BLUF: "What are they occupied with? Spreading political spin according to which they knew nothing and it was all the defense bodies' fault. Channel 11 reporter Gili Cohen also revealed that spokesmen for Likud and the Netanyahu family are personally involved in the situation assessments at the national hasbara (public diplomacy) headquarters."
To hear directly from their U.S. spokespersons, contact Hawley, Cotton, Trump, DeSantis, Gaetz, Ramaswamy, or any of the other politicians so in favor with the Israeli Settler National Conservative Movement. Or, any Republican (and a lot of Democrats, with the exception of the so-called “Squad.”)
Unless you find this unbridled support for a regime openly recognized in Israel as led by fascists today so disgusting that you prefer to support “free speech” in Israel against such right-wing extremism of the sort both US parties support, then see below, and at the bottom of this email:
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-10-15/ty-article/.premium/fighting-israels-war-within-the-war/0000018b-2f40-d450-a3af-6f5c28620000
Fighting Israel's War Within the War - Opinion - Haaretz.com
Noa LandauOct 15, 2023 5:05 am IDT
"While Israel is grieving, shocked and anxious as never before, a repugnant activity is spreading in the deepest pit of social media, at a pace that is worrisome. This includes a deluge of conspiracy theories about the “leftist traitors” who are to blame for the failures leading to the massacre, along with the invention of security personnel who allegedly “helped Hamas on the inside”; groups inflaming sentiments and amplifying calls for private acts of vengeance upon Palestinians and Arab citizens of Israel; accusing the Israeli “media” of treason; and expressing the most execrable type of schadenfreude toward the victims of the disaster, who were identified as supporters of the protests against the government. • 'Hamas attack was an inside job': Why are wild conspiracy theories so popular? • Netanyahu is on Brand: No Responsibility, No Accountability, No Remorse • Israeli settlers aren’t pausing the expulsion and dispossession in the West Bank "It is emotionally difficult to repeat the precise quotes, but it is imperative to know: There are at present more than one or two Israelis publicly hoping for the torture and rape of “leftist” abductees, whom they have identified as activists in the protests against the government, and this activity does not remain within the bounds of the Internet. There are those who have actually launched their own retaliatory operations in the West Bank. And there are those who came out to curse, to accuse of treason and to bodily assault protesters calling for a prisoner exchange deal – a protest the attackers identify as “leftist.”
"What many of these expressions and organizations share is the marking of government opponents as “enemies from within.” Right by the operating manual of any authoritarian and populist regime: In any emergency, describe the opposition and the press as “traitors from within,” in order to increase support for enlarging the powers of a centralized leadership, silence all criticism of it, and relieve it of responsibility for the disaster. We must not dismiss the phenomenon or see it as an ugly footnote, confined to the dregs of social media. We’ve been here before: A message sheet that starts on the political margins, becomes the official party line. And there is no need to even guess: There are members of Knesset who are already echoing these ideas. Thus, for instance, MK Tally Gotliv tweeted this week: “Channel 12 [News] is simply a channel of traitors! Violating and trampling a clear instruction of the law, with a penalty of up to 10 years in prison: Disseminating during wartime, and with the intention of spreading panic among the public, reports that may discourage the troops and residents of Israel in the face of the enemy [Sec. 103 of the penal code, in the article on treasonable offenses]. Now is the time only to strengthen our troops!” A right-wing tweeter with 17,000 followers tweeted: “This evening we were raped by Cushmaro and his cohorts in an incessant night of uncontrolled incitement against the prime minister… They lied, they spread filth, and they took half the nation hostage,” wrote the tweeter, referring to Channel 12 journalist Dany Cushmaro.
"All this because of justified criticism, and hard, justified questions, which the channel’s reporters dare put to the government and its leader. And just as we have yet to hear the prime minister, or the vast majority of his ministers, accept even a milligram of responsibility for the greatest failure in the country’s history, so we have yet to hear them call for a halt to the spread of conspiracy theories and fake news against civilians and journalists. What are they occupied with? Spreading political spin according to which they knew nothing and it was all the defense bodies' fault. Channel 11 reporter Gili Cohen also revealed that spokesmen for Likud and the Netanyahu family are personally involved in the situation assessments at the national hasbara (public diplomacy) headquarters. The hard truth is that even after a disaster of this magnitude, the government and its supporters keep telling us that the left is to blame, the media is to blame, everyone is a “traitor,” and only they are guilty of nothing at all. It’s a war within a war: We must expose and condemn this poison and fake news machine."
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