, resulting in a guilty verdict being placed upon the same innocent people who were brutally attacked while sleeping in their beds.
Talk about clever – it doesn’t get any more ingenious than that. The creative and inventive means used by the corrupt media cannot be ignored for the part they are playing in fomenting nefarious, coordinated public relations attacks against the Jewish homeland. Because if you can’t succeed in emptying out the state of its inhabitants after 77 years of constant wars, then try doing it another way – and that is exactly what we are witnessing.
The war has been moved from the battlefield of land to the one that is in print or via broadcasts. It is designed to produce a devastating blow that will bring about the reviling of nations, to the point where Israelis will be persona non grata, unable to move about freely. It’s already starting to happen as the anti-Israel protesters in one Greek island recently prevented vacationers from disembarking after their ship arrived at the port of call.
Likewise, IDF soldiers must think twice before booking a trip to a country that is an ICC member nation, committed to arresting these individuals for the crime of having defended their homeland. These are the lethal incoming weapons of strategy being fought against Israel – smears, lies, and deceit in all its finery.
But, in spite of every attempt, Israel will prevail, because truth is on her side – not to mention a few well-placed miracles from the Almighty.
The writer is a former Jerusalem elementary and middle school principal. She is also the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, available on Amazon, based on the time-tested wisdom found in the Book of Proverbs.