Israel has a culture of lying, but its days are numbered

Lying in Israel is part of the culture. In fact, we could call it the lying industry. It is the most requested commodity, and whoever wants to tell the truth is seen as part of the frustration industry.

The Zionist lies are based on the fact that neither the political ideology nor the occupation state that it spawned has ever presented a narrative that could hold up for long, not least since the Palestinian resistance forces stormed out of the Gaza concentration camp on 7 October.

Israel needs to be weaned off many things since 7 October, the first and foremost of which is lying to its people and the world. It boasts about its “media”, “messaging” and “video” campaigns without paying attention to the fact that its propaganda is directed at those within Israel, rather than the general public outside the apartheid state.

Israel has a prime minister for whom lying is part of his ideology. He lies extensively; it is his specialty. In being obliged to portray himself and the Israel “Defence” Forces as strong and decisive against Israel’s enemies, he is aided and abetted in his lies by the “most moral army in the world” and a compliant media.

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Lying is endemic in the Israeli establishment, from top to bottom. Its propaganda includes the claim that world public opinion is solidly behind the Zionist state.

Israeli politicians lie blatantly and shamelessly to cover their weakness and secure international support for their war on Gaza, after its shield of invincibility, the aforementioned IDF, failed to defend the state.

“A lie repeated over and over becomes a truth,” said Lenin famously

We can go further: it doesn’t matter how many times Israel lies, because its next lie will always be given the benefit of the doubt.

It is hardly surprising, therefore, that Israel’s culture of lying has prevailed since before the 1948 establishment of the state in occupied Palestine, known to Palestinians and their supporters as the Nakba. The Zionist movement, for example, promoted the lie that Palestine was “a land without a people for a people without a land.” Jump forward a few decades, and Israel lied about its oversight and facilitation of the Sabra and Shatila massacre of Palestinian refugees, and the 1994 massacre of Palestinian worshippers in Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque, and on other occasions too many to mention. The question is, why does the world believe the Israeli narrative every time, when its lies are almost always exposed as such?

Likewise, the people of Israel who always believe what the army tells them. And what the politicians, reserve generals and journalists tell them.

Israel has a well-oiled media arsenal at its disposal, to push its narrative around the world. It can count on Western politicians to play their role, as well as a compliant Western media, in ensuring that the story of the “poor, oppressed people” from Babylon and Pharaoh’s Egypt to European pogroms and the Third Reich’s Holocaust remains dominant, and that anyone who dissents is “anti-Semitic”.

This allows Israel, literally, to get away with murder, but those days are coming to an end. The world can see through the lies of the “self-defence” narrative of its genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. The days of Israel’s lies are numbered, and truth is starting to dominate the public discussion.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.