The Big Lie

How the breadth of Israel's criminality helps shield it from criticism

A large part of the reason it is so hard to convince people that Israel aren’t the “good guys” is that the reality is so dramatically contrary to that narrative that you sound like a crazy, conspiracy-minded (and probably deeply antisemitic) person when you try to explain it to people. Israel has been so deeply, cartoonishly evil in their treatment of the Palestinians since the Nakba in 1948 that for many it is literally unbelievable.

This isn’t a new idea of course. From Hitler’s “big lie” in Mein Kampf to Trump’s “big lie” about election fraud, it is a well-known dynamic that the bigger the lie, the more people tend to believe it. I guess we naturally assume that a big lie must have at least a kernel of truth or the speaker wouldn’t try to get away with it, much less succeed.

I saw a TikTok last night that was a stitch with a pro-Israel person mocking the claim that Israel has historically restricted the amount of food-aid allowed into Gaza by the number of calories required for sustenance. The guy who stitched it “responded” by displaying about 20 articles, one after the other, that discussed the topic. Including articles from many mainstream publications and even “The Times of Israel”. I’m not even sure the woman who posted the original video knew she was making light of something that actually happened, or, as I suspect, if even some pro-Israel people find it impossible to believe the depths of depravity the Israeli government has sunk to.

Every time I see a new report from the UN or a human rights organization that goes into detail about one or another aspect of the conflict I want to share it with everyone I know and say “see??” but what is the point? There have been literally hundreds of reports, articles, books, and documentaries that have come out over the past decades that detail every aggression and imposition Israel has put on the Palestinians, and most people are either oblivious, uncaring, or unbelieving. Ironically the more evidence there is the harder it is to believe. What seems more likely? That the entire government, media apparatus, religious institutions, and popular culture is biased in favor of Israel and against Palestinians and that the Israeli’s are really the “bad guys”, or that all those institutions are right and thinking or saying otherwise is antisemitic?

The truth is that despite its role in creating the state of Israel, the United Nations has been critical of how Israel has treated the Palestinians since 1949. There have been countless attempts on the part of the UN General Assembly to pass resolutions critical of Israel and supportive of Palestine, and dozens of agencies that have done deep studies and written comprehensive reports about Israel’s misbehavior. However with the political cover of the US, a powerful lobby of pro-Israel groups and individuals in the West, and an extremely effective propaganda effort (what Israelis call ‘hasbara’), Israel has been able to completely muzzle these critical perspectives.

I think this is changing now because the sheer horror of their relentless onslaught in Gaza is impossible for them to cover up, but in another sense this ongoing genocide is having the same effect that decades of exposing their depravity has had. It is very hard to believe that a US ally, with money and weapons we supply, is committing genocide while our government, media, religious institutions, etc. claim it is “defending itself”. Surely if what we were seeing live-streamed on our phones every day were really and truly happening, prominent people wouldn’t stand in front of cameras and lie about it.

I don’t even know what the point of this post is, but it had been a couple weeks since I wrote anything and I wanted to put something out there. I usually try to provide useful information or insight, but I don’t have the slightest idea how to solve this. If you have any ideas let me know, otherwise thanks for letting me vent.