Does this look like hunger, misery and genocide?

It seems as if the only way that the monstrous acts of October 7th could be minimized or replaced was to accuse Israel of far greater sins, including the starvation and deliberate systematic targeting of Gazans. Being displaced from their homes was just not enough to garner world sympathy, because the same could be said of hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have also been displaced.

The charges would have to be much worse, depicting abject poverty, hunger and deliberate deprivation of food parcels as well as the cold-blooded murder of an entire race. The diabolical scheme has been so convincing, that we have witnessed political leaders, religious leaders, young people and easily duped activists who have happily taken the side of terrorists, advocating for Gazans in the total belief that Israel is the real enemy and the actual monster in our midst.

The problem with this narrative is that the truth eventually comes out, and Thursday afternoon was just one of those days, when photos were broadcast on N12, Israeli TV, direct from Rafah, showing thousands cooling off in the azure blue waters of the Mediterranean on Wednesday, as temperatures soared to an unseasonably hot day, reaching 30 degrees centigrade (high 80s). Playing on the shoreline, some kaffiyeh-donned kids even brought their pet donkey into the water. The scenes looked no different from our own Israeli beaches which were also covered with sun worshippers during a week when many have already begun their Passover vacations.

Nowhere were the sounds of gunfire, rockets or IDF soldiers heard on the Gaza side. Everyone was free to enjoy the day and relax just as their Israeli counterparts. But the similarity didn’t end there. The marketplaces in Israel are well-known for their colorful and plentiful selection of fruit and vegetables, tempting to the eye as well as the palate. Pita is sold on every corner, and the nearby smells of grilled meat cause your mouth to water. 

So, who would have guessed that amid all the accusations of lack of food, we would also get a glimpse of exactly the same marketplaces in Gaza, bursting at the seams with the most delectable of produce that one can buy? And apparently, they were buying, because the pictures attest to that. Accompanying those images were also the grilled meats, all casting grave doubt as to the veracity of the hunger claims. By the looks of it, nothing was lacking, and most everything was quite available.

As a panel of guests in the N12 studio discussed the disclosure of this present-day life in Gaza, the one point, upon which everyone agreed, was that those images need to be seen throughout the world in order to debunk the false claims that Israel is committing mass genocide and starving men, women and children. 

Sadly, these are the stories that are suppressed and hidden from the view of Western nations, many of whose leaders have been impacted by the dishonest media reports that have circulated as a result of the need to not only level the playing field but portray Israel as the villainous entity, far beyond anyone’s imagination of the concept of evil.

This story was followed by the guest appearance of Elisha Wiesel, son of the late Eli Wiesel, renowned writer, professor, orator and Holocaust survivor. Wiesel appeared on FOX’s America's Newsroom, interviewed by Dana Perino. Addressing the charges of genocide, of which Israel has been accused, he flipped the script by likening what is happening now to what his father experienced as a young boy growing up in his native Romania during the 1930s. 

He spoke about how his father would have to cross the street while walking near a local church in his town, in order to escape the anti-Jewish sentiments which were expressed in the form of being called Christ-killers as well as the blood libel that Jews were killing Christians to drink their blood.

Wiesel said that the same blood libel has returned, albeit in a different iteration, but no less defamatory as Israel’s military, known for being the most moral army in the world, continues to be accused of perpetrating a genocidal massacre upon the citizens of Gaza.

While no concrete proof, showing convincing documentation or photos has been provided, short of a couple of unfortunate incidents, which could be attributed to the inevitable accidents of war, no real evidence has been gathered to substantiate these kinds of malicious and unfounded accusations. In fact, Israel was also the victim of such an accident of war when IDF soldiers mistakenly shot three Israeli hostages, believing that they were terrorists. 

Their shocking deaths, on December 15th, was an act that caused each and every Israeli citizen great anguish and profound pain, by the thought that freeing these men, along with the other hostages, was the highest priority of the Israeli military, who each day hoped to discover their hiding places. But the world didn’t shed tears over those three Israelis, because global outrage is especially reserved for the Gazan people who serve as the collective poster child for a constituency, which is more focused on oppressor/victim labels, relegating the former to the Zionist nation.

Crying with Israel just doesn’t do it for them. And that is why when the facts couldn’t bear out the accusation, incidents had to be manufactured and fabricated, helping along the narrative. So, when a misfired Palestinian rocket hit a Gaza hospital parking lot, it had to not only be attributed to Israel but also embellished, choosing an arbitrary number of 400-500 people being the targeted victims. The same tactic has been used for the deaths of Gazan citizens, especially children who have been used as human shields but whose deaths have been blamed on IDF soldiers. 

In one specific incident, a Gazan family was allegedly paid by Hamas to blame the death of their infant child on IDF tear gas.

Multiply that uncertainty and couple it with the malevolent motives of Hamas terrorists, and you easily have a recipe for the creation of wildly exaggerated numbers of dead, while casting doubt and suspicion upon the Israeli military. As it is, the death toll, which has been relied upon by most countries, is the result of data provided by the Gazan Health Ministry which is wholly controlled by Hamas. What incentive do they have to report that their own terrorists were responsible for the deaths of children or families with whom they were embedded?

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and if that’s true, then take a good look at these many images that appeared yesterday on Israeli television. Unless proven to be fake, they constitute the real situation in Gaza – where no genocide is taking place and where food is plentiful despite the false cries that people are starving.

The choice is yours. You can either believe Hamas propaganda or your lying eyes! Which will it be?